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Philippines, Southern Visayas route with the Philippine Siren

Started Oct 13, 2019 | Discussions
OP Barmaglot_07 Contributing Member • Posts: 633
Re: Philippines, Southern Visayas route with the Philippine Siren

daveco2 wrote:

Are the LEDs on the converter attached to the board or are they off the board on wires? How do you align them with the two ports?

The LEDs are on a separate board that replaces the flash reflector.

I’ve also read about in-camera control of strobes (for example, Manual and TTL switching). Is that type of control available with your unit?

I haven't found a way to manually control output from the camera, but to be honest I haven't looked too hard so far, and Pavel hasn't written the user manual yet. Connecting the converter enables the 'wireless flash' option in FN -> flash menu, but I haven't seen additional options.

For what reasons have you chosen to use the UwT converter rather than the camera flash for TTL?

  • Access to full range of strobe power on my ST-100s (currently limited by on-camera flash)
  • More accurate TTL exposure
  • Burst capability on low power
  • HSS capability with Retra strobes (after they ship and Pavel develops the appropriate firmware; that will take a while)
  • Battery life savings - triggering by pop-up flash, I can do 3 dives with 10-18mm or 2 dives with 90mm; hopefully the converter will improve that as I don't like opening the housing to swap batteries while on a day boat. On liveaboards I generally change the battery after each dive, but on something like a small bangka it isn't really an option.
 Barmaglot_07's gear list:Barmaglot_07's gear list
Sony a6300 Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM Sony E 30mm F3.5 Macro Sony E 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 OSS LE Sony E 10-18mm F4 OSS +5 more
daveco2
daveco2 Contributing Member • Posts: 953
Re: Philippines, Southern Visayas route with the Philippine Siren

Barmaglot_07 wrote:

daveco2 wrote:

Are the LEDs on the converter attached to the board or are they off the board on wires? How do you align them with the two ports?

The LEDs are on a separate board that replaces the flash reflector.

I’ve also read about in-camera control of strobes (for example, Manual and TTL switching). Is that type of control available with your unit?

I haven't found a way to manually control output from the camera, but to be honest I haven't looked too hard so far, and Pavel hasn't written the user manual yet. Connecting the converter enables the 'wireless flash' option in FN -> flash menu, but I haven't seen additional options.

For what reasons have you chosen to use the UwT converter rather than the camera flash for TTL?

  • Access to full range of strobe power on my ST-100s (currently limited by on-camera flash)
  • More accurate TTL exposure
  • Burst capability on low power
  • HSS capability with Retra strobes (after they ship and Pavel develops the appropriate firmware; that will take a while)
  • Battery life savings - triggering by pop-up flash, I can do 3 dives with 10-18mm or 2 dives with 90mm; hopefully the converter will improve that as I don't like opening the housing to swap batteries while on a day boat. On liveaboards I generally change the battery after each dive, but on something like a small bangka it isn't really an option.

A few more questions, if you don't mind.

Have you been able to verify increased strobe power with the UwT?

What was your camera flash setting?

Thanks.

 daveco2's gear list:daveco2's gear list
Sony RX100 Sony a7R II Sony a7R III
OP Barmaglot_07 Contributing Member • Posts: 633
Re: Philippines, Southern Visayas route with the Philippine Siren

daveco2 wrote:

A few more questions, if you don't mind.

Have you been able to verify increased strobe power with the UwT?

I only did a two dives with the converter this past Saturday - was going to go for a third, but got cold in 24C water and 3mm wetsuit. First dive was with 16-50mm and 8" dome, the second with 90mm and macro port. I wasn't able to do a proper 'max power' comparison, but shooting corals at at various depths between 5 and 20 meters the exposure seems spot on.

What was your camera flash setting?

I was shooting manual mode (camera, not flash), AF-C, f/13, 1/160s, auto ISO 100-800, rear curtain sync flash, 0 flash compensation, 0 EV compensation, center metering.

A few samples - nothing specifically artistic about them, I was just verifying that they get exposed properly:

As I understand it, the auto-ISO setting balances the background exposure, while flash TTL balances the foreground. In lower light conditions, I can drop the shutter speed for brighter background.

For macro, I lock the ISO to 100, enable focus peaking (yellow/low) and switch focus mode to DMF. I briefly played with burst shooting (medium drive speed) and it appears to work, if only for short bursts before the strobe capacitors run out, but I haven't seriously explored it so far.

 Barmaglot_07's gear list:Barmaglot_07's gear list
Sony a6300 Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM Sony E 30mm F3.5 Macro Sony E 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 OSS LE Sony E 10-18mm F4 OSS +5 more
daveco2
daveco2 Contributing Member • Posts: 953
Re: Philippines, Southern Visayas route with the Philippine Siren

Thanks for the excellent information, as always.

I'm awaiting notice from UwT that their a7rii converter is ready to ship.  It's been a while.  In the meantime, on my last trip, I used a homemade (by Bev from the Wetpixel site) optical trigger that worked fine on all my Z-330 settings.  I was able to find a range of Manual strobe settings that would give good exposure; but in the end, I would rather have the UwT unit for macro and for WA use in the manner you mention.

 daveco2's gear list:daveco2's gear list
Sony RX100 Sony a7R II Sony a7R III
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