digital camera strobe

HELP!

I am in desperate need of advice. I have an olympus mju300 with pt-016
housing, and can't decide whether or not to purchase the sea&sea YS-25DX
strobe kit. How much better would my photos turn out? I am heading to the
red sea soon, would this turn out to be a worthwhile purchase, or should i
stick to the built in flash? My main concern is that i would no longer be
able to stow the camera inside a bcd pocket, but I am willing to sacrifice
this if it would make my photos considerably better.

Any advice welcomed....

"peter" <a@b.c> wrote in message
news:07_eb.444$kC5.398762@newsfep1-win.server.ntli.net...
> HELP!
>
> I am in desperate need of advice. I have an olympus mju300 with pt-016
> housing, and can't decide whether or not to purchase the sea&sea YS-25DX
> strobe kit. How much better would my photos turn out? I am heading to the
> red sea soon, would this turn out to be a worthwhile purchase, or should i
> stick to the built in flash? My main concern is that i would no longer be
> able to stow the camera inside a bcd pocket, but I am willing to sacrifice
> this if it would make my photos considerably better.
>
> Any advice welcomed....
>
>

As far as I know the MJU's don't have TTL compatability, this may make no
difference as you'll be looking to buy something like the epoque ES series.
The internal flash will not give you enough light, even in the RS. But
you'll be able to take some reasonably good photo's and fiddle with them
digitally afterwards.
As you say you'd like to stow the camera in your BCD pocket, I'm assuming
your using the camera for some 'memories'of the RS, not as a tool for taking
some serious photo's.

I would say, if you just want snapshots, don't waste your money on the
strobe. If you plan on taking your photography further (i.e. British waters
as well), then buy a strobe.

And YES, it will make a difference to the quality of your photo's.

HTH

peter <a@b.c> wrote:
> HELP!
>
> I am in desperate need of advice. I have an olympus mju300 with pt-016
> housing, and can't decide whether or not to purchase the sea&sea
> YS-25DX strobe kit. How much better would my photos turn out? I am
> heading to the red sea soon, would this turn out to be a worthwhile
> purchase, or should i stick to the built in flash? My main concern is
> that i would no longer be able to stow the camera inside a bcd
> pocket, but I am willing to sacrifice this if it would make my photos
> considerably better.

I have a mju400 in a PT-016 and I would guess that any
flash close enough to the lens to go in your pocket will
be as bad as the on board flash at lighting up all the
trash in the water and speckling your pictures.

sorry.

nigelH
http://www.nigelhewitt.co.uk/stuff/cam2.jpg (900k file warning)

"Nigel Hewitt" <nigelh@REMOVETHISnigelhewitt.co.uk> wrote in message
news:bli0m8$13l$1@sparta.btinternet.com...
> peter <a@b.c> wrote:
> > HELP!
> >
> > I am in desperate need of advice. I have an olympus mju300 with pt-016
> > housing, and can't decide whether or not to purchase the sea&sea
> > YS-25DX strobe kit. How much better would my photos turn out? I am
> > heading to the red sea soon, would this turn out to be a worthwhile
> > purchase, or should i stick to the built in flash? My main concern is
> > that i would no longer be able to stow the camera inside a bcd
> > pocket, but I am willing to sacrifice this if it would make my photos
> > considerably better.
>
> I have a mju400 in a PT-016 and I would guess that any
> flash close enough to the lens to go in your pocket will
> be as bad as the on board flash at lighting up all the
> trash in the water and speckling your pictures.
>
> sorry.
>
> nigelH
> http://www.nigelhewitt.co.uk/stuff/cam2.jpg (900k file warning)
>

There is of course the option of adding a fibre optic cable to relay the
signal, but this is again going to add to the cost, with limited results.

The other option is to use a strobe with a slave trigger, but as i mentioned
before, not having the TTL functionality in the camera is going to seriously
limit exsposure control and ultimatley picture outcome.

"peter" <a@b.c> wrote in message
news:07_eb.444$kC5.398762@newsfep1-win.server.ntli.net...
> HELP!
>
> I am in desperate need of advice. I have an olympus mju300 with pt-016
> housing, and can't decide whether or not to purchase the sea&sea YS-25DX
> strobe kit. How much better would my photos turn out? I am heading to the
> red sea soon, would this turn out to be a worthwhile purchase, or should i
> stick to the built in flash? My main concern is that i would no longer be
> able to stow the camera inside a bcd pocket, but I am willing to sacrifice
> this if it would make my photos considerably better.
>
> Any advice welcomed....
>

Have you considered using a filter. It will probably work out more than
£300 cheaper than getting the strobe. Useful for shots in available light.

