From backscatter to in-focus particles - what a step up :D

I took the new strobe for a swim today. I had some pretty crummy conditions to work with for my first try at this. The viz was 10'-15' with loads of particulate matter. I did not get the usual out of focus backscatter from the internal strobe, I did get in-focus particles. To top things off, the jetties have changed with a lot of sand collecting on them from the hurricanes this year. There were not many critters out today and most of the ones I saw were fast - not so great for a rookie strobe slinger . I took lots of pics that were just playing with the settings to see what they would do. I did not use the diffuser on this dive.

General impressions of the strobe are:

1. It is powerful - It easily had an influence on color at 6' in murky water and I didn't have it turned up more than half way.

2. It has a tight angle of coverage - I'll have to do some work trying to diffuse the light from this thing. It takes some effort to aim without getting too much or too little light. Practice will help but it does need to be diffused.

3. Recycle time was faster than the RAW write time. The strobe was ready to fire before the camera was ready to take a picture. I didn't need to have the strobe on full power so it may take longer if I use a higher setting when I put a diffuser on the unit.

Here are some results:

Nice results for the conditions, and your first time out!

The strobe sounds promising!

What optical sync cord did you get? I was not aware that was an option with the SunPak, or is this an after market product?

Ron

Thanks.

The cable is for the Epoque DS -150 DS Flash. The two stobes have at least the same body so it fits fine.

Yoda, how long are your strobe arms? Judging from some of the backscatter in some of your pics, I'd guess about 12 inches. If you get longer arms, you'll see a dramatic decrease in the backscatter. I dive similar conditions regularly, and I had good results with 24" arms (two segments totalling 24"). I've since moved to 36" arms and there is still some backscatter, but not nearly as much as before.

The strobe can be stretched about 16" from the camera. I've got it on a loc-line arm for now. I think I can reduce the particles if I diffuse the strobe, turn up the power, and paint the edge better. The tight beam angle was what caused me to point the strobe more towards the subject - which increased the particles. I also could have increased the power without the diffuser and tried painting the edges better - but air and time would not allow .


More practice and more toys - that's my motto .

The longer the arms, the better for reducing backscatter. But of course there's a practical limit beyond which the rig becomes to difficult to handle.

One thing I found useful was to remove the diffusers from the strobe to create a tighter beam. This seems to help a bit (although the beam is more narrow) as the dispersion directly in front of the camera is less. Might want to play around with that.

The other huge improvement for me came with the addition of a good wide angle lens. This will get you much closer to your subject and reduce a lot of the water (and thus the particulate matter).

Glad to see there are actually some rocks still visible after the surface shots you took earlier this week. The colors are definately popping out of the background a bit more too!

The angle of the strobe also has alot to do with how much backscatter is captured. My strobe is never more than 12" away from the lens, usually lots closer. I see the most difference in the angle, I try to aim the strobe behind and to the lft of the subject so that just the edge of the light cone catches the subject. Of course, the subject has alot to do with it! :05:

Looks like a fun trip out and that you learned a lot about your new set up!

Look forward to seeing more

Yoda, I am really interested in your results as I want to get a strobe for use with my Optio. I just ordered an adapter so I can use my Sea&Sea WA and macro lenses with it. The adapter has a port for an optic cable since the adapter effectively blocks the onboard flash. So... please go out an take some more pictures... especially some macro pics at different power settings.