First pics with Pentax *istDS and UK-Germany Housing

Well I've taken my new rig for its first swim last weekend. For those in Melbourne, the dives were the J4 (27m) sub followed by Blairgowrie Yacht Squadron. I first took it for an empty get-wet-test under Sorrento pier in about 4m of water. I looked in through the port, and saw a head of bubbles. Scared me a bit at first until I realised it was the reflection of my exhaled air!

Anyhow, this is the rig:


It took me a little used to the flash, and I still haven't quite got it. A lot of my pics were way underexposed, especially on and in the sub at 25m with very little ambient light.

If I turned on TTL (not supported by the camera hotshoe adapter) the flash did a full dump, and the whole pic was blown out. Turn the strobe to Manual or Full power, it was under exposed. I'm sure I was doing something wrong, so I think I just need to experiment a bit more above ground.

Overall I'm pretty happy with the results, considering it was my first time out with it, but I will be disappointed if I don't improve over the next few dives.

I would love any feedback from these sample pics, and some of the others in my gallery







Thanks for looking.

Mark.

Happy happy on the new toys!

Looks like you did manage to get the strobe dialed in for that last shot -nice job!

I would suspect that the reason you were getting underexposed shots is that your strobe wasn't aimed properly and/or you were too far away if you were on full power. What settings/lens were you using?

alcina:

I would suspect that the reason you were getting underexposed shots is that your strobe wasn't aimed properly and/or you were too far away if you were on full power. What settings/lens were you using?

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A couple of them may have been a mis-aimed strobe, but I had the target/focus light on permanently to avoid that most of the time. Although occassionally is wasn't quite right. I probably could have loosened the arm joints a bit to make it easier for me to move the strobe around. It didn't twig until near the end of the second dive that underwater I could have them a lot looser than on land.

Pics were with the 18-55 kit lens mostly at 55mm, and with a flat port. By next time I got diving I should have my 100mm macro, but I will keep working on this lens for the moment.

I generally kept aperture between f8 and f11, with best results at f8 and 1/90 or 1/125. I really can't remember what settings I had on the strobe, but it was mostly at full power, and the first half with a -0.5 diffuser, and the second half without.

the water must have been cold...the puffer looks like it has winter fur...lol

I love the panoarama and the one with the crab has a great "mood". Well done for the first time out!

OK, with those settings you shouldn't have been getting things too underexposed with full strobe power unless you were simply too far away or the flash wasn't firing, I wouldn't think. You're sure the strobe is firing correctly?

#6 in the gallery looks like the strobe light didn't light the subject...was this intentional? if not, then maybe it didn't fire properly or was one of those times that it was aimed slightly off?

It gets easier

Turn the strobe to Manual or Full power, it was under exposed.

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Have you got the Advanced Cancel Circuit disabled? If you don't and are shooting in manual/full power mode you will only get a very weak flash and not the power you have selected.

Gudge:

Have you got the Advanced Cancel Circuit disabled? If you don't and are shooting in manual/full power mode you will only get a very weak flash and not the power you have selected.

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Hmm.. how do I disable the Advanced Cancel Circuit? I tried to read the manual, I really did.

alcina:

OK, with those settings you shouldn't have been getting things too underexposed with full strobe power unless you were simply too far away or the flash wasn't firing, I wouldn't think. You're sure the strobe is firing correctly?

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I'm quite sure the flash is not firing correctly. What I'm not sure about (yet) is what I'm doing wrong . But that's what I'll be working on next dive.

#6 in the gallery looks like the strobe light didn't light the subject...was this intentional? if not, then maybe it didn't fire properly or was one of those times that it was aimed slightly off?

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I actually like the way that photo turned out, so I could say yes, it was intentional. But in actual fact I was trying to capture the three sea horses hiding in the coral

froop:

Hmm.. how do I disable the Advanced Cancel Circuit? I tried to read the manual, I really did.

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If you've got a Z240 there is a button on the lower right hand side of the strobe (opposite side to the aiming light button). Pushing this in and turning it slightly to lock it in disables the Advance Cancel Circuit. On other Inon models (such as my D2000w) there is a hole in the strobe in the same position into which you insert a small magnet followed by a screw (to hold the magnet in place) to achieve the same thing.

In general you want the Advanced Cancel Circuit disabled when using a wire sync cord and enabled when using the strobe in sTTL mode with a fibre optic cable with a camera that has a pre-flash

I think Gudge has likely solved the problem