Cathy

Thank you Paula!

No, that seems to be resolved. I used it in aperture priority mode during this trip but have used it quite a bit on land in manual mode and had no problem with the screen blacking out.

Focus, incidentally, worked without focus light, even inside wrecks and caves in complete darkness.

Thomas

The question about the screen going dark applies only when you are setting the manual mode for a dark background while you are using the strobe for the light source. If you set your camera to be several stops underexposed, does the screen also turn dark?

A good photo can be documentary or artistic. To be artistic, you need to make it clear to the viewer what he should be looking at or feeling. In many images, you want to identify your main point of interest. The five characteristics that draw our eyes to the main point of interest are the 1) brightest, 2) most colorful, 3) sharp, 4) contrasty area, and if the subject has eyes, then the 5) eyes will draw your attention to the point of interest. When all or most of these five characteristics occur together, it makes the main point quite obvious, but when are scattered, then there is confusion and we say that the photo is not very good. For example, if the brightest area is a blurry foreground, and the most colorful area is something along the side, and the eyes are actually the main point of interest but are not exposed properly, then there is confusion. Using these five characteristics to asses the main point of interest helps when critiqueing a photo. Try one, and we can compare ideas.

How about the one of the diver and the manatee? It is a great documentary of a wonderful event. But how would you make that also an artistic photo? What is the brightest area--the cheeks. Wouldn't it have been nice if the mask were more open and we could see the diver's eyes. Also, the manatee happens to have a very dark eye or maybe a shadow over the eye. Your eye wanders from the bright face area and then sort of around the back of the manatee's head. Feel your eyes move as you look at the photo. If the diver were not wearing a black hood and the entire head were lighter, then the bright cheeks would not be such a contrast. Then the implied eye contact may over power the conflict of rightness and contrast.

Just my opinion, of course.
Cathy Church