CeeDave

Hey Guys,

I had a great trip to  Indonesia, but had a leak that made it so that I couldn't use the strobes. So these shots were taken with just a focus light (Fisheye halogen) and a D70. I will, if I can get some shots together, post some available light shots later. Here, a couple shots taken with just the focus light at large apertures ...
Juvenile crocodile fish

Swarm of stinging catfish


...both shots on night dives with a AF (no focus knob) 60mm f2.8. Queries and comments most welcome.

Chris

All,

I have searched this site, googled and clicked away, and still can't find a good discussion of the factors to consider in choosing optical versus electrical strobe connections. I care about this because, first, I am considering moving to Inons (for weight, compactness, and AA); and, second, because I had a minor leak in a sync bulkhead (Subal/Nikonos) and it got my attention (hooray for leak detectors -- no damage after a thorough cleaning and drying!). I'd be especially interested in discussion for Subal/Nikon, as that's my setup: I have seen the external Inon converter -- what are its advantages over electric sync? Any chance of more streamlined, leak-resistant converters for Subal (e.g., something that fits on the hot shoe or in the housing)? I prefer not to Do It Myself -- I'm a modeler, not an experimentalist!

Plus, I hate those fiddly Nikonos plugs...

My thanks for any links or discussion here.

Regards!

Hello,

I've used Ike strobes for many years, and I'm quite satisfied with the performance and reliability of my DS-125s. However, they are kinda big and heavy, especially when I am traveling with land as well as uw camera gear. Before I melt the credit card down, though, I have a few questions:

1. Is anyone having good luck with a Nikon-Subal-Inon setup?
2. Should 2 Z240's (or D-2000's?) cover a 10.5FE well?
3. Am I crazy to consider switching brands?
4. Is Inon service pretty good?
5. Anyone used these with the HW inline or in-housing converter, or the S&S?

Thanks for any help or comments.

Cheers,
Chris

All,

I love these animals, and am struggling to get a good photo. I think I've captured a bit of their surprising intelligence here, but would be interested in comments on technique and post processing. Cropping? Saturation? Funky black water?

Thanks.

Cheers,
Chris
PS, larger image here.

All,

I'd be interested to know how other approach this. My shot count per dive have ranged from 0 (bad viz in a boring place) to 200 (the f*ing crazy whitetips in Cocos on a night dive -- kudos to the charge capacity of the Ike DS125).

For me, there are five levels of culling.

• As I go in the water and get to the bottom, I test fire a few shots to make sure my imitial assumptions (something like f8 and 1/250 and 1/2 power on the stobes with diffuser with a base ISO of 200) aren't too bad. I trash all of these shots, as I go.
• As I find the range, I tune the exposure -- mainly flash power and shutter speed. I blow away obvious trash as I go, if I have time.
• Immersed in a shot (say, of a goby on a coral head), I chimp and try to get the shot right. The action is too fast to bother with deleting photos. I just adjust and keep the misexposed shots.
• When I surface and review, then a good number of the shots are clearly inferior to others -- just based on different histograms of similar subjects. I blow the crap away.
• Each day, get rid rid of the obvious junk before backing up to laptop or more compact (in my case, Wolverine) device.

What this means for me: I keep only about half my shutter actuations, and I only bother to PP about 1/10. On a recent trip to the Bay Islands, I posted about 40 shots out of 1000 (1 in 25) -- and was thrilled about my productivity. And think of all the chemicals that were not used, for digital vs film!

My 2 cents,
Chris