OP
XZ1, flash settings and strobe help
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OP
What picks me about all of this is that I am shooting in what is most often a lot of current here in Cozumel. If I had time to mess around trying different settings, intensity, etc etc. I would live in Bonaire. I don't. I wanted something simple. I didn't get that. Guess I need to goto another distributor since this isn't working for me.
Its tough to shoot anything small in COZ without using a lot of energy and air fighting the current. You might try some shore dives to dial everything in. That's my plan for Bonaire. Find a nice spot in the sand with some photo subjects and shoot away.
vossroad
Contributor
If your in Coz try going to Chankanaab Park to get your settings down. It's shallow, less current and plenty of marine life. It's a novice site but at least you'll be able to work on getting comfortable w/ XZ-1/strobe. Then try the boat dives...
Wisnu
Contributor
Many people in this forum use XZ-01 with either Inon or SnS strobe with decent result. Me too has the XZ-1 for my younger daughter. I also have YS-01 and Inon D-2000, both working well with XZ-01, except the YS-01 does not STTL properly with XZ-01 in manual mode; which is NOT a problem at all for us, since we always use in full manual mode - even with D-2000.
So, back to the OP question, here is my recommendation :
- Forget is the STTL mode; use manual, take a bit more time at the beginning but believe me it will be easier than you imagine.
- Now test the sync. Get your camera and strobe, set ISO 100, M, 1/250, F5.6, force flash at 1/64 or 1/16 (if 1/64 not stronge enough to trigger the strobe), strobe set to second manual switch, 50% power, shoot a mirror - and you should be able to see the strobe flasing in the picture. If does not work, something wrong with your gear.
- Next, go to the pool, bring along any object with the size and color as you expect you will see in your dive - I know difficult to bring a manta ray size to the pool, you can ask your friend to pretend as a shark; here you can practice to shoot for macro and WA. Bring along pencil and slate to make a note of your setting and flash power.
- For macro, start with the ISO 100, M, 1/250, F8, macro on, force flash 1/64 or 1/16, strobe 2nd manual, 50% power - try to shoot small object from the distance of 15cm, 30 cm and 60 cm - adjust the strobe power and make a note. You can later refine these setting on the sea.
- For WA, start with ISO 200, M, 1/125. F5.6, macro off, force flash 1/64 or 1/16, strobe 2nd manual, 50% power - try to shoot your shark. You can adjust the Aperture and shutter speed, 1 or 2 up/down to your desired BG (light blue or dark blue) and strobe to iluminate your shark. Later refine these setting during your diving.
So, back to the OP question, here is my recommendation :
- Forget is the STTL mode; use manual, take a bit more time at the beginning but believe me it will be easier than you imagine.
- Now test the sync. Get your camera and strobe, set ISO 100, M, 1/250, F5.6, force flash at 1/64 or 1/16 (if 1/64 not stronge enough to trigger the strobe), strobe set to second manual switch, 50% power, shoot a mirror - and you should be able to see the strobe flasing in the picture. If does not work, something wrong with your gear.
- Next, go to the pool, bring along any object with the size and color as you expect you will see in your dive - I know difficult to bring a manta ray size to the pool, you can ask your friend to pretend as a shark; here you can practice to shoot for macro and WA. Bring along pencil and slate to make a note of your setting and flash power.
- For macro, start with the ISO 100, M, 1/250, F8, macro on, force flash 1/64 or 1/16, strobe 2nd manual, 50% power - try to shoot small object from the distance of 15cm, 30 cm and 60 cm - adjust the strobe power and make a note. You can later refine these setting on the sea.
- For WA, start with ISO 200, M, 1/125. F5.6, macro off, force flash 1/64 or 1/16, strobe 2nd manual, 50% power - try to shoot your shark. You can adjust the Aperture and shutter speed, 1 or 2 up/down to your desired BG (light blue or dark blue) and strobe to iluminate your shark. Later refine these setting during your diving.
Thanks Wisnu, that is very close to what I had planned to try after reading a lot of advise on the forum some of it I am sure came from you. You summed it up nicely.
Used my new camera and strobes on two dives so far today and am pleased with the results. We plan to get two more day dives and a night dive later today.
There is a lot of surge today here on Bonaire so I did very little wide angle. I really liked the recommended maco settings. I set them up in the user custom mode. Got some great closeups. Color is nice on close shots regardless of depth, which was missing in my old setup. I will get some posted when I get home.
There is a lot of surge today here on Bonaire so I did very little wide angle. I really liked the recommended maco settings. I set them up in the user custom mode. Got some great closeups. Color is nice on close shots regardless of depth, which was missing in my old setup. I will get some posted when I get home.
Prop Joe
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I heard back from the company I bought the strobe from...here is what he said:
"After we sold a couple of these, it came to our attention that there was a timing issue with it and the YS-01/YS-110a strobes and unfortunately they do not work in TTL. This is somewhat a flaw in S&S's TTL logic I think and it may get corrected in their new strobe. There was talk for a while of a ROM revision being available as a factory repair, but I haven't any more about it in quite some time.
Actually the camera is much faster in manual; if you set it to manual flash, the strobe to manual, then all will recycle very quickly, even shooting large RAW files."
So, long answer short, it doesn't work in TTL. Which was precisely what I asked for when I bought the thing.
Wow, That sucks to hear I just purchased two YS110a's and an Olympus E-PL3 and I was having issues with trying to do too much with everything in manual... I feel your pain. I wish I would have bought the Inon S2000 strobes now for the TTL capability. My old Ikelite strobes worked well in TTL, not perfect but well.
Wisnu
Contributor
my set-up is EPL-1 with 2 YS-01, I've tried the STTL and seem work well and accurate too - but manual give me lot of flexibility and offer much possibility; so never use in STTL anymore.
OP
Just to close the loop on this and for the sake of future readers. I heard back from Sea and Sea. They said they could make my strobe TTL compatible with the XZ1 if I send it to them in California and pay a $150 service fee as it would not be covered under warranty (although they sent me warranty forms to complete, should I wish to proceed). The problem is that the servicing does not ADD the capability...it makes it incompatible with any other cameras and you need to repeat the procedure and pay the $150 price again if you want to revert capability for another camera. Unfortunately, at the time I purchased, NONE of this information was on the website when I checked compatibility.
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