E-620 and a sealife strobe

[Headers]

Ok I'm trying to marry up an e620 and my sealife strobe via a simple fiber optic cable. I am utter stymied however by trying to figure out what setting to place the camera on so that it simply fires and what preflash setting i need to have the strobe on. Anyone?? help?? Thanks. Brian

 

[gert7to3]

Just got an E-620 myself, though no plans for underwater use just yet.

You have to turn your custom controls feature on. That control is the little icon which looks like two gears which are titld "Menu Display". The 5th entry in the menu heading which looks like a wrench.

Flash settings are accessed through [Menu]. Scroll down to the 4th entry, "Custom Settings", which looks like two little gears. At the bottom of the first page in that entry is the flash control. It has a little lightning bolt and a capital "F". Right arrow into that entry and you will see a +/- control. Set that to "On" so you can control the flash level. Hmm, I can't say that I see any way of adjusting anything there. Is this what's got you puzzled? The book says it's just linked to the +/- exposure setting.

Set the bottom control "Auto pop-up" to on. That way if you forget to extend your flash, and if your housing doesn't have a means to push the flash button, you could deploy the strobe by taking a picture in "Auto" mode.

Don't know how experienced you are. Check out the stickies at the beginning of the Tips and Techniques section. Alcina and Gilligan provide some very good advice there.

My advice: use manual mode. I set my aperture to ƒ8 -ƒ14. Without using my strobe I take some photos, adjusting the shutter speed to obtain the background color/hue I want. Then, with the strobe, I use its flash controls to properly expose my subject. Faster shutter speeds help reduce motion effects like waving fins or antennae. Lower ISO settings (80-100-200) are usually less grainy appearing.

 

[bmchugh]

Ok I'm trying to marry up an e620 and my sealife strobe via a simple fiber optic cable. I am utter stymied however by trying to figure out what setting to place the camera on so that it simply fires and what preflash setting i need to have the strobe on. Anyone?? help?? Thanks. Brian

The Sealife strobe should mount to the bottom of the housing, the housing will accept the standard tri-pod screws that the Sealife strobe uses as well. You will need to hook up the fiber optic cord to the camera's FO mount, you may need to get one of rubber plugs that except the FO cord for the camera housing. Set your camera to S, A, or M mode, pop up the flash and take a picture with the flash on. You will need to adjust the pre-flash cancel button inside the flash housing to 0 and take a picture. You may need to adjust this switch position to 1, 2, ect until you can see the flash fire in your picture. Just look at the picture preview on the camera. Its just trial and error but should work ok. You will need to adjust the flash strength on the strobe as ttl does not function with this strobe. You can use the camera in auto mode but I've always had better results in M. I would start with ISO 100 or 200 for macro shots and use 200 or 400 for wide angle. Shutter speed and aperture will depend on your lens and type of picture you are shooting. I have an E-520 and YS 110a strobes now but started with a SeaLife set up.

Brian

 

[under water]

The easiest way to determine the preflash setting on the strobe is to stand in front of a mirror and take a picture using the different preflash settings. When you see the strobe firing in the image, that is the correct setting.

 

[gert7to3]

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Finally worked out flash adjustment on the E-620 In manual mode.
Press the flash button on the the upper left top of the body, 2 times. This will open a settings menu in the display. You can either button press or thumbwheel through the settings. The lower row has fractional settings. To save battery power set the flash to 1/16th or 1/64th. This should do the trick for triggering your Sea Life strobe through a fiber optic cable.

Looking around on line I found off brand BLS-1 batteries for the E-620, both cheaper and with higher capacity, 1600 MAhr vs 1150 MAhr . A definite plus when using your camera underwater.

As convenient as the LCD viewfinder is, it uses power and is comparatively slow focusing. You've got a SLR with much faster response if you use the eyelevel viewfinder. Just a thought, sorry if you already knew this.