#4100.5 TTL Digital Slave Sensor

As you may guess, I have the #4100.5 TTL Digital Slave Sensor. I use it with the Canon G2, Ikelite housing, and DS-125. I have taken some great pictures with it - but I am confused by something. On Ike's website, it says:

The TTL Slave Sensor is designed for use with Film and dSLR cameras. It is NOT reccommended for use with point and shoot digital cameras.

Click to expand...

The G2 is a point and shoot. Further, this whole system was sold to me as something that works together - and, in fact, it does work. Most of the time.

I have found the best success with using the "opaque" shield thing for the housing to bounce the camera's flash up for this sensor to detect, putting the camera on the "P" setting (rather than auto), and setting the camera flash to always fire. This makes the strobe always fire. The strobe is set for "TTL" rather than full, half, or whatever. The sensitivity setting on the sensor is mid-way between min and max.

So - my question is - is there any better setting stuff I can use to make sure everything works as intended? I was re-reading the web page for the sensor, and it reads to me like it is intended for something other than what I am using it for. It sounds like it is really for setting off a SECOND strobe, rather than a single strobe fired by the camera. I also see that this unit has been discontinued. Any word on why?

Am I fighting a losing battle with this setup, or can you give me some advice on how to do it better?

Also - I just got my repaired strobe and new smart charger back from Ikelite, but they didn't include a manual for the new smart charger - so I have no idea what the blinking/solid little red light on the charger means. Can I get a manual?

Thanks!
nd

If it works with the digital camera use it..I found that it was not very reliable(sometimes did not sync with camera) and went with a sync cord on my oly 5050 camera and my nikon p5100.

No way to use a sync cord with my camera/housing - otherwise that's what I would have gotten in the first place.

I was reveiwing the manual for this sensor - it seems you can use it in the way I describe. I was reviewing the manual for my camera, and it seems it does use a preflash system. So, now I am really wondering about the "not for use with point and shoot" comment from Ikelite.

When learning a new camera try to only work one thing at a time. I have the EV controller which is what you have with a DS-160 and a Canon A620 in a Ike Housing.

If you can set your camera on manual the ASA at 100 or 200, the shutter at 1/60 or 1/90, and the F-stop at the highest number you can.

Now work the power settings on the strobe with the Ev controller only.

Here are some shots I did off of Fishers Island NY in this manner.

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/canon-corner/255461-wide-angle-2.html

Once you learn one thing, then move onto others, like what changes in ASA do for graininess, and what F-stops do for what you want to do.

If you can find it, Jim Churche's book on the Nikonos V camera will give you a lot of information on lighting and composition.

Thanks for the info. I'll have to play around with the camera setting some I guess. I have to admit though - I'm more of an "auto" kind of guy. By the time I get done twisting and turning knobs and buttons and such, anything I wanted to take a picture of is long since gone.

I have achieved some good results though, using the settings I described above. Here are some of the photos.

When doing fish portraits, use as fine a ASA as you can - 100 or less. Set the F stop as high as you can for best depth of field and the shutter at at least 1/60, 1/90 or higher is best to freeze the critters.

Get the strobe to 30 to 45 degrees from the fish, and keep trying diffrent strobe power levels. Use the cameras screen for a quick check of exposure and then

Get the water out of the photo, don't use telephoto, get closer to the object. There is a reason whay many photo divers say that the camera is their buddy. You end up staying at one location for a few minutes till the fish swims through your setup.

Just keep taking photos - you should be able to start figuring things out after about an hour - but don't expect magazine quality, those guys do it for a living and have 1,000 of hours at.

Look at it this way, at least you are not using film, we had to spend $1,000 of film and processing to figure out what we were doing.

The #4100.5 TTL Slave Sensor was useable with some of the very early digital cameras, including the Canon G2. We usually recommend Aperture Priority setting rather than Program Mode for best results.

The TTL Slave was no longer accurate due to the shorter preflash durations of newer digital cameras. The EV Manual Controller can be used in all instances where the TTL Slave would have been used, and provides manual control over strobe output.

Unfortunately Smart Charger instructions are not up on the website yet. You can contact the office (ikelite@ikelite.com) with your mailing address and request for a paper copy. The front of the charger itself also has explanations of the different light indicators.

Regards,

Jean / Ikelite
IKELITE Underwater Systems