Camera in the water - flash on land.??? Which housing is best
Posted: 10 July 2008 02:28 PM  [Ignore]
Flotsam (Treibgut)
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I bet that’s got you guessing.
I want to shoot in a swimming pool and would love to have a sync lead run out of the water to a studio flash by hte side of the pool so I can light my subject from above. I know it can be done but I’m not sure what housings will support this. I am due to upgrade my DSLR (just waiting for canon to release their 5D replacement) and dont own a housing as yet so any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thankyou or any response.


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Posted: 11 July 2008 03:33 AM  [Ignore]  [ # 1]
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Napoleon Wrasse
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Auckland, New Zealand

Unless you are shooting an ‘over/under’ and the studio flash so to illuminate the over water part, I would have thought that most of the studio flash’s light would bounce back off the surface of the water and not get through to your subject under the water, thus defeating the purpose of the light.  In that case, I would have thought that you would be better of using an underwater strobe.

Ikelite do a 15 foot sync cable extension that you could use to get a strobe positioned at a distance from the camera.  Perhaps you could combine more than one to get even greater distance, however, if you get more than a few metres away from your subject, the absorbtion of light by the water will be so much that you may as well not have had the strobe there in the first place.  Also, I’m not sure how far the cables are capable of carrying the signal before the strobe stops responding reliably.


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Graham
http://www.fishonfilm.co.nz

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Posted: 22 August 2008 08:35 PM  [Ignore]  [ # 2]
Flotsam (Treibgut)
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Belgium

hi there? You are right it can be done. You just need a sync cord that would transmit the trigger and ground contact to the studio flasch.This is technicaly no problem you just need to be a little handy with a soldering bolt to connect the studio flasch plug to your underwater extension cable.
An other way is to use the slave function on your studio flasch to react on the strobe you use on the underwater housing. All this is much easyer than taking good pics wink


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