Anybody used SnS 110a in TTL on an Olympus E-520

[Ardy]

Hi All

I am trying to sort out my replacement slave flash. I thought it was going to be simple but it ain't.

Looking at the Sea n Sea site it appears my flash a 110a will not TTL with my camera Olympus E-520. I did not pick this up when I bought it and have used it manually since purchase about a year ago. Looking at the options brought up Inon who do TTL with my camera.

As I was going to buy another SnS but I thought I would find out if anyone has used a 110a in TTL on a E-520 before I discounted this as an option and looked only at Inon as a main flash and my 110a as a slave.

regards and merry christmas to you all.

 

[Larry C]

I thought maybe Heinrichs/Weikamp could help, but after looking on their site, their converter for E-520 only works with the YS-250 & YS-30ttl. Looks like you might have a Z-240 in your future.

 

[bmchugh]

I have a E-520 and use 2 YS110a's via fiber optic and the ttl works fine. I think they are referring to the ttl being not functional via the electronic sync cords. I think Athena has a converter if you really want the electronic sync cords but it is very expensive. I have found the fiber optic to be very dependable and I get consistent exposures via ttl when shooting macro.

Brian

 

[Ardy]

I have a E-520 and use 2 YS110a's via fiber optic and the ttl works fine. I think they are referring to the ttl being not functional via the electronic sync cords. I think Athena has a converter if you really want the electronic sync cords but it is very expensive. I have found the fiber optic to be very dependable and I get consistent exposures via ttl when shooting macro.

Brian

Hi Brian thanks for that info. How do you have your E-520/110a set up? I have tried it in P mode/TTL and got very badly under exposed photo's with optical cables. How do you set up your on camera flash?

happy new year to you.

Ardy

 

[bmchugh]

Ardy,

I use the camera in Manual. I started out with it in Auto but really you get much better shots in Manual. With the ttl Manual mode does not require many adjustments especially for macro shots. As a starting point when using the 50mm set the camera at 1/180, f18 iso 100 and adjust from there. The ttl should get the exposure pretty close, I do my final adjustments in Lightroom but usually the jpg is within about 1/3 of a stop of where I want it. Set the strobe to ttl and slave and the dial at 100%. You can up the flash compensation in the camera to overexpose by about 1/2 a stop if needed, you only need to do this once to get your initial setting. If you look on the main menu on the camera under the flash mode icon there is a compensation menu. The manual settings when shooting wide angle are a bit more tricky and ttl really does not work well for wide angle, I use it but normally the strobe fires a full burst and its the camera settings that govern the exposure in that case. I usually use iso 200 and 400 when shooting wide angle. The shutter speed and f stop are dependent on conditions, background exposure, ect.

Brian

 

[Ardy]

Ardy,

As a starting point when using the 50mm set the camera at 1/180, f18 iso 100 and adjust from there. The ttl should get the exposure pretty close, I do my final adjustments in Lightroom but usually the jpg is within about 1/3 of a stop of where I want it. Set the strobe to ttl and slave and the dial at 100%. You can up the flash compensation in the camera to overexpose by about 1/2 a stop if needed, you only need to do this once to get your initial setting. If you look on the main menu on the camera under the flash mode icon there is a compensation menu.

Brian

VERY EMBARRASSING

Brian I just checked my set up and after 30 mins of buggering around including deciding the diffuser was the problem, it all dawned on me. I had the internal flash set to 1/64th manual and of course the TTL needs the normal flash mode to send out the TTL info.

What a clutz I am some times.

Thank you very much.

Ardy

 

[bmchugh]

Glad you got it working. Sometimes you get snowblind staring at a problem for too long.

Brian

 

[cardog]

Are you sure that you need your flash set at full power? I have a different set up (DX 2G) but when shooting in manual I have my flash set at 1/8 and it meters my ttl just ine. If i set it any lower I do have problems with the fiber optic cable picking up the flash.

VERY EMBARRASSING

Brian I just checked my set up and after 30 mins of buggering around including deciding the diffuser was the problem, it all dawned on me. I had the internal flash set to 1/64th manual and of course the TTL needs the normal flash mode to send out the TTL info.

What a clutz I am some times.

Thank you very much.

Ardy

 

[Ardy]

Are you sure that you need your flash set at full power? I have a different set up (DX 2G) but when shooting in manual I have my flash set at 1/8 and it meters my ttl just ine. If i set it any lower I do have problems with the fiber optic cable picking up the flash.

Hi Cardog - I have an Olympus E-520 and I have been told there have been problems with the SnS 110a in TTL and not just with Olympus evidently. I am sure they would do more work with the DX 2G and also Nikon. They also did a better job with the YS-01/2. Even though I have got mine to TTL, if you move it too far away ie greater than 3ft the TTL still works but does not expose at the same level as it does for macro. Macro is my main thing and I will use manual for fish shots. Don't do much WA I find it boring.

The problem of lower than 1/8th is strange as I found that any minor light source is enough to go down an optical cable, reading the TTL data might be the issue. I built my own FOC and it cost all of $3.50 and I still have heaps of cable left for replacements. Can't understand why they ask $80 for a piece of optical cable and a plastic attachment.

 

[bmchugh]

My Olympus E-520 does not ttl at anything less than full flash at least via fiber optic trigger. I have no battery life issues even after 3 dives on the camera, the camera battery seems to outlast the strobe battery in any case. My understanding of ttl use underwater is that it only functions well for macro shots as with wide angle you are lighting the foreground only with the strobe and expose the background with the ambient light. The strobe is only powerful enough to light objects 4-6 feet away. While I often leave my strobes in ttl mode when shooting wide angle the strobes are firing 100% most of the time so ttl is useless at that point.

Brian