E-PL2 flash question

[jazzcatlee]

This is not an underwater photo question, strictly speaking.

On Thursday morning I'm off for my first digital photo trip. The E-PL2 is new to me, so I'm familiarizing myself with all functions.
I cannot figure out how to set the on-camera flash manually, that is, Full, 1/4, 1/16, 1/64. No position on the mode dial allows me to use manual flash settings, not A, S, M, etc. Can anyone help?

I realize the answer has no bearing on synchronization of the underwater strobes, which are triggered by "fill in" flash. That's working fine. But it makes me uncomfortable, not understanding all functions on this camera.

 

[cardog]

All you do is push the flash icon on the command dial and all of your flash options will appear on the bottom of the screen.Scroll to the right until you see the power settings.

 

[jazzcatlee]

All you do is push the flash icon on the command dial and all of your flash options will appear on the bottom of the screen.Scroll to the right until you see the power settings.

No, no, cardog. They're all dimmed and cannot be selected in any mode. That was my point. There must be some way to activate those options in a menu somewhere.

 

[cardog]

I have the same camera and am looking at it as I type this message. My post above is correct as far as I can tell.I don't know what you might have turned off in your settings but adjusting the flash power should be a simple and straight forward task.....

 

[PHIL RUDIN]

Do you have the RC mode turned on in the menu? If you do turn it off and try again.

 

[jazzcatlee]

Do you have the RC mode turned on in the menu? If you do turn it off and try again.

Bingo! Thank you Phil Rudin.

Apparently I turned RC on the first time through the manual. But that mode is for controlling remote strobes through a wireless signal, like in a studio, right? So it is of no use in underwater photography - at least not with strobes triggered through fiber-optic cables.

One more question. With fiber optic strobes (in this case S & S YS-110a and YS-01) Would one of the manual settings of the internal flash, say 1/4, 1/16 or 1/64, be preferable to "fill in," in the interest of conserving camera battery power? (Assuming a low manual setting is strong enough to trigger the strobes).

Thanks again.

 

[LeeParrish]

On my E-PM1 I can trigger my single YS-01 strobe by setting the camera flash to 1/64 and the strobe to manual with no pre-flash without any problem. This does require me to then set the output power on the strobe manually as the camera just fires a 1/64 power flash every shot, regardless of the conditions. This is true manual, but it does save battery on the camera, and also recycles extremely fast on the camera since it doesn't have to recharge very much. So if you are willing to manually set the strobe power, yes, setting the camera to 1/64 seems in my setup both conserve power and cycle much faster.

 

[PHIL RUDIN]

Fill flash, the lighting bolt sign is for use when you have the strobe set to work in TTL. Manual settings on the camera like 1/4, 1/8, //1/64th will fire your external strobe when being use in manual at any power level you set of the external strobe, in your case YS-01. Setting to 1/64th power does save camera battery power. I have only had one camera that would not fire the external strobe at 1/64th but it worked fine at 1/8th. Battery life for the YS-01 strobes will still depend on the power settings you are using while shooting in manual.

And yes RC is for off camera lighting in both TTL and manual with RC controled slave strobes like the Olympus FL-600R which I use for studio and location work.

Attached are two images using two off camera Olympus FL-50R strobes and the Olympus E-3 camera.

Phil Rudin

 

[jazzcatlee]

Got it. Will be setting aperture, shutter speed and strobe output manually. So 1/64 should do it.

My next time on this message board, I will no longer be a digital UW virgin.

Thanks again. (What's up Lee, my namesake!)