E-TTL solutions

1. General description
2. Olympus
3. Canon
4. Sony, Samsung

Also a large number of analogue phoographers switching to digital still own amphibic strobes - usually an investment that nobody likes to throw away. In the past many of them ended up shooting in manual mode. Lately manufacturers as Aquatica put much effort into integrating electronic support for (canon) E-ttl into their new underwater housings.

inon introduced a digital strobe converter during last year's DemA show which should be able to convert Nikonos signals into fibre-optic ttl. We have not heard of anyone using it in the field so far and some rumours about patent issues have surfaced on the net during the last month. No matter how interesting this solution might sound it would not help the owners of Nikonos, subtronic, Hartenberger or some (non-fibre-optic) Sea&Sea strobes.

Another widely ignored problem are the ttl protocols of olyMPUS and SONY. You will have a hard time in finding support from any strobe manufacturer. This also includes smaller, less prestigious models from canon and Minolta. Contrary to the previously mentioned brands, Nikon had a unique selling point to digital underwater photographers for a long time. Even smaller models as the Nikon Coolpix 990 supported the good old Nikonos ttl. However this was disrupted with the introduction of the D100 which only supported the new D-ttl. Nikon shooters resorted to the Fuji S2 Pro to find the Nikonos ttl support they were looking for or started to shoot in manual mode.

Summing up all the above reveals that squeezing ttl functionality out of your digital underwater rig is not a trivial task. However everybody wants it. Also Matthias Heinrichs from Münster, Germany wanted ttl on his olympus underwater camera. What makes Matthias Heinrichs different from other divers is that he is studying electro-technics. Therefore it was easy for Matthias to develop a solution to overcome this compatibility problem. He decided to convert the optical signals of any camera with an internal flash into electronic language.

His idea was much like the inon approach which uses fibre-optics to regulate strobes. But Mathias solution goes one step beyond and directly converts the signal into existing ttl protocols compatible with a huge number of traditional amphibic strobes. The signal is made available through a standard Nikonos socket. So the good news for many underwater photographers which are in the transition to digital is that they can re-utilize their existing strobe setup by buying a simple and price-worthy adapter.

But beware: the limiting factor is that your digital camera offers an internal flash and that your housing allows enough space to have it pop-up. The first limitation is rare and only has to be taken into account with high digital SLRs such as the EOS 1Ds. The second problem however might occur quite often as many manufacturers focus on developing lightweight and tight housings. Therefore it is obvious that the solution seems perfect for polycarbonate housings where the strobe signals can be intercepted behind the translucent material.

This results in a solution that can get wet and is simply strapped in front of your housing. We have taken some sample photos of Matthias Webpage and his friend Michael Finger who has specialized in mounting the adapter on various polycarbonate housings.