New to Photography and need some insight

[SterlingCGJ]

I just purchased a Sea&Sea G860 with the YS-27 Strobe and wide angle lens. My question is, the strobe has 2 settings. The manual stated that I needed to take a picture of the strobe approximately 3 feet away and the correct setting is the one where you see the flash, or the picture is all white. But both settings product this result. So, does it matter which setting I use? 2nd, the strobe came with a diffuser. Under what conditions do I use/dont use the diffuser? 3rd, with the wide angle lens do you still zoom in with the zoom function of the camera? Thanks in advance for any help you can/choose to offer.

 

[under water]

Hi,
The idea of a wide angle lens is to get a wide angle shot, so you would negate that by using the zoom.
Zoom underwater is generally not a good idea because you want to minimize the amount of water between you and the subject (unless it is a something that thinks you are lunch)
Regarding the setting of the strobe. I assume you mean whether it is set to ignore Prue-flash or not. Do both settings produce a picture in which you can clearly see the flash? Make sure your camera is not set to be open after the flash, IE use just regular flash setting.
If there is a preflash on your camera one setting will cause the flash to fire for the pre-flash and one will cause it to ignore the pre-flash, but fire for the real flash.
I am not familiar with the Sea&Sea G860 so I can't say what should or shouldn't work for that camera.
Use the diffuser for close up subjects where you want to minimize shadows. The instructions should tell you this.

 

[SterlingCGJ]

Use the diffuser for close up subjects where you want to minimize shadows. The instructions should tell you this.

Thanks for the help Frank. I appreciate it. I read every manual that came with it and I read the camera and strobe manual several times. The only mention it gave the diffuser was how to install it. 1 sentence total. No other mention of the diffuser.