more 5060 advice

[devilgas]

hi all,
just got back from a week in egypt. first real usage of my 5060 / pt020 / sea&sea ys60 strobe and the mikedive ttl adaptor.

had problems in getting the flash to fire. i run the camera in manual (M) mode, setting the aperture and shutter speed myself, but generally leaving focus to the camera. the only flash options i get are off or slow sync. however, when using the slow sync setting, the camera still decides for itself if it should fire or not.
accessory mode is set to underwater housing and flash setting is set to external only.
is there any way of getting the camera to fire the flash *every* time despite what it thinks should be done? i guess half my problem is that i use a digital SLR for topside stuff and am just used to the camera doing what i tell it rather than it thinking it knows best.
problems also arose when using a spotting / focusing light. this seemed to fool the exposure system (spot metering) into believing the flash didn't need to be fired.

any advice greatly appreciated.

 

[ReyeR]

When you select 'Slow' in M mode the camera's flash or an external flash should fire everytime regardless of the amount of ambient (available) light*. It is similar to 'Fill-in' lightning symbol) flash in P mode. Try turning the Accessory menu 'OFF'.
Maybe you should contact Matthias as the TTL convertor is made by him.

*You can test this with the camera's flash (no external flash connected) using M mode and flash on and set to 'Slow'. Test it outdoors in the daytime with plenty of sunlight.

 

[devilgas]

thanks reyer. have not tried that yet, however i've since discovered another reason for it not to fire.....some of the time i had the camera in continuous shooting mode. this automatically turns the flash off. chances are this is the cause of my woes.
again, too used to the 10d & speedlite that do what they're told

on the plus side, used a set of 2300 NimH's in the YS60 and they didn't need changing at all during the week (15 dives)

 

[phys16]

What stay and arm do you use with your strobe, do you use the DX stay, and the flexible arm, I'm getting the 5060 and want to us the ys-90dx strobe, but I've heard some conflicting information about the mounting of the dx stay to the pt-020 housing.
Thanks
Dave

 

[devilgas]

the arm is the sea and sea type 4. the stays are an old dx type that i don't use and the newer "multi stay w set". had to check the www to find this out!
the dx stay fits ok to the housing but suffers the same problems as with the mm2 in that it can twist on the mounting by itself unless it's done up *really* tight and then you break the plastic knob off. the multi stay base tripod bolt sits in its own track which lets it butt firmly against the back of the housing so doesn't suffer this problem.