sp-350

[Old Diver]

Just a quick suggestion; I see how easy it is to flood the housing from the little tag end from the hood keeper crossing the O-ring. I locked the knot with superglue, let it dry, then anchored the red bead to the housing using the smallest amount of glue (use a pin to control the amount), then clipped the tag ends almost flush. They cannot cause any problem now. If I need to remove the assembly, a quick twist with a neetlenose plier will take the bead off and allow removal.

 

[Larry C]

I've read a couple of posts elsewhere, and from Oly's site that the new type H xD memory is 2-3 times faster than the type "M". Even better news is Fry's Outpost is selling it online right now for $49.95 for a 1G chip. Maybe that'll get those Raw shots down to 4-5 seconds instead of the current 10-12. :14:
Just ordered one, so I'll let you know in a few days. $61.90 w/tax and shipping.

 

[DreamingOfScuba]

Thanks Larry C. those tips are very very useful

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I've read a couple of posts elsewhere, and from Oly's site that the new type H xD memory is 2-3 times faster than the type "M". Even better news is Fry's Outpost is selling it online right now for $49.95 for a 1G chip. Maybe that'll get those Raw shots down to 4-5 seconds instead of the current 10-12. :14:
Just ordered one, so I'll let you know in a few days. $61.90 w/tax and shipping.

That's good to know ... there's a Frye's just up the street from me. Perhaps this'll give me an excuse to stop in and check them out ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Cudabait]

Larry,

I took a photo in the mirror. Camera flash appears but not external flash. Wife says they both are flashing but not in sync. Is there some internal setting in the FB350 that coordinates both flashes? I haven't found it in the advanced manual or I've overlooked it. The SL external flash does not have settings. It is a Sealife flash, been using it with a SL310 digital that has internal adjustable settings that control flash intensity. Any suggestions. Look like a new falsh/strobe might be on the horizon?

Regards,

 

[Larry C]

There is a flash sync setting which should control both flashes. Normally if you are using an external flash, you need to either turn off the internal one or block it with film or black tape to keep the backscatter down. What is probably happening is that your flash is firing early in response to the preflash signal that the camera uses to determine flash strength. Many strobes have a preflash setting. You might check with sealife or your sealife dealer. Another thing you might try is setting your internal flash setting to "slave". This may alter the preflash and solve the problem. The slave setting is in the camera's menu. If you don't find it under "camera", look under "settings". When you have tried the external flash and slave settings, if it still flashes early, then the strobe is probably the issue as it was designed for a camera with no preflash. Definitely ask someone familiar with your strobe before doing anything drastic.

 

[Larry C]

Finally hit the water with the Oly flash & housing. I don't have a tray yet, as I'm still waiting for the Sunpak which comes with one I may modify. I held the camera in one hand and the flash in the other (fully adjustable arm, eh...hehehe) Screwed up in oh so many ways. First, although I set the flash on TTL-auto, I didn't notice the knob rubbed up on something and turned to a different setting. Second, I forgot to turn off the built in flash, so on my first two dives, everything was overexposed and I still had backscatter issues. Third, I held the flash way too close to the subjects on the first several shots. Again, overexposed. Visibility was about ten feet, with clear but chunky water. Shooting at 25-40 feet, the flash worked really well when I used it correctly. Substantially less backscatter on the dive where I got the settings right.
Probably should have used the diffuser more, but it doesn't stay put very well. Falls off every time you bump the flash. The beam is rather narrow, so I got quite a bit of shadowing. I also was having a lot of focus problems with supermacro, but the flash worked really well in it, which solved the previous shadowing from the lens in supermacro. Other than the out of focus shots, the rest cleaned up well in Rawshooter essentials. I've posted the better ones on my gallery.

 

[Cudabait]

Thanks, Larry....

Still plugging along.

Regards,

 

[Joseph R.]

I have been palying around with the Nikonos SB-105 strobe with my Olympus SP-350.
The set up that I'm using is the SP-350 in a Ikelite housing with a Heinrichs converter.
The coneverter seems to work fine with the SB-105 strobe, but I have only tried it on land. I will try it out in the water in May .

What settings are you using?
So far I been using manual, shutter and macro modes.

 

[Larry C]

Since graduating from the UW presets so I could shoot RAW, I've been using 3 base set-ups in MyMode. One is Super Macro, with a basic setting of f5.6@1/80, one with shutter priority (S) @ 1/60 and one with Aperture priority @f5.6. I've only had one dive with the strobe, and lots of teething pains per previous post. Once I got the strobe set properly on ttl-auto and found a good distance and angle I got some very nice pics with all three settings. Overexposure has been the biggest issue. Thank God for RAW converters. I've been toying with trying the UW presets with the strobe, as I had some really nice shots backscatter notwithstanding using just the built in flash on UW Macro and UW Wide 2. I'd just hate to waste a dive finding great shots and then come back with unfixable jpegs. Hoping when my second strobe arrives that it helps with wide shots, but in Monterey/Carmel water I might have to pop for a WA lens to get close enough to peer through the Plankton. I've also had some focus issues lately with SMacro and may set a fourth MyMode to Macro (and maybe get a Macro lens when the wife recovers from Camera sticker shock?) I'm also hovering between spot focus and i-esp.