Sealife DC2000 what’s next?

[Chanly83]

Well I will wait around and see what happens with reviews for the kraken and the YS-D3. I was wondering if I could get away with one Isotta and when the time and money permits get another. I think the Isotta is pretty new so I will follow the reviews.
Video Lights
-Keldan
-Kraken (if the strobe reviews turn out good it will be nice have lights and strobes powered off the same battery style)
-UWLD (I like the idea and can run either mounted batteries or a canister)

 

[Barmaglot]

Honestly, with a DC2000, or any 1" compact for that matter, YS-D2/Z-330/Retra seems to be like a bit over an overkill; an Isotta RED64 or two is definitely huge overkill. It's very powerful (270W/s, compared to 150W/s of a Retra Pro, 100W/s of a Retra Prime, or 54W/s of a Z-240; I believe Z-330 is around 100W/s) but this power is used to create a very wide beam - 130 degrees, compared to 80 degrees of a YS-D2 or 110 degrees of a Z-330; Retra Prime/Pro is similar at 130 degrees, but not as powerful. However, with a compact camera, you don't have any wet lenses with a field of view that wide, so in effect you'd be carrying huge, heavy, expensive strobes that waste their power lighting up places the camera can't see.

 

[Nemrod]

Hey, I am trying to spend his allotted $15,000. He wants to move up to a A6600 or (?).

The problem with YS strobes is it seems people have problems with them. I can say honestly that in the decade I have owned my Inon D2000 strobes, they have never missed a shot or failed to fire. The oldest one is now in for repair and it is due to having been knocked to the deck from the "CAMERA" tray/shelf by some student divers. The modeling light will not go off and it is not the magnetic switch. Between a D2000 and the new D200 and the old standby and highly regarded Z240 is about one stop. And with the S2000, about one stop as well, maybe a little more. The new Z330, that is about two plus stops. A big jump in power. I have noted some early reports of issues since Inon is obviously (?) driving the flash tubes harder. They did add a heat sink.

What I want is a Inon HSSXXXX and for UWT or (?) to develop a TTL/flash converter gizmo so I can drive optical HSS to my HSSXXXX.

Seriously, do not spend $15,000. No, no, no. That is a huge jump, a jump too far from a DC2000 snappy camie. Unless you are a practiced surface photog and plan to go pro you cannot utilize a Sony A7XXX either. You will do good to master the Sony A6XXX or the suggested M4:3 Olympus cameras, either of which would be a fine choice. There is nothing that an A7 or full frame dSLR can do that you cannot do with APS-C or M4:3 at the amateur level shooter unless you are really into some specialty area. Spend half the money now on a good mid-range system and put the other half away for down the road to get another mid range system eight years from now that will blow away the current high end systems. That is how you future proof.

James

 

[Barmaglot]

What I want is a Inon HSSXXXX and for UWT or (?) to develop a TTL/flash converter gizmo so I can drive optical HSS to my HSSXXXX.

Pavel wrote on the tetis.ru forum a couple days ago that he has received a sample of Retra Pro and got its HSS mode working with his Sony converter. In his testing, it produced 'satisfactory' exposures with shutter blades 'practically invisible' in the full range of shutter speeds between 1/320s to 1/8000s. Intensity adjustment in HSS mode is manual only by a dial on the strobe; the strobe supports TTL only in regular mode.

 

[BoundForElsewhere]

so i've got this sealife micro 2.0 and a 3800 lumen sola... .

i totally have camera envy. now if only i was a half-way decent photographer.

 

[Mr.FaHaD]

It does, but somehow they've designed the reflector in a way that gives it a narrower beam than most straight bulb strobes, or so the reviews indicate. Go figure.



No personal experience - I own a pair of SeaFrogs ST-100 Pro strobes and a pair of Retra Pros - but one of those (assuming you're referring to RED64) costs about as much as a pair of Retras, or three Z-330s/YS-D2s, and seems to take about as much space. I'm sure it's powerful, but its cost and bulk put it in the same bracket as Seacam.

