Correct settings for Olympus EM-5 and Inon S2000 TTL

[Julian27]

My apologies in advance for this very basic question: I recently upgraded from a Canon G11 and Fisheye housing to an Olympus OM-D EM-5 (with a Nauticam housing). I have an Inon S-2000 strobe. I used my EM-5 for the first time yesterday, but had trouble with getting the right settings on the camera and/or flash. I won’t go through all the variations I tried yesterday but the issue is that if I set the EM-5 to “auto flash” and the S-2000 to S-TTL, the EM-5 will only fire under very low light conditions and thus the strobe will not be triggered (I use an INON optical cable) With the G11, there was a setting so the flash was always on, so I could always get the S-2000 to fire. I’ve tried all sorts of settings on the EM-5 and S-2000 and have to go to full manual to get the right exposures. Can I get some input on the basic settings for the EM-5 and S-2000 for good TTL?

 

[bvanant]

HUH? I will check but I believe that I am shooting my em-5 in auto with the s2000 in Sttl and it works fine. I'll let you know tomorrow after I play a bit.
Bill

 

[smoore]

The flash setting should be fill in flash rather than auto. When set to fill in flash the flash is forced to fire regardless of the lighting conditions.

 

[Ardy]

Don't get it. I set my E-520 to auto and if I don't I can't get ttl to work. Smoore's suggestion seems weird as well but could be a solution.

 

[smoore]

If set to auto, then ttl will work if the auto setting actually causes the flash to fire. However, as Julian27 found out in brighter light the auto setting will not cause the flash to fire. The fill setting is the same as forced flash with some other brands. It will force the flash to fire every time and use ttl to balance the flash with any ambient light. It is the setting used for outdoor photography when you want to get rid of or "fill" in shadows on peoples' faces.

 

[bvanant]

In my case, I am always shooting the camera in manual mode at 1/200 and f:16 or so and that means it pretty much always thinks it is dark. If it is very light outside then fill should work fine.
Bill

 

[smoore]

With the lens closed down that much the the auto mode would almost certainly activate the flash.

 

[Julian27]

Thanks for the tips - I'll give them a try. The issue that I found using the "fill in" flash is that, while the strobe does fire, it's not very bright. I'm sure that I can compensate for that by adjusting the settings on the strobe. Again, thanks for helping me out, obviously there is a lot for me to learn, but that's why I decided to trade up for the EM-5! Any other thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

---------- Post Merged at 04:46 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 04:40 PM ----------

thanks Bill, I'll try manual mode with the setting you suggest. Still seems like there should be some way to have the "Auto" flash always fire even at different shutter speeds and f/stops.

 

[happysnapper]

could you try manual mode and have the flash set at the lowest power? Just enough to fire the optical cable off? surely this way would also save battery power? Just purchased an EM-5 but not yet dived with it.

 

[smoore]

could you try manual mode and have the flash set at the lowest power? Just enough to fire the optical cable off? surely this way would also save battery power? Just purchased an EM-5 but not yet dived with it.

You can proceed in this manner provided you have your strobe set to manual (and with the Inon S2000 you have the magnet in). This will save battery power and reduces the risk that the camera will overheat. However, using the EPL2 I have always been able to do 3 dives on one camera battery and the camera has never overheated. I often shoot in STTL in manual mode on the camera and it works fine for me most of the time.