Troubleshooting question - very basic, so get ready to snicker!!!

[vetdiver]

Hi, all-

OK, we are leaving for the Solomons on Monday. So this is cutting it down to the wire. We have a pretty new Sea and Sea DX8000, and we just received the YS90Auto strobe. We also just got a wide-angle lens, but we won't even GO there.

I will preface this by saying that I am clueless. not that you need this pointed out to you all, as you're about to find out in a big way!!!

I have used a Canon Elph with housing for a while, and have stuck to taking shots in shallow water with decent ambient light (we're in New England, so any light counts, right?) and the underwater color adjustment, and we've had some nice shots with that.

We moved up to the S&S camera (2 diving days ago), and I daringly decided to try out the manual focus - I got 2 pretty nice macro shots out of maybe 10 attempts, the rest were blurred...

So I decided to even MORE daringly switch to manual exposure and attempt to fiddle with the shutter speed. The second diving day, we were doing a couple of wreck dives at 95-100 ft, so we added the strobe.

I attempted to take just a few shots - maybe 15. I had the camera set at 1/125 shutter speed, f8 (I think), ISO100, the strobe strength was at 5.6. I could see the image (albeit a murky image) on the viewfinder, and the stobe fired...but the shots were basically black. Not dark. Black. I was expecting to have to maybe up the ISO, but I guess I don't understand why the pictures are black...can anyone give me a clue here?

I decided that it is time to read more than the stickys here, so I finally ordered an U/W digital photography book...but in the meantime...anyone?

Ok, stop laughing at me...

 

[victor]

Not Dark, Black
My guess is that the strobe is not syncronised with the shutter being open. e.g. The strobe fired when the shutter was still, or had already, closed. There is normally a specific camera setting to sync with the strobe.
Looking at the web it appears that you need a fibre cable to sync the flash with camera. The fibre cable allows the external flash to recognise when the internal flash has gone off and fire at the same time. I assume you have to use manual power estimation on the flash.

 

[vetdiver]

We do have the fiber optic cable for the YS90, and it was on...

But come to think of it, it did come unhooked from the camera during our descent, and I had to re-attach it at depth. Do you think this could have created the problem? Maybe it wasn't pushed in all the way...maybe it wasn't hoooked to the strobe properly...but even still, would you expect a black picture?

We didn't have the flash on at the beginning of the dive (obviously, the strobe didn't fire then), but once I turned the flash back on, the strobe was firing normally...

Frankly, I'm just glad your response didn't say "ISO WHAT??? You amateur...!!!" Thanks.

 

[AndyT]

Hi

I used a YS 90 Auto with a fibre optic till a short while ago - I think all you need to do is get the settings on the strobe right.With the camera set to f/8 @ 1/125 and the strobe set to f/5.6 you should have gotten decent exposure .Those were the exact settings I used for macro stuff .

Firstly the slave switch must be set to on .

The other switch needs to be set to either Auto 1 or Auto 2 depending on whether your camera has a preflash or not .If it has a preflash set it to Auto 2 , if not use Auto 1.

Can you set the camera flash to slave ? If so use this setting and set the strobe to Auto 1.

Do not use the TTL setting .

Test these on land , see which of Auto 1 or 2 gets the strobe to fire in synch with the camera .

The only other thing I can think of is that your strobe aiming was waaaay off .

Hope this helps , if not let's give it another go

 

[justleesa]

(nice new avatar Andy (maybe I just haven't noticed till today...lol))

 

[vetdiver]

Hi

I used a YS 90 Auto with a fibre optic till a short while ago - I think all you need to do is get the settings on the strobe right.With the camera set to f/8 @ 1/125 and the strobe set to f/5.6 you should have gotten decent exposure .Those were the exact settings I used for macro stuff .

Firstly the slave switch must be set to on .

The other switch needs to be set to either Auto 1 or Auto 2 depending on whether your camera has a preflash or not .If it has a preflash set it to Auto 2 , if not use Auto 1.

Can you set the camera flash to slave ? If so use this setting and set the strobe to Auto 1.

Do not use the TTL setting .

Test these on land , see which of Auto 1 or 2 gets the strobe to fire in synch with the camera .

The only other thing I can think of is that your strobe aiming was waaaay off .

Hope this helps , if not let's give it another go

THANKS, Andy!!

We had the strobe set as "Slave on" and "Auto 1" - I had the flash set as regular (no red eye, which would have the preflash), but who knows...maybe there is a preflash.

I am going to head home and try some shots in a dark room - maybe I can figure it out before we head off.

I agree - nice avatar!!! Been diving much lately?? We were just raving about SA on our charter last weekend...

 

[AndyT]

Thanks for the compliments on the avatar guys . Took it a couple of weeks ago - went "back to basics" - no strobe , WA lens or anything else . Going to the Red Sea in Aug so was practicing on big open water stuff - can't use a strobe here , too many particles in the water .Just wanted to get the aperture and shutter speed right for moving critters . Doing as much diving as I can between now and then .

 

[vetdiver]

so...what did you use for that particular large, moving critter???

any extra room in your luggage for a stowaway? I'll pack you in our extra bag if you pack me in yours...

 

[AndyT]

ISO 100 , f/3.5 @ 1/125

Sounds like a fair deal on the stowaway idea .........

 

[vetdiver]

Andy -

Wanted to let you know taht you were right on about the pre-flash. It was buried in the (extensive) instruction booklet - the forced-flash mode on the DX8000 has a pre-flash in low-light conditions (pretty much any dive below 20 feet here!!!). Thanks so much.

We're mulling over a RTW trip - wouldn't be for a few years, as it would take that long to save up...but we're thinking of a stop in Africa (Kenya? Mozambique??) we'll keep you updated. Would love to meet up for some diving and beers again!!