Abbydog - 13 March 2010 06:34 PM
Hi,
I am seriously considering buying an Olympus E520 and the Olympus PT-E05 housing.
Can anyone please tell me about the pros and cons of using the Olympus UFL-2 strobes instead of say, Ikelite strobes? I am wary of the fact that they require AA batteries instead of being rechargeable. I don’t know anything about their performance or lifespan.
Can anyone tell me whether it is best to have the Olympus strobes on arms, or attached to the top of the housing? Finally, is fiber-optic the way to go these days? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
My previous experience has been with an Olympus C8080 in an Ikelite housing with an Ikelite DS125 strobe.
thanks, Abby
I just set up my first DSLR system based on the E-620, and use the UFL-2 strobes. Since my only other experience has been with a Sealife DC500, I really can’t offer an opinion based upon a comparison with other strobes, but I can relate what I have experienced on my first real outing with my new rig.
First off, the use of AA batteries was of no issue. I was able to easily get 3 dives in before changing, and even then I only did so as a precaution, the batteries were still good. You can always use rechargeable AA’s. I consider this an advantage to a propitiatory rechargeable solution. Consider what happens if you loose your charger? What if you have no access to electricity? The ability to use standard AA’s that you can pick up in any drug store could save a dive trip.
You defiantly want to get a good set of strobe arms to attach your strobes. When you place a strobe right on top of the camera, you will have back-scatter problems in anything but a macro shot. You need to be able to move the strobes away from the camera. I use Ultralight arms and have found them to be easy to adjust underwater.
The use of fiber optic with the new UFL-2’s is a huge advantage. You can set them and the camera up to work in TTL or go completely manual, with the advantage of controlling the strobes from the camera body. You can even control each strobe separately, from the camera.
Without a doubt, the fiber-optic connection is the way to go. They are more secure and reliable. They are not subject to flooding and corrosion as are the electric cables.
The manual is not written very well, but essentially all you need to do is set the camera to RC flash mode, and then set the strobe to the rc group you set on the camera.
The strobes are a bit complex and the menu window is small and poorly lit, but since you can set up to control the strobes from the camera you don’t need to change the settings on the strobe while underwater so this is not such a big issue.
Using strobes that are designed to communicate with the camera makes them very reliable and consistent. They also have the ability to “zoom”, based upon the zoom of the lens. You set them to either 4/3 or 35mm and let the camera control them, or you can set the zoom manually.
The attached shot was taken in Hawaii with the E-620, PT-e06 housing, PPO-e05 port, the 14-42mm kit lens AND 2 ufl-2 strobes set up for ttl with fiber-optic cables.
