santi68 1 Posted March 14, 2019 Hi all, some months ago I bought a couple of new flash Subtronic 270 pro with external batteries in the flash arm. I am using them in manual mode by connecting them with optical fibers to a mirrorless camera Olympus OM-E1 mark 1. In order to synchronize the flash with camera I used the setup procedure indicated by the Company and It worked by adopting the configuration with “1 preflash”. Since two days, one of the flash does not work properly in the sense that when I select the full power or 1/2 power to the flash it fires but there is no possibility to synchronize the flash with the camera. I made all possible tests: redoing the setup, trying with no preflash or 2 preflash configuration but it does NOT work (no synchronization is possible) On the other hand when I select any power since 1/4 to 1/32 of the power it works! the synchronization is fine (in the 1 preflash configuration).Have you any suggestion? any reset that I can try to apply? Did anyone encounter the same problem? Thanks a lot for your feedback and attention cheers Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ChrisRoss 150 Posted March 16, 2019 You are saying you are using them in manual mode but are using a 1 pre-flash mode on the strobe. What are you doing on camera, it seems that if you are using a single preflash mode on the subtronic the camera must also be providing that pre flash and the main flash in order synchronise? It seems like the strobe is flashing twice and does not recycle quickly enough to provide a second flash in quick succession at higher powers but at lower powers it has enough in reserve to provide the second flash - at least from the description provided. The EM-1 can use manual flash which does not have a pre flash. Have you tried setting the camera to manual flash at low power and the subtronic flash to zero pre flash? 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
santi68 1 Posted March 16, 2019 Dear Chris thanks a lot for your help and useful suggestion. Actually I normally used the flash of the camera in the configuration "fill-in" and after I made various tests by changing the setup of the subtonic flash until I did obtain the synchronisation, and it worked by selecting the setup "1-preflash suppression". The situation changed a few days ago. Indeed I never tried your suggestion to put the camera flash in "manual mode" and NO preflash in the subtonic flashes. I'll do it and inform you! Many many thanks for your kind attention take care Santi You are saying you are using them in manual mode but are using a 1 pre-flash mode on the strobe. What are you doing on camera, it seems that if you are using a single preflash mode on the subtronic the camera must also be providing that pre flash and the main flash in order synchronise? It seems like the strobe is flashing twice and does not recycle quickly enough to provide a second flash in quick succession at higher powers but at lower powers it has enough in reserve to provide the second flash - at least from the description provided. The EM-1 can use manual flash which does not have a pre flash. Have you tried setting the camera to manual flash at low power and the subtronic flash to zero pre flash? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
santi68 1 Posted March 25, 2019 You are saying you are using them in manual mode but are using a 1 pre-flash mode on the strobe. What are you doing on camera, it seems that if you are using a single preflash mode on the subtronic the camera must also be providing that pre flash and the main flash in order synchronise? It seems like the strobe is flashing twice and does not recycle quickly enough to provide a second flash in quick succession at higher powers but at lower powers it has enough in reserve to provide the second flash - at least from the description provided. The EM-1 can use manual flash which does not have a pre flash. Have you tried setting the camera to manual flash at low power and the subtronic flash to zero pre flash? Dear Chris I followed your suggestions and everything worked perfectly! both in the synchronisation as well as in a problem previously I had in changing the strobe power while diving. I am very happy about this and I wish to express you all my gratitude. Many many thanks!! cheers Santi 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ChrisRoss 150 Posted March 26, 2019 Very good, pleased you have it working. Sometimes the explanations provided in manuals etc are rather poor. The thing to remember with fibre optics is that the flash has no idea what the camera is set to and the camera no idea about the flash. The external flash just mimics everything the camera on board flash does. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
