TTL for Oly Evolt E-300

[CA Diver]

I have an Olympus Evolt E-300 with the Olympus housing. I am interested in getting a quality strobe but have heard there is a problem in preserving the TTL qualities of the SLR without using the Olympus lights.

Is this true and has anyone worked around this issue?

 

[slowhands]

I have an Olympus Evolt E-300 with the Olympus housing. I am interested in getting a quality strobe but have heard there is a problem in preserving the TTL qualities of the SLR without using the Olympus lights. Is this true and has anyone worked around this issue?

I believe it is true, but Olympus has a strobe housing and strobe that should work.
Since you already invested in the housing and some ports, consider the Olympus FL-36 housed in the PFL-E01 housing. It is very expensive but works. You can purchase it many places, but one excellent source in Japan is:
http://www.uwdigitalcamera.com/En/prod_06stb.php?pathID=2_6_10

You are correct that it is hard to mate a non-Olympus strobe to this camera and maintain TTL strobe control. There are several reasons for this. Olympus uses a proprietary TTL strobe control protocol, and the strobe must turn on and off very quickly for the E series cameras. There are converters in some housings that translate this protocol to a more generic TTL strobe protocol, allowing you to use other strobes -- if they can turn on/off quickly enough.

You can add a Matthias Heinrichs converter to your Olympus housing, which will allow you to use certain fast digital strobes. Note that the E-300 and E500 have a double preflash with a very short interval between the preflashes, which rules out most flashes. See the compatible strobe table here, looking for strobes with dark green shading:
http://www.heinrichsweikamp.net/blitz/indexe.htm

Ikelite DS flashes apparently work, with their own converter in the Ikelite housing for these cameras. They may work with a HeinrichsWeikamp converter and Nikonos to Ikelite TTL cord, but the timings look marginal.

 

[Ryan]

We tested a MikeDive bulkhead w/ Inon's D2000w and 2x different Heinrichs OEM converters in the OLympus housing, and where unable to make any combination function...

We may have had defective parts, though.

The Ikelite system works flawlessly.

 

[slowhands]

We tested a MikeDive bulkhead w/ Inon's D2000w and 2x different Heinrichs OEM converters in the OLympus housing, and where unable to make any combination function...

We may have had defective parts, though.

The Ikelite system works flawlessly.

I checked, and sure enough I found at the Heinrichs website:
"Our converter works with Olympus .... E-300 (only with new Subtronic strobes!)."

I presume these are the Subtronic strobes made since 2005, the mini-TTL and Nova. Expensive strobes but very fast! Looks like you either use the Olympus FL-36 in housing, the Ikelite housing/DS series strobes, or take a chance and try a Subtronics with the HW converter.

I read somewhere that you should select a camera for underwater use only after making sure it had a housing and strobe available. Guess that's a good rule after all.