To TTL or not to TTL
- Thread starter Gildow
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Eric, cld you share your experience using TTL for both macro and wide angle shots?kthan said:
If not too OT, perhaps Waisj can post some information on the TTL IR connector that can work with the oly 5050 and the oly housing. This cld be of some interest here especially since many regulars here use the 5050 setup. Tks.
yah yah yah....Please....
Purpose of the poll is that hopefully we could get some views and first hand experience from people who :-
1. Used TTL from begining
2. Used Manual and switch to TTL
3. Have used TTL
4. Die Die also wants to use TTL
5. People who could use TTL but Opt for non-TTL (I think that will be me :bsmilie: )
Purpose of the poll is that hopefully we could get some views and first hand experience from people who :-
1. Used TTL from begining
2. Used Manual and switch to TTL
3. Have used TTL
4. Die Die also wants to use TTL
5. People who could use TTL but Opt for non-TTL (I think that will be me :bsmilie: )
I concur with what eric has said.
TTL works best only in macro, in wides there is a tendancy to over-expose; the main reason is because blue water tends to absorb strobe power, not knowing this, the main flash will dump more power to get the "correct" exposure, thus causing the nearby subjects, especially the whites to be over-exposed.
I have used TTL in my previous system and would conclude that nikonos-ttl tends not to work in wide angles, in fact it is better to be using manual flash. Though so it works flawlessly in macro. Giving perfect exposure time after time. Only to fail when the subject that you are metering is reflective or white/or the background. In such cases i will always tell myself to underexpose by more than a stop.
Though so, with my short stint with the olympus-IKE TTL circuitry, i found that for macro it works flawlessly as per the situation described above. A surprise i got was the wides performed better than legacy single flash nikonos-ttl . Better but not good enough, as you could see in my previous thread on photo-sharing 7 skies trip, the whites were over-exposed. There were no details what-so-ever on the white portion of the frame. i also find that TTL on wides are a tad bit too hot, by at least a stop.
It is a shame that i do not have time to play around with my system. Since the strobe died and a replacement is on the way from the states. I would wish to perform more test to have a conslusive answer to the Oly-IKE TTL System.
Having said all these, i still find manual flash to be more accurate. like what Zedd like to say, since the "force" is strong with him, he might be able to get a good exposure with a couple of tries. I for one have tried the manual controller and found that as long as you shoot with a certain distance with a constant aperture, it will be quite easy to "guess" the correct exposure albiet a couple/or a couple more tries.
None the less the temptation of TTL is just to strong for me.... yes i have crossed to a little dark side... :devil:
Do note that with the ike system there are hidden costs incurred .. sync cords... which is extremely expensive.
Have a look at this website. The digital Adapter. For OLY Housings and Oly cams... TTLhttp://www.muenster.de/~matthias/blitz/oly2nikone.htm
TTL works best only in macro, in wides there is a tendancy to over-expose; the main reason is because blue water tends to absorb strobe power, not knowing this, the main flash will dump more power to get the "correct" exposure, thus causing the nearby subjects, especially the whites to be over-exposed.
I have used TTL in my previous system and would conclude that nikonos-ttl tends not to work in wide angles, in fact it is better to be using manual flash. Though so it works flawlessly in macro. Giving perfect exposure time after time. Only to fail when the subject that you are metering is reflective or white/or the background. In such cases i will always tell myself to underexpose by more than a stop.
Though so, with my short stint with the olympus-IKE TTL circuitry, i found that for macro it works flawlessly as per the situation described above. A surprise i got was the wides performed better than legacy single flash nikonos-ttl . Better but not good enough, as you could see in my previous thread on photo-sharing 7 skies trip, the whites were over-exposed. There were no details what-so-ever on the white portion of the frame. i also find that TTL on wides are a tad bit too hot, by at least a stop.
It is a shame that i do not have time to play around with my system. Since the strobe died and a replacement is on the way from the states. I would wish to perform more test to have a conslusive answer to the Oly-IKE TTL System.
Having said all these, i still find manual flash to be more accurate. like what Zedd like to say, since the "force" is strong with him, he might be able to get a good exposure with a couple of tries. I for one have tried the manual controller and found that as long as you shoot with a certain distance with a constant aperture, it will be quite easy to "guess" the correct exposure albiet a couple/or a couple more tries.
None the less the temptation of TTL is just to strong for me.... yes i have crossed to a little dark side... :devil:
Do note that with the ike system there are hidden costs incurred .. sync cords... which is extremely expensive.
Have a look at this website. The digital Adapter. For OLY Housings and Oly cams... TTLhttp://www.muenster.de/~matthias/blitz/oly2nikone.htm
waisj has given the explanation why TTL will not work as well under wide angle.
the reason why i like TTL for macro is because i get correct exposure 99.9% of the time. one less worry and i can just concentrate on shooting the subject
the reason why i like TTL for macro is because i get correct exposure 99.9% of the time. one less worry and i can just concentrate on shooting the subject
kthan said:
Very detailed explanation by waisj. helps to cement better the knowledge.
