Strobe...

[Atlaua]

So I've been thinking lately on wether or not to get an external strobe.


Here is my question. I have an Oly 400. It is basicly a point and shoot camera. I have very little control other than WB effects.

If I add an external strobe as a slave off the internal flash, will it improve my results or will it wash out what the camera was expecting off the internal flash?

James

[DeepDiverBob]

with my external strobe, it has apiece that blocks off the built in flash, so you only get the flash from the strobe.

[Atlaua]

with my external strobe, it has apiece that blocks off the built in flash, so you only get the flash from the strobe.

My housing already "diffuses" the internal flash. This is to prevent backscatter. I haven't tried the camera without the diffuser (I should before I invest in a strobe).

My thinking is that the camera (even though it cannot be manually adjusted) is assuming that the flash will travel X distance. However in the water it just doesn't travel that far. What I would hope is that an external digital slave strobe would get the light travel pretty close to the expected difference and improve the photos. What I fear is that it would overshoot the mark and overexpose.

Nobody has any experience with this kind of setup?

James

[Scubagal]

My housing already "diffuses" the internal flash. This is to prevent backscatter. I haven't tried the camera without the diffuser (I should before I invest in a strobe).

My thinking is that the camera (even though it cannot be manually adjusted) is assuming that the flash will travel X distance. However in the water it just doesn't travel that far. What I would hope is that an external digital slave strobe would get the light travel pretty close to the expected difference and improve the photos. What I fear is that it would overshoot the mark and overexpose.

Nobody has any experience with this kind of setup?

James

We have an Oly D40-Z with an Oly PT-012 housing, then bought an Epoque ES-150 DS strobe that was triggered off the flash of the camera. We found that a lot of times it either overexposed the shot, or the strobe would not fire at all, thinking there was enough light from the camera's flash. As a result, we ended up going back to using just the camera and housing.

Not saying it wasn't possibly user error, we just found we got better results not using the strobe.

[Scubagal]

Also found these links, maybe you can find some information that is useful.

http://dive.scubadiving.com/members/gearreviews.php?s=542
http://dive.scubadiving.com/members/gearreviews.php?s=543