Sony P-150 and Ikelite MV strobe

spyder · Sep 15, 2005

Greetings,

I have a Sony P-150 with marine case (MPK-PHB) that my son uses and the internal flash is weak. I'm thinking about putting one of my Ikelite MV strobes on it and Ikelite says I should try using one of their 4100 (discontinued) external slave units. Any one have any thoughts on whether this will work and if so how well?

ReyeR · Sep 15, 2005

spyder:
Greetings,

I have a Sony P-150 with marine case (MPK-PHB) that my son uses and the internal flash is weak. I'm thinking about putting one of my Ikelite MV strobes on it and Ikelite says I should try using one of their 4100 (discontinued) external slave units. Any one have any thoughts on whether this will work and if so how well?

The 2 questions you need to ask:
1. Does the Sony P150 fire a pre-flash before the main flash?
2. If so, does the 4100 slave unit have a pre-flash cancellation function?

1. It looks like the P150 fires a pre-flash: the PDF manual clearly states on page 28:
"The flash strobes twice. The first time is the pre-flash which is used to adjust the flash light quantity, and the second time is the actual flash during which the image is recorded"

2. I don't know much about the Ike MV strobes with the 4100 but I will hazard a guess that the 4100 doesn't have pre-flash cancellation (please confirm with Ike). In which case the MV will try and dump twice, once on the pre-flash and leaving it no juice for the main flash.

HTH

MacHeath · Sep 15, 2005

Not sure about the Ikelite strobe, I have Sea&Sea with my P150.
However:

Sea & Sea YS25DX (the one I use) is not really powerful enough. Guide number is quoted as 15m on land, so I suggest you get one that is more powerful than this.

The P150 (I think most other Sony's too) uses a preflash, so any strobe must be able to ignore this.

I highly recommend getting the adaptor to mount macro and/or wide angle lenses (all made by Sea & Sea), I have got some great photos using these. You need an external strobe to use them though.

f3nikon · Sep 16, 2005

All are correct, that Sony has a pre flash and no hotshoe an almost dead end combination for an external strobe. I don't think even the 4100 will work, no pre flash controls. The 4100 will work with non pre flash units.

Hope someone comes up with a UW pre flash controller soon.

Dive Safe

MacHeath · Sep 16, 2005

f3nikon, there are plenty of strobes that will work. Sea & Sea, Inon, Sunpak etc all make strobes that can ignore the preflash. I think Inon even make ones that can mimic the preflash.

I get some great result with my set up, it's just the strobe lacks power.

ReyeR · Sep 16, 2005

f3nikon:
Hope someone comes up with a UW pre flash controller soon.

The Ikelite EV manual controller #4100.6 is an UW pre-flash compatible controller. It works with the Ike DS-50 and DS-125 in slave or hard-wired mode and can be set to ignore the pre-flash of a digicam.

f3nikon · Sep 16, 2005

All correct, just not with the MV Ikelite strobe.

Dive Safe

spyder · Sep 16, 2005

Just got off of a chat with Sony support and they confirmed that the preflash cannot be turned off. I just bought an SB-102 for my Nikonos and was planning on keeping the MV's for macro and hopefully using them on the Sony. Looks like I now need to sell them and buy some DS's

Sony P-150 and Ikelite MV strobe

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