Kthan, do u get correct exposure even for white subjects or for subjects on white sandy floor? or that accounts for the 0.1%?
I had a terrible experience with TTL this recent trip (cuz KS use 2 strobe on macro) tho but i have not much doubt it works usually. cuz otherwise i wouldn't know how to take. Not experienced enough.
Kthan, u will use only 1 strobe (TTL) for macro is that true? And 2 strobes for wides (manual)? If so, how to calculate distance and f-stop based on 2 strobe usage cuz the guides provided are only for 1 strobe.
am i confusing?
i see someone is tempted to go towards 5050... no more canon for u???
as i mentioned, unless i can syn cord both strobes, i believe I cannot get real TTL with one strobe syned and one on slave. (but I may be wrong!) Going on this train of thought, I reckon my dual strobe setup will result in overexposure. Hence I always use one strobe for macro.DTan said:Very detailed explanation by waisj. helps to cement better the knowledge.
Kthan, do u get correct exposure even for white subjects or for subjects on white sandy floor? or that accounts for the 0.1%?
I had a terrible experience with TTL this recent trip (cuz KS use 2 strobe on macro) tho but i have not much doubt it works usually. cuz otherwise i wouldn't know how to take. Not experienced enough.
Kthan, u will use only 1 strobe (TTL) for macro is that true? And 2 strobes for wides (manual)? If so, how to calculate distance and f-stop based on 2 strobe usage cuz the guides provided are only for 1 strobe.
am i confusing?
i see someone is tempted to go towards 5050... no more canon for u???
besides, i wanna setup my strobe as near to subject as possible for macro and TTL. With one strobe, i can detach and handheld it with the S&S setup. with 2 strobes and w/o ULCS arms, i cannot do that. and this is the main reason. so thank god i stick to my one strobe setup for macro.
i aim the strobe to hit the top of the subject if on sandy bottom, eliminating a direct hit on the white sand. I seldom use diffuser, although i think i should. REmember i always use film, which has a greater latitude for error. Photos always turned out well, although I cannot tell if it is due to adjustment done by the processing lab. u can check the behind of the prints for that, but i didn't know then and I never went back to those photos since i switched to digital.
As I mentioned to u on the LOB, for CFWA, i TTL the subject and use my own set of combi (f-stop + 1/100 speed) to "meter" the blue. it works sometimes, that's why i said TTL is not for use on WA becos it is not 99.9% :bsmilie: .
Subject could be properly exposed but the blue is a guesstimate. But i do like what I see with the dual as compared to single strobe for WA. Bought the DX90 after flooding my DS-50 for a bali trip and frankly i use the dual setup only once on my S&S. Again , don't forget the part about me using film and the lab adjustment. U will definitely learn more using slides, but my argument is that since the developing is not onsite, you won't know your mistakes till u have finished your dive vacation, and it will prob be a few months before u get to shoot u/w again. i would rather get a higher % of keepers by using film becos of the exposure lattitude it accords.....
the second use was a disaster becos I use a ISO 400 and my camera only accepts ISO 100.
For full manual use of the strobes:
Guide Number / Subject distance = f-stop (with ISO 100)
GN can be in feet or m. do a search on yahoo and you will find something useful.
Eric
DTan said:nice writing.. thanks for drumming it in. but think i'm still sticking to slides.
no one tempts me anymore thanks
wanna try C-5050 and TTL strobe? come Lembeh with us
Correct me if I'm wrong...
I've been using 5050 on land shots for a since 2002...the TTL problem that you guys mention to me seems abit strange coz I have always managed to get good TTL on land...this might be a problem for Underwater since light does not travel that well.....I guess I would have to find a way to find out myself....
Waisj mentioned that on the ikelite setup, the WA shots kind of burnt out on some area...but I think I read somewhere that we are supposed to reduce a few "EV" if we are doing a certain type of shooting...(god...I hope you guys understand what I'm trying to say)
Anyway, instead of worrying over exposing the shots, why not practise bracketing instead....since you dun have to pay for digital shots!
I guess there's not much option in the market now that offeres True TTL in prosumer digital TTL at the moment. Maybe we should stick to manual Strobe and sub-conciously move ourself to the dark side........DSLR!
I've been using 5050 on land shots for a since 2002...the TTL problem that you guys mention to me seems abit strange coz I have always managed to get good TTL on land...this might be a problem for Underwater since light does not travel that well.....I guess I would have to find a way to find out myself....
Waisj mentioned that on the ikelite setup, the WA shots kind of burnt out on some area...but I think I read somewhere that we are supposed to reduce a few "EV" if we are doing a certain type of shooting...(god...I hope you guys understand what I'm trying to say
)Anyway, instead of worrying over exposing the shots, why not practise bracketing instead....since you dun have to pay for digital shots!
I guess there's not much option in the market now that offeres True TTL in prosumer digital TTL at the moment. Maybe we should stick to manual Strobe and sub-conciously move ourself to the dark side........DSLR!
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