Can I use an external strobe on my housing?

Every housing can be equiped wit a strobe, by means of a threaded tri-pod mount at the base of the housing. But using the strobe does require visibility of the camera's internal flash in case of a slave strobe or the presence of a shoe on the housing for attachting a sync cable.

What are slave strobes?

These are strobes that have a light sensitive sensor and are triggered by looking for the flash from the camera. The delay time is minimal, and not detectable by humans.

What is a sync cable?

A sync cable is used to connect a strobe to the housing, the housing then has an internal connection to the camera.

What is an optic cable?

This is a fiber optic cable, that guides the light from the camera's flash to the slave sensor of the external strobe. This ensure correct triggering, even in difficult lighting conditions.

What is a pre-flash?

Most digital cameras have an additonal flash for determining the right exposure. An external slave strobe must therefore be capable of handling this for correct exposure.

What is TTL?

TTL stands for "Through The Lens". The light entering the lens is measured by the camera and the strobe is switch of when the proper amount is reached.

What is DS-TTL?

This is Digital Slave TTL. The external strobe is switched of at the same time the camera's flash stops.

How powerful should a strobe be?

The strength of a strobe is not that important as you usually only use it nearby. The range, while maintaining all colors, of a small strobe is 90cm, and 96cm for a big strobe. Greater distances will cause a drop in colortemperature. Under water the strength of the light will be halved.

Should I use a long or short arm?

In waters with lots of floating particles, a longer arm is recommended. Placing the strobe farther away from the camera will reduce the light bouncing of it and causing "backscatter". In clear waters a short arm should suffice.

What is a diffuser?

A diffuser is used on a strobe to widen the angle of coverage, but also reduces the amount of light. It will also reduce the backscatter effect in murky waters.

What is white balance?

Using the white balance setting on the camera it can correct the ambient light to obtain the right colors.

What is manual white balance?

You can manually set the white balance by using a white object such as a writing pad. The camera can then interprect the right color temperature and correct all colors. When diving below 10 meters, this method will not get all colors back and a strobe of red fliters is required.

What is a red filter?

A red filter will correct the blueish tones, and thus give better colored and contrasted results.

What is macro?

Macro is the photography of small subject, by means of a special macro lens.

Is the macro of my camera sufficient?

Using the camera's macro setting allows you to shoot at close up, sometimes at 1 cm distance. This has a drawback because usually you can not approach fishes and other animals that close.

What is a close-up lens?

Using such a lens the subject will be enlarged on the photo. As moste close-up lenses are used in tele-mode, you can also take pictures from a greater distance.

What is a wide-angle converte lens?

This lens will yield an almost 2x bigger angle of view, allowing you to get closer to subject while still being able to shoot the surroundings at the same time. Getting closer also helps in getting better results from external strobes.