Where do you get a strobe for a Canon A570IS?

[randini]

I just found my HW DA2 on my desk when I came into the office today. Put it all together and it worked great with my Coolpix P4 in a fantasea housing on the first try. The pictures are quite over exposed, but I didn't have time to adjust any settings, yet. I just wanted to see that it works, but tonight I'll take it all home with me and play around with it there. Hopefully this weekend I'll be able to get it all wet, including the $60 WA lens I got from the Sea&Sea closeout page.

 

[DesertEagle]

The Sea & Sea closeout page rocks! I paid $129 for my YS-60.

Randini, use a little negative exposure compensation. It won't be as bad underwater. With the DA2, you may want to use your strobe's TTL setting. That will help with your P4 recycle flash time.

 

[randini]

The Sea & Sea closeout page rocks! I paid $129 for my YS-60.

Heck ya!! I'm surprised I don't see it mentioned more frequently. I paid $135 for the nikonos version! Just under $200 got me a strobe, arm, tray and 0.56x wide angle lens. Add on about $10 for some adapter rings to fit the lens to my housing and another €89 for the HW adapter (incl. shipping to me in Chile) and I'm set. Just add water now!

Randini, use a little negative exposure compensation. It won't be as bad underwater. With the DA2, you may want to use your strobe's TTL setting. That will help with your P4 recycle flash time.

Thanks for the tip. I'll try that first.

 

[tlmainer]

(For the Canon A570IS... The Sea&Sea YS-60 kit with the Heinrichs-Weikamp adapter).
Is the adapter that is spoken of here this one??



Heinrichs-Weikamp Optical Digital Adapter for Sea & Sea 4 pin


Click here for larger image
Click here for larger image
Reef Photo Price:$129.00

Model: hw.da.o.s

 

[tlmainer]

A couple more questions on the HW adapter...
Sea & Sea shows 2 different versions (if I am reading it right)...
"Sync cord: Fixed sync cord, comes with N-type connector (YS-60TTL/N) or S-type connector (YS-60TTL/S)".
Would it bee the N type or the S type?
Is it a 4 or 5 pin system?

Thanks guys!

 

[SamT]

Glad to hear it works for you. The strobe I have is the neonlite from bonica. I bought it 5 years ago or so. I have no sync cord, just the slaves on the strobe. I have tried turning the flash power up & down and it works with all the settings. My best guess is the same as SamT's, that it does not emit a pre-flash because you are inputting all that data your self in manual mode. Try contacting Bonica directly to find a strobe, I have found them very helpful in the past when I needed to look up parts in their warehouse. I will post my pics in the New Year.

Thanks, I just looked at your Boncia neonlite online and found that they have a newer model the XP, that can fire with or without a preflash. Made to work with all cameras with a preflash or without.

I typed in "Boncia" on B H Photo's website to find a pretty good deal on the strobe head, tray and arms included for $259.

Bonica | Neon-XP Underwater Strobe | NEONLIT-XP | B&H Photo Video

This is from their site-

The Bonica Neon-XP Strobe is a powerful underwater strobe light. Since the strobe will fire with 4 different pre-flash setting as well as no pre-flash it works with any underwater digital or film camera that has a built-in flash. It fits the Bonica Snapper-XP perfectly. It will enhance the picture quality in poor lighting conditions. It also reduces the backscatter problem that normally will occur when using a camera with built-in flash.

Along with manual control a microprocessor controlled exposure sensor automatically regulates the intensity of the flash to provide proper exposure at apertures from f/2.0 to f/4.0. Say farewell to trial-and-error lighting adjustment, it puts point-and-shoot simplicity back into the hands of digital photographers.

The Strobe also has a fully adjustable arm and flash head that swivels 360°. This will allow you to aim the flash in any direction. The Neon Strobe Light has dual sensors, this allows the strobe to fire simultaneously when the camera flashes without the need of a sync cord.

Double silicone seal rings give better protection from water leakage. A second Strobe Light can be attached on the support tray if additional lighting is needed.

Key Features

• Slave will fire with 4 different pre-flash settings as well as no pre-flash

• Microprocessor controlled exposure sensor automatically regulates the intensity of the flash

• 60° angle of coverage

• Recycle time of 0.3 to 5 seconds

• Up to 120 flashes with full power batteries

• 5700° kelvin color temperature

 

[DesertEagle]

Yes, tlmainer's photos show both versions of the Heinrichs-Weikamp DA2 adapter.

They come in both 4-pin and 5-pin flavors.

N-type is 5-pin
S-type is 4-pin (the bigger looking one)

I haven't used a Bonica strobe. 60 degrees isn't much coverage You would want a diffuser or use two strobes. The B&H page for Bonica doesn't show the strobe including any optical cord.

The Sea & Sea YS-60 that I ordered from Sea & Sea's page came with a basic tray and arm. I already have a ULCS base so I left the Sea & Sea base sitting in the box on my shelf.

 

[randini]

@tlmainer: If you're buying the YS-60 Kit from Sea&Sea's closeout page now, then only one on there is the N type. If you already have one, just look at the end of the cable and count the pins in the plug.

@Desert Eagle: I played around with the strobe last night. The settings you mentioned got some pretty decent exposures in my living room. Thanks.

 

[tlmainer]

Thanks guys!
When you order the HW adapter (4 or 5 pin), do you get just the round plastic adapter or do you also get the cables and have to cut/splice etc like it says on one of the websites I read? What about the "circuit board looking" chip, does that come with it? I had read somewhere that you just glue down the adapter to the housing and screw in the cable from the YS-60. Is that the case? Sorry, I'm confused!

 

[jodomonk]

If you are getting the HW adapter with the YS-60 from the Sea&Sea closeout, you need to purchase nothing more. The YS-60 is a 4 pin, Nikonos (what the N stands for) strobe. Hence, when purchasing the HW, adapter, make sure you get the one that is setup for Nikonos sinc cords. The exact title of this part is "Heinrichs-Weikamp Optical Digital Adapter for Nikonos Sync Cords (hw.da.o.n)". The strobe comes with tray, arm and sync cord. The sync cord plugs in directly to the HW adapter (no wire splicing), which then velcros onto your camera case (HW provides underwater velcro with your purchase).

@ randini et al.

Also, for those people who already have this setup, here is what I found on my first dive a couple of days ago. I mounted the strobe on the left side, same side as my flash, set my Canon SD800 to underwater mode (which adds red back in) and went shooting. Here is what I found:

- Pictures at 30-50 feet turned out quite well, but you have to be fairly motionless as it takes a few seconds for the camera to fire. A number of times I would press the trigger and by the time it took the picture, I was on top of my subject rather than in front of it. The best pics I got were at my safety stop as I was holding onto a submerged pylon.

- Pictures at 110 feet were way overexposed and too orange. I am thinking this is because I had the underwater mode turned on. The camera is not assuming that you have an external strobe attached and it is adding red in to make up for the loss of that color at depth. However, the strobe adds a ton of natural light, which means the camera has overcompensated for red. In addition, the camera sees nothing but complete darkness at that depth, which means it is going to expose the picture for longer. However, the external strobe adds so much light that it washes out the picture. To compensate for this I am going to experiment on changing the exposure and also switching the strobe to half power.

Keep in mind I don't know that much about cameras and am no expert on how they work, but those are the results I got on my first dive with it. I am going on a night dive tonight and will be able to test plenty of these modifications. I'll let everyone know how they work out!