Strobe problem/question

[Joby]

Hi,

 

wondering if all of you U/W photo experts can help me out. We're going to use the camera/strobe on a January 5 cruise.

 

We're divers. I am NO photo pro. We just like to take some pictures of fish swimming away, turtles-- heads only, nothing but blue water, etc. --the usual unskilled photos that photo dummies take :)

 

We have a used Sealife U/W flash that we use with our Canon Powershot S1 IS which has a housing. Many times while underwater, the strobe does not go off (making the pictures blah gray/blue).

 

When we try the strobe on dry land, it goes off just fine. We even treid it on the camera in a black bathroom and it took a fine picture of the bathtub and towels :) We took it to the pool last night for the SCUBA class to try it in the pool--worked fine.

 

Why does it not go off MOST of the time underwater regardless of the depth while we are diving?

[BurBunny]

Sounds like an intermittent connection issue - may have to do with pressure at depth pushing on one of the connections and causing it not to work.

 

Not a Sealife user, so can't help you with specifics, but you might want to try the strobe board in the Underwater Photography section at http://www.scubaboard.com.

[Joby]

Thanks BurBunny, I'll do that :)

[divadiverfl]

We just came back from Grand Cayman for a week at Sunset house. I have a Sealife digital with strobe and I had really not played with the camera a lot in the past. But after our dives one afternoon sitting around on shore MH played with the strobe because we were having the same problem. It is in the setting with the camera. We set the camera to the strobe and it worked great. The only problem I see is you to dont have a sealife camera but a canon. I really think they would all work the same. Try the settings on the camera. Good Luck:D

[Joby]

divadiverfl, what did you set your camera on? While underwater, we usually have ours set to auto.

[BurBunny]

Very few cameras can do a truly good job underwater in Auto mode. I'd suggest either shutter priority or aperture priority (if your camera has those modes and if you're not wanting to do full manual). Your Auto mode may not be forcing the strobe. With Av or Tv, you should be able to set the flash to always fire.