The Final Piece Of The Jigsaw |
Text and photography by David Oldale |
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After assembly of the unit to the camera I noticed that the strobe was closer to the camera lens than I would have liked (the sea-arm being only 30cm in length approx). Although differing sea-arms are available my initial reservations as regards to the length of the arm and possible problems with the dreaded backscatter were completely unfounded. With the strobe aimed correctly and diffuser in place I did not get any backscatter, in point of fact I found that the set up provided far superior results than my Nikonos 5 system with Ikelite strobe on a 1-metre arm! With Sea & Sea’s lens-caddy (essential in my opinion) attached to the sea-arm I found that the 16mm supplementary wide-angle lens could be clamped in-place, out of the way and not dangling down to be battered and scratched when not in use ie., when engaged in macro and close-up photography.
Like the majority of underwater digital cameras the internal built-in flash actuates the external strobe’s (slave) by means of the use of an attached optical cable. This is a vastly superior system than by having the camera’s internal flash hopefully being detected by its reflection in the water by the external strobe’s slave. On many digital cameras the optical cable is affixed to both the camera housing and external strobe’s slave by means of Velcro – which is not really ideal! The DX-1G system differs in that the optical cable has two push fit connectors on the camera housing (very close to the lens of the internal flash) plus another connector atop the housing. The YS-27DX strobe has a similar push-fit connector built into the front of its lens. All very neat and secure and most important – it works. However, even though a diffuser is fitted over the camera’s internal flash (within the housing), light straying from the built in flash through the diffuser does permeate into the water towards the subject to give – backscatter! To stop this happening the internal flash must be masked-off. As the optical cable connections are positioned slightly away from internal flash’s screen on the housing, the masking of that screen is easily accomplished by use of the mask-kit supplied (by far the best method). I accomplished this in just a few minutes by first making a paper pattern of the flash-screen on the housing of the DX-1G. Transferring this to the self-adhesive black Velcro (as supplied in mask-kit) and cutting it out. I then stuck this onto the outside of the camera housing over the flash window. This completely stopped any stray light being emitted by the built-in flash towards the subject. There are two other (less satisfactory) methods by which this can be achieved; firstly by placing a finger over the window to stop the stray light or secondly by placing a piece of black self-adhesive electrical tape over the window. Why anybody would want to use these to options is quite beyond me – when Sea & Sea supply their mask-kit included within the YS-27DX system. Please note however that supplied with the mask-kit are instructions from Sea & Sea on their own method of utilizing the kit – my advice, use my recommended method as above as it provides a neat job and works fine!
There is no though-the-lens flash metering on the DX-1G (for an external strobe) so it means that when using the YS-27DX strobe the camera should be set in the manual-mode. For wide-angle shots in clear water at a depth of 15/30 metres a good starting set-up would be F5.1 (equiv. to F8 on a DSLR or 35mm camera) at around 1/100 sec. With an incredible 9 flash-power settings on the strobe I found it dead easy to obtain the exact illumination for the subject selected, whilst the background would be perfectly balanced (light wise). If not quite right, I would at the flick of the up-down dial be able to change the aperture value and/or by pressing the ADJ. lever – change the shutter speed. In practice I found that by using the camera settings advised above with the flash set to three quarters of full power I was usually not that far out. If I were, then the second shot (after a slight adjustment) would be spot-on. When working in macro my basic camera settings would be F8 (equiv. to F22, DSLR) at 1/200 sec. with the flash set at around the mid-point or less depending on the strobe to subject distance. Having an aperture setting of F8 would give a good depth of field for the subject but blur the background nicely, with a shutter speed of 1/200 sec. freezing the action – should the subject decide to move! Like I mentioned before, these are just start settings – vary them to get the effect you require! I should add that – as the DX-1G is a compact (with a small lens) this is why the above aperture settings differ to what would be used on a DSLR camera! My thanks go to Martin Edge for this important information.
