SP-350 as backup to 5050?

[eho]

I am getting my 5050 / Ikelite setup back up and running after some disastrous floods (yes, multiple) in Kauai last month. I'll post more details when I get finished working things out with Ikelite. One thing I'll say is that a perfect looking sealed o-ring in an Ikelite housing proves nothing leak-wise. Anyway, I'll save that post for later.

I'm contemplating using the 5050 / Ikelite housing / DS-50 TTL as my primary rig and using a SP-350 in a PT-030 as a backup (due to the smaller size of the camera and housing and how cheap the pair is). My question has to do with flash setup. What are people's suggestion for the flash setup? Is an Ikelite EV manual controller (4100.6) a reasonable setup? I'm quite comfortable varying exposure, shutter speed and flash power to get a good exposure (assuming at least one of the first two operations is easy to accomplish in the PT-030). Do I need a sync cord in addition to the 4100.6? It looks like the EV triggers the flash and the sync cord port is only necessary for dual slaving?

Lastly, how fast is the SP-350? I used the Sea and Sea DX-8000G for a few dives with the fiber-optic controlled YS-25 and it was a reasonable setup but the DX-8000G is really slow once you've fired a picture. If you missed (or mis-framed) your subject, you have to wait a frustratingly long time to shoot again (15-20 seconds?). Is this a problem with the SP-350?

Thanks for the help.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

If you're shooting RAW, it's painfully slow. If you're shooting SHQ JPG, it's pretty fast ... 1 to 2 seconds with an HXD chip.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Larry C]

Even shooting RAW with a SHQ JPEG backup on the slower M type, I've never gone over 12 seconds. Kill the backup and get the H type chip, and it's down to about 6. Can't tell you much about the EV controller, but the DS-125 works VERY nicely with the SP, at least in combo with the Ikelite housing.

 

[eho]

Thanks for the info. Anyone out there shooting any Oly's in an Oly housing with an Ikelite EV controller? It might nice to also have the FL-20/PFL-01, but there gets to be a limit on how much backup gear you carry.

 

[jlyle]

Thanks for the info. Anyone out there shooting any Oly's in an Oly housing with an Ikelite EV controller? It might nice to also have the FL-20/PFL-01, but there gets to be a limit on how much backup gear you carry.

I do, along with most of my dive buddies. We are all shooting Olympus c5050s in PT-015 housings. Without bulkhead fittings on our housings, we must use slave strobes. The EV controllers work very nicely with the "slave" flash setting on the camera. The EV has ten level settings. Of course, you have to manually control your strobes, but I, for one, think TTL isn't all that good.