Sony settings help

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timmyy77

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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?
 
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.
 
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???
 
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:

1675765039841.png


For operating it with a Sony camera, you need the S2 mode.
 
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.
 
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!
 
it got me frustrated before..

 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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