Although I have made the point in a previous article I am not ashamed to make the same point again; with the DX-1G system one can change from 16mm wide-angle to standard lens 24mm wide (good for diver portraits) to close-up to macro and then back again – all underwater and on the same dive! To illustrate this point cast your eye over the pictures contained within this article (okay, you have seen some of them before in the last issue but they have been put in just to illustrate this point). With my previous Nikonos 5 (film) system I could only select one set up before diving and could not alter this unless I was to exit the water, dry the camera and then change lenses, to then dive again by which time the opportunity of a differing shot would be lost – what a pain in the butt! If I was impressed with the camera system before the addition of the YS-27DX strobe, after its integration I was at a loss for words as to the results – to say the least I was very pleased! Over the months of writing this section of the magazine I get sent a number of compact digital cameras to be tried and tested. The majority of those sent to me are obviously not of the same high specification as of the DX-1G as their RRP is usually around £200 (sterling) for a camera including underwater housing. Over the past few years the trend has been that although the price has come down the camera specifications have increased dramatically – great! It has now reached the point where a compact digital camera that can produce a high quality image is within the reach of practically every divers pocket and included on the must have shopping-list for dive equipment! Just 3 years ago it would be a rarity for me to dive with someone else in a group that would be sporting an underwater camera. Nowadays it would not be out of the ordinary for me to go diving where I would be in the company of let us say 3 divers in a group of six that had an underwater camera slipped into the pocket of their BCD – that is how popular underwater photography is becoming and due no doubt to the compact size of the equipment, the price and quality of the images that can be recorded. However it is still a rarity to see someone with an underwater camera that sports an external underwater strobe – which I find is a shame as the quality of the recorded images produced is nothing less than unbelievable when compared to a shot taken when just using the camera’s built in flash as the main light source. All right, so I may have convinced a few of you to purchase an external strobe – but there are strobes and then there are strobes and some of the cheaper strobes are somewhat dire – and next to useless! So pay a bit extra and get something decent and something that can still be used if and when you want to upgrade to a higher spec camera system. In my mind the Sea & Sea YS-27DX is just such a quality external strobe and works brilliantly with other camera systems – to illustrate this point I tried an experiment… I received from CPS Partnership Ltd., a 6MP INTOVA Camera with housing, RRP £150 (sterling) and it was a good piece of kit for the money and it has produced some magazine-quality images! However what it lacked was a good external strobe so I tried the YS-27DX as supplied for my DX-1G – it all fitted perfectly and boy did it work, the results being stunning! So, if you have a different underwater camera to a Sea & Sea model don’t be afraid to ask if yours can be used with the Sea & Sea YS-27DX strobe – contact Sea & Sea on Tel:- 01803 663012 email:- info@sea-sea.com
RRP: YS-27DX Strobe Kit complete…………………….…£299-95p All prices include VAT and are correct as of 26/6/08
SEA & SEA cameras, strobes and accessories can be obtained from all good underwater camera retailers and dive stores. For more information contact: SEA & SEA LTD. Tel: 01803 663012 email: info@sea-sea.com |
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The YS-27DX Strobe Kit comes complete with tray for the DX-1G Camera (which is screw mounted to the tripod socket of the camera housing), sea arm (with two ball-sockets for adjustment of flash angle), optical cable, 4 AA batteries, diffuser, internal strobe mask-kit (more about this later) and the strobe itself (in a very pretty blue). My first job on receipt was to study the paperwork, which is concerned with assembly of the unit to the camera and greasing of the ‘O’ ring etc. My next task was to discard the non-rechargeable batteries in favour of rechargeable Ni-MH units (Uniross 2700mAh or 2500mAh) purchased from Argos with a compact charger for £25 sterling. Sea & Sea advise that a fully charged set of Ni-MH batteries should last for 490 flashes – after taking 224 shots the batteries showed no sign of requiring recharging!
For those that like the twin-strobe set-up (I don’t because it’s too fiddly) there is on the other end of the tray, a socket so that a second sea-arm and strobe can be attached. And, let me also say – there is a shoe on the camera housing for the attachment of yet another strobe (above the lens) – this being ideal for macro work and quickly adjustable! 
What about the strobe itself – with or without the diffuser fitted the angle of light emitted by the strobe more than covers the scene provided by the 16mm supplementary wide-angle lens. Using the diffuser (it clips on and is tethered by a lanyard to the strobe) provides a warmer colour temperature (5200K) as opposed to (without its use) 5500K. The depth rating of the strobe is 60 metres and is powered by 4 AA batteries (recommended 2700mAh Ni-MH rechargeable). To the rear of the strobe is the battery ready red LED indicator and integrated three-position switch – OFF – NO PRE-FLASH MODE – PRE-FLASH MODE; for the DX-1G the switch is to be set to the PRE-FLASH MODE. The second switch on the rear is the flash control dial (9 positions), which sets the intensity of the flash. Access is gained to the sealed (from the strobe’s electronics) battery compartment also from the rear of the strobe by a secure and positive ‘O’ ring protected locking-cap. The sealed compartment ensures that should a leak occur past the ‘O’ ring the strobe’s electrical circuit is protected from the ingress of water, at the expense of just one set of batteries and NO you can’t use them again should a leak occur – due to a risk of explosion!
In my last paragraph I stated that the camera is to be set to manual exposure when using the external strobe however I did find that when in shallowish water and shooting towards the surface I did get great results by going into auto exposure (which stopped down the lens to bring out the surface reflections and detail) whilst the external strobe illuminated the subject just about right! So, it pays to play around and get to know the camera intimately, so everything becomes second nature. 
