Olympus 410 and YS90DX Strobe

[tkring]

I am new to UW Photography. I purchased an Olympus 410 and a Sea and Sea YS90DX strobe with the fiber optic cable. We were diving in 90 feet with 60 ft of visibility. The camera did great but I was unable to get the manual settings on the strobe set correctly. I either blinded everything in site or it was too dark. We went diving this weekend to begin learning how to use. Can anyone tell me which manual settings on the strobe they normally use?

Thanks in advance, Terri

 

[AndyT]

Hi

I would like to help , as I'm sure others will too . Just a question first - which mode
did you have your camera in ? It's important to know this because if you had it in
program mode it is often difficult to guess which aperture value the camera is going
to choose , and to then choose the right power setting for the strobe .

If I were you I would set the camera to Manual , Aperture around 5.6 , Shutter to
1/125 . Then match the strobe power according to the aperture . If the picture is too
light , decrease the power , if too dark increase it a little . By doing this it cuts down
on the things you need to concentrate on . You can fine adjust with the shutter speed .

And 90 feet is way too deep IMHO to learn to use a camera .Rather dive shallower and
have a longer botton time to play with your camera .


Safe Diving

Andrew

 

[ReyeR]

I am new to UW Photography. I purchased an Olympus 410 and a Sea and Sea YS90DX strobe with the fiber optic cable. We were diving in 90 feet with 60 ft of visibility. The camera did great but I was unable to get the manual settings on the strobe set correctly. I either blinded everything in site or it was too dark. We went diving this weekend to begin learning how to use. Can anyone tell me which manual settings on the strobe they normally use?

The 410 is a full-auto camera so it doesn't allow you to change the shutter speed or aperture. You have to rely on the settings the camera chooses for you. I think the best settings to use are:
On the camera set your flash mode to :lightning Fill-in flash. This will give you the best possible shutter speeds and apertures. If you're taking close-up shots set camera to 'Macro'.
On the YS90DX make sure the power dial is set to 'PRE' (assuming the 410 fires a pre-flash) and slave dial is 'ON'
There is no particular manual setting that you need to use on the YS-90DX. Depending on the strobe-to-subject distance and the aperture the camera selects for you, start with a setting of say -5 on the strobe and see how it goes. Too bright dial it clockwise, too dark dial it anti-clockwise. For a more accurate way of calculating exposure refer to the exposure chart in the manual. Yell if you need help understanding it.

HTH

 

[tkring]

ReyR, you are correct. I wish I had talked with you before we left for the trip. After the fifth dive, we finally figured out about the pre-flash mode. Before this, the strobe was not in synch with the camera.

I was reading a message posted by Dee and she said that she uses only 2 to 3 strobe settings on a single dive. I was curious what those settings are. However, your suggestion of starting with -5 sounds solid. I will practice tonight.

Thanks to all for your help.

Terri

 

[AndyT]

That'll teach me to jump in boots'n all .

Andrew