Sony settings help

[timmyy77]

Hello, and thank you in advance for your help.
To all the Sony experts out there, I am having some issues with my Sony a6400 syncing with my strobes.
When I turn the guide number on the strobes down below a certain number, the strobe fires and the picture is exposed, so it looks like it syncs.
When I turn the guide number on the strobes up above a certain number, the strobe fires but the picture is dark. It seems like it does not sync anymore.
I've tried this with multiple strobes like the Sea&Sea YS-D2J, the Kraken KS-02 strobes etc and the same thing happens, so i think it is my camera settings and not the strobes.
I've poured over the many settings but i don't see which one of them would cause this problem.
I used an Ikelite housing, but i don't see how that would make a difference.
Do any of the expert Sony shooters out here have any advice on why this is happening?

 

[Barmaglot]

Are you using fiber optic sync, or wired sync with the YS-D2s? Do you have any TTL converters installed? If you're using fiber optics and triggering off the pop-up flash, remember that this flash always fires a TTL pre-flash - if you're shooting the strobes in manual mode, you have to enable pre-flash cancellation - for YS-D2, this means putting the mode knob into twin lightning bolts position.

 

[timmyy77]

Thanks Barmaglot.
I use fiver optic cables and when i hook onto the YS-D2Js they are on the 2 lightning bolts. When i hook them up with the Kraken KR-S02 strobes, the strobes do not have one or two lighting bolts settings.
The strobes act the same whether they are the Sea&Sea or the Kraken, so I am assuming that it is a camera setting???

 

[Barmaglot]

The camera always fires a pre-flash, it's impossible to disable. You can test it on YS-D2 by putting the camera flash into 'rear curtain sync' mode, setting the shutter speed to something slow (1 second or longer), and firing a shot - you will see the on-camera flash pop twice, once in the beginning of the exposure, and once at the end. The YS-D2, if configured correctly, should only fire on the second flash. If it fires on both flashes, then it is either in single lightning bolt, or in DS-TTL mode.

I don't have a user manual for Kraken KR-S02, but this is what I was able to find for its parent model, Weefine WF-S02:

For operating it with a Sony camera, you need the S2 mode.

 

[BFRedrocks]

Make sure your camera flash setting is set to Fill Flash to guarantee that the flash trigger will always fire. And obviously make sure the pop-up flash is "popped up."

The other thing to check is to make sure your shutter speed does not exceed the max sync speed of the camera. I use an a6500 and I think my max shutter speed shooting with the strobes is 1/160 or something like that.

 

[rfhk]

Hello, and thank you in advance for your help.
To all the Sony experts out there, I am having some issues with my Sony a6400 syncing with my strobes.
When I turn the guide number on the strobes down below a certain number, the strobe fires and the picture is exposed, so it looks like it syncs.
When I turn the guide number on the strobes up above a certain number, the strobe fires but the picture is dark. It seems like it does not sync anymore.
I've tried this with multiple strobes like the Sea&Sea YS-D2J, the Kraken KS-02 strobes etc and the same thing happens, so i think it is my camera settings and not the strobes.
I've poured over the many settings but i don't see which one of them would cause this problem.
I used an Ikelite housing, but i don't see how that would make a difference.
Do any of the expert Sony shooters out here have any advice on why this is happening?

Hi Timmyy and all,

I was about to post about this issue when I read your post. I own 2 YS-D2. I had the “typical” sleeping strobe issue with one of them, but replaced it and they both work ok after that.

Once in a while, I did note the strobes were firing during a dive, but the photos would be dark. Most of the time would be in situations where I was requiring high guide numbers: big scapes, sun balls, etc.
I decided to jump in the pool a couple of weeks ago and try it a bit more systematically:

Testing setup:

1. Sony A6400 with sea frogs housing
2. Fill flash settings, no red-eye pre flash
3. All manual settings for camera and strobes
4. Fiber optic cables
5. 1/160 shutter speed
6. shooting same subject with progressively smaller guide numbers

Results:
Dark pictures for the two higher guide numbers
All pictures as expected all the way down.

I thought the shutter speed could be too fast for the high guide numbers to sync, so ran the same test with 1/100 shutter speed. Same results.

I can’t really see what is going on. Any pre flash issue should give the same results across the whole spectrum of GNs, I’d expect.

I want to try slow shutter speeds, although that would not be a solution. It would just mean the strobes are slower than what they should be at high GNs…
I also thought about trying rear mode the flash, to see if that could fix the problem.

Keen to hear your thoughts on the above.

thank you and safe dives!

 

[Mo.Diver]

it got me frustrated before..

A6500 + TRT s-Turtle Manual + 2x YS-D3s

I do the same, Wireless (WL) with the trigger. How is the UW-Technics working for you? What strobes are you using? Are your cables multi-core? What happens if you do NOT use WL mode? Try shooting into a mirror and capture the reflection of the strobes. I found this trick has saved me a...

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