Olympus C5050 & PT 015 set up

[sparky30]

I bought my C5050 and PT015 housing for x-mas.. My advice would be to practice in a pool first and get used to controling bouancy and all the camera buttons at the same time without bumping into anything..
The first add-on I'd get is a strobe. I have a Sea&Sea YS90DX and I'm really happy with it.. I took the whole rig on a Blackbeards tip and using in the ocean for the first time.. Here's what I found.. There was lots of lite at the bottom of some of the shallower dives.. For wide frame shots I didn't use a stroibe at all.. Natural light worked great.. I played with the internal strobe and found out that as long as the water is clear and you get nice and close to the subject the pics turn out great.. Then I added the big strobe.. That took some getting used to, cause its a pretty rig, with arm and everything.. Geting the camera mode and strobe to synch nicely (the C5050 has a bunch of different modes with and without preflash) took some practice..Getting strobe power setting just right wasn't so bad.. after a few shots you'll get the hang of it.. The trick is practice practice practice..
If you want to see the results of my first attempts, check out www.eurocopter.ca/sparky

 

[TedJ]

Diver ABC
I think Dee has pretty well summed it up. I like the manual control that the YS90DX allows, given the digital format. If we were shooting film I would go for TTL. But with the immediate feedback of digital and the manual control I think there is more control.

 

[Diver ABC]

Yeah, I am convinced for using manual like YS90DX when I need strobe. And I can learn more without dependent on automatic stuffs.

And Ike released a remote manual controller indeed showing the needs fo manual adjustment in U/W digiphoto.

However, S&S goes oppositely by giving you something "auto".
YS90Auto is quite bondering me, which you have to adust f-stop everytime you shoot and it isn't TTL at all. What's the point of taking it instead of YS90DX?

I just went throught DD forum. What a great place for U/W digital!

 

[TedJ]

I don't understand the usefullness of the YS90Auto either. Don't forget, if you have a bunch of older Nikon SB-105 strobes (or others) from a Nikonos V rig, you can always use them as secondary slave strobes on a second arm.

 

[Dee]

Diver ABC once bubbled...
However, S&S goes oppositely by giving you something "auto".
YS90Auto is quite bondering me, which you have to adust f-stop everytime you shoot and it isn't TTL at all. What's the point of taking it instead of YS90DX?

I just went throught DD forum. What a great place for U/W digital!

Jeff on DD explains it better but the YS90Auto meter will give you a false reading because the sensor is on the strobe, which can be, and usually is, quite a distance away from the camera where the readings need to be taken. And to the best of my knowledge, the 90auto still hasn't been released.

 

[Diver ABC]

Is it a good idea to couple my C5050 with YS 20A? It fired when I set the flash to slave. Power is a matter...

But the problem is how to fix it with PT-015, use my arm as strobe arm? I got three ball joints too, haha

 

[astrl]

I noticed the YS90 Auto is coming soon. Has Allan commented on it yet?

astrl

 

[Dee]

Since it hasn't been released, no one has gotten hold of one to test it. But I have read several things about it that keeps me from being interested. For one, the sensor that is supposed to take all these automatic readings for you is located in the strobe....which, if positioned properly, will NOT be close to the camera and the CCD where the photo is captured. Those reading may be 12-24" away from the camera, depending on the length of your strobe arms. How is that going to make your photos better?

No thanks....I'll stick with my old manual strobe that does what I tell it to do!

 

[Diver ABC]

Dee,

Perhaps I have something not understand well in photography, but this question came to my mind....

As you said, the correct setting of the strobe power for DX is based on experience and trial/error (1 stop up or down).

In the case of YS 90 Auto, do we work in the same fashion as what you do for DX since it provides you 10 or 12 stops setting (adjust up or down?)

Thanks
Diver ABC

 

[Dee]

The way I understand the proposed 90 AUTO, is it has 12 settings that correspond with your f/stops. So if your camer is set to f/6.3, then you set your strobe to the same setting. The strobe will quench the power according to the f/stop. The result is supposed to give you the perfect shot.

The problem is that the sensor is on the strobe and not on the camera where the f/stop is being read from. I think I've confused myself! But yes, you adjust the power by adjusting the knob up or down. The difference is the power increments are supposed to correspond with f/stops in your camera.