Available from Ocean Optics
http://www.oceanoptics.co.uk/urpro.html

and Cameras Underwater
http://www.camerasunderwater.co.uk/w...ets/pt016.html

Jon

On Thu, 2 Oct 2003 21:43:02 +0100, "Tricky"
<scubatricky@nospamyahoo.co.uk> wrote:

>"Nigel Hewitt" <nigelh@REMOVETHISnigelhewitt.co.uk> wrote in message
>news:bli0m8$13l$1@sparta.btinternet.com...
>> peter <a@b.c> wrote:
>> > HELP!
>> >
>> > I am in desperate need of advice. I have an olympus mju300 with pt-016
>> > housing, and can't decide whether or not to purchase the sea&sea
>> > YS-25DX strobe kit. How much better would my photos turn out? I am
>> > heading to the red sea soon, would this turn out to be a worthwhile
>> > purchase, or should i stick to the built in flash? My main concern is
>> > that i would no longer be able to stow the camera inside a bcd
>> > pocket, but I am willing to sacrifice this if it would make my photos
>> > considerably better.
>>
>> I have a mju400 in a PT-016 and I would guess that any
>> flash close enough to the lens to go in your pocket will
>> be as bad as the on board flash at lighting up all the
>> trash in the water and speckling your pictures.
>
>There is of course the option of adding a fibre optic cable to relay the
>signal, but this is again going to add to the cost, with limited results.

It will do quite a lot for the pictures. Using this technique works
well, there was a report in UWP a couple of months back on this very
subject.

Plan B is to learn to use the white balance adjustment. You should be
able to use ambient light all the time then, without needing to use
the internal flash.

>The other option is to use a strobe with a slave trigger, but as i mentioned
>before, not having the TTL functionality in the camera is going to seriously
>limit exsposure control and ultimatley picture outcome.

Slave triggering can still give you TTL control.

Pete S.

thanks for the advice, have now ordered an epoque strobe and will go with
that.

nigelH that photo of your setup was very helpful. thank you. where would i
be able to see some sample photos taken with it?

peter

"Nigel Hewitt" <nigelh@REMOVETHISnigelhewitt.co.uk> wrote in message
news:bli0m8$13l$1@sparta.btinternet.com...
> peter <a@b.c> wrote:
> > HELP!
> >
> > I am in desperate need of advice. I have an olympus mju300 with pt-016
> > housing, and can't decide whether or not to purchase the sea&sea
> > YS-25DX strobe kit. How much better would my photos turn out? I am
> > heading to the red sea soon, would this turn out to be a worthwhile
> > purchase, or should i stick to the built in flash? My main concern is
> > that i would no longer be able to stow the camera inside a bcd
> > pocket, but I am willing to sacrifice this if it would make my photos
> > considerably better.
>
> I have a mju400 in a PT-016 and I would guess that any
> flash close enough to the lens to go in your pocket will
> be as bad as the on board flash at lighting up all the
> trash in the water and speckling your pictures.
>
> sorry.
>
> nigelH
> http://www.nigelhewitt.co.uk/stuff/cam2.jpg (900k file warning)
>
>

peter <a@b.c> wrote:
> thanks for the advice, have now ordered an epoque strobe and will go
> with that.
>
> nigelH that photo of your setup was very helpful. thank you. where
> would i be able to see some sample photos taken with it?

There's a bunch of trip reports at the top of
http://www.nigelhewitt.co.uk/cgi-bin/list.pl?stuff
where the thing gets used more and more.
Only the last one has much underwater and the
visibility was very poor.

Hopefully there will be a 2003-10-04 one next week.

nigelH

peter <a@b.c> wrote:

> HELP!
>
> I am in desperate need of advice. I have an olympus mju300 with pt-016
> housing, and can't decide whether or not to purchase the sea&sea YS-25DX
> strobe kit. How much better would my photos turn out?

They would be better, and the further away the less backscatter you will
see

>I am heading to the
> red sea soon, would this turn out to be a worthwhile purchase, or should i
> stick to the built in flash?

It will be worthwhile.

Though you could find that you go to two flashes in the future, sea an
sea kit is good and it would become a good fill in unit

> My main concern is that i would no longer be
> able to stow the camera inside a bcd pocket, but I am willing to sacrifice
> this if it would make my photos considerably better.

It is only really clear water that I ever use just the internal flash
and there are only a few distances at which it is good

>
> Any advice welcomed....


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