I have sonyrx100M5
I use seafrogs housing for sony RX100 I-V
I use seafrogs strobes ST-100 pro

I have 2 issues

1 in manual mode I can't change the shutter speed because the control wheel is not accessible from the housing, only the aperture I can adjust and the ISO

2 the strobes setting when I shoot in STTL the picture is white even when the exposure is -0+ and as per the setting recommended from the site

what did I do wrong

thanks

 

[Barmaglot]

1 in manual mode I can't change the shutter speed because the control wheel is not accessible from the housing, only the aperture I can adjust and the ISO

This is a known limitation of the housing; you need to use the lens ring for everything. You can go through menus to assign lens ring to aperture, set the aperture, then go through menus again to assign it to shutter speed, set shutter speed, and so on. Yes, it is annoying. I recall reading somewhere that it's possible to do it faster by assigning the lens ring to aperture in aperture priority mode and to shutter speed in shutter priority mode - this way you can use the mode dial to quickly switch between modes, make adjustments, then go back to manual and it will keep the settings. I don't own an RX100, so I don't know if it's actually true.

2 the strobes setting when I shoot in STTL the picture is white even when the exposure is -0+ and as per the setting recommended from the site

The knobs on ST-100 Pro, at least when using fiber optic triggering, are not really functional. The left knob only turns the strobe off and on, while the right knob does absolutely nothing. It will always follow the triggering flash with no adjustments. If you're using it with an RX100, which has a TTL-only onboard flash, and the pictures are overexposed, this means that you're admitting too much light into the camera. Set ISO to 100; if that does not help, close down the aperture.

 

[Mr.FaHaD]

This is a known limitation of the housing; you need to use the lens ring for everything. You can go through menus to assign lens ring to aperture, set the aperture, then go through menus again to assign it to shutter speed, set shutter speed, and so on. Yes, it is annoying. I recall reading somewhere that it's possible to do it faster by assigning the lens ring to aperture in aperture priority mode and to shutter speed in shutter priority mode - this way you can use the mode dial to quickly switch between modes, make adjustments, then go back to manual and it will keep the settings. I don't own an RX100, so I don't know if it's actually true.



The knobs on ST-100 Pro, at least when using fiber optic triggering, are not really functional. The left knob only turns the strobe off and on, while the right knob does absolutely nothing. It will always follow the triggering flash with no adjustments. If you're using it with an RX100, which has a TTL-only onboard flash, and the pictures are overexposed, this means that you're admitting too much light into the camera. Set ISO to 100; if that does not help, close down the aperture.

thank you dear I appreciate your reply

it seems that this strobe is not practical.

I will use manual settings plus light and under water white balance card

thanks

 

[Mr.FaHaD]

This is a known limitation of the housing; you need to use the lens ring for everything. You can go through menus to assign lens ring to aperture, set the aperture, then go through menus again to assign it to shutter speed, set shutter speed, and so on. Yes, it is annoying. I recall reading somewhere that it's possible to do it faster by assigning the lens ring to aperture in aperture priority mode and to shutter speed in shutter priority mode - this way you can use the mode dial to quickly switch between modes, make adjustments, then go back to manual and it will keep the settings. I don't own an RX100, so I don't know if it's actually true.

thank you for this solution

I thought as well for the same method

but as you said it will take some time

I will do my best to adjust my self Until I found a better solution and better strobe



The knobs on ST-100 Pro, at least when using fiber optic triggering, are not really functional. The left knob only turns the strobe off and on, while the right knob does absolutely nothing. It will always follow the triggering flash with no adjustments. If you're using it with an RX100, which has a TTL-only onboard flash, and the pictures are overexposed, this means that you're admitting too much light into the camera. Set ISO to 100; if that does not help, close down the aperture.

 

[Barmaglot]

it seems that this strobe is not practical.

I will use manual settings plus light and under water white balance card

For what it's worth, the images that I took using a pair of ST-100s were much, much better than what I got with ambient light or constant LED lights.