Strobe recommendation

[flyingvisit]

Right, I've done it now! Bought myself a clearance Canon A540 as its discontinued, with the Ikelite case for it, for $300 all in. Seemed a reasonable deal, and more affordable than what I was going to have to pay out for a G10... especially as its a second camera as I can't get an underwater case for my Panasonic camera.

Anyhow, as this is my "starter" camera, to try and get used to underwater photography - are there any strobe recommendations for this? I'm looking for something I can maybe pick up cheap on ebay or second hand, but that might well be suitable in a year or so when I upgrade my whole camera (both my pana and this canon will be replaced with ONE single camera at that point...)

And then any tips for how to get started? I'm planning on doing a few more dives before I take the camera out even, as I'm still a beginner, so I want at least 10 or so dives under my belt before I try to add a camera into the mix!! But tips as to settings?

Thanks!

 

[xroirat]

I've got the A540 with the Canon WP-DC2 case. Used it U/W for the past year. While the built-in flash works okay for some U/W shots (using the diffuser), sometimes there is too much back-scatter, which using a strobe on an arm can minimize. Therefore, I decided to get an external strobe and just picked up a Sea & Sea YS-15 Auto for ~$250 on eBay. While the YS-15 does not have a manual mode, since I do not intend to shoot macro it should suffice, especially for the price. I'm looking forward to using it and will post a report on how well it works out.

If you do not use an external strobe, you might consider using the "flash on" mode (lightening bolt without any other markings) to force the flash to always fire underwater. I tried using the U/W mode, which actually minimizes use of the flash, and was unhappy with not using the flash as you don't get much color when deeper than 10 feet or so.
Jim