Sea&Sea YS-110a + Canon G11 - best settings?

[BarryTX]

Hi,

I posted in the Canon section but since my questions are as much about the strobe I wanted to put my questions here. I am not trying to be redundant but I want any YS-110a experts without Canon cameras to see it also and hopefully offer advice.

I'm getting ready to take this Canon G11 / Sea&Sea YS-110a / Fisheye FIX case setup into the ocean for the first time. I wanted to double-check thoughts on best settings - I'll mostly be diving a reef & would like some good shots of marine life there. I'll be shooting through a Fisheye FIX housing with the standard port, no wide angle attached, and a strobe mask to block out the G11's own flash. The strobe is attached with a fiber optic cable.

I was thinking I would set the camera in Aperture mode, flash set to always on. Is this the best appoach?

I've seen some recommendations that the G11's internal flash should be dialed down as much as possible - is this correct?

On the YS-110a, I plan to set to Manual 1, Slave On, Power Full. Is these the right settings for the strobe to read the preflash and adjust the strobe's flash power accordingly, or is there a better way?

Any comments will be appreciated!

 

[skyward]

I have a G9 with the Canon housing and a YS-110a with an optical cable. I don't know for sure but I'm guessing it's similar.

I prefer to use Manual mode so I can stop it down with the aperture and shutter speed to keep the background light to a minimum for close shots. With the camera set to Manual the strobe needs to be on Manual 2. I then adjust the strobe power to get the best exposure.

If you want to use Program mode the strobe needs to be set to Manual 1.

In both cases you need to set the camera flash to always on and turn off Red Eye reduction. Using the optical cable set the strobe to Slave On.

Doug