Strobe Settings vs. Compact camera settings (Av, Tv, M)

[dlearyous]

Hey!

I took a good look through the past few pages of posts and wasnt able to find an answer to my question so if it's already been discussed if someone could just point me in the right dirrection it would be greatly appreciated.

My Question- What settings should I be using my strobe on when using a compact camera? I've also read that if your using the camera in manual mode that you need to have the magnet in the strobe. I've unfortunately lost that magnet somewhere in malaysian borneo and dont think i'll be getting it back. How important is it?

I'm on my 3rd canon compact camera and until I have the money to upgrade to a dSLR I dont think I'd go any other way. At the moment I have a Canon S95 and shoot with a Inon S2000 strobe. Most of the photography I do is macro but I do also ocasionally play around with some wide angle. I've been using the strobe manually with a fiberoptic cable and a blacked out difuser in front of the camera's internal flash. I find that this gives very good results but I'm curious if I could be doing more with the strobe? I generally just turn it up and down to get the light that i need for the shot, is there more i could be doing?

Thanks everyone!

[scottg]

the magnet will be set differently depending on whether you want to use "TTL" in Av / Tv mode, or you are shooting in M mode.

You can use the strobe in TTL mode in Av / Tv mode so you don't have to set the strobe power manually, but it sounds like you are doing fine as is.

Are you using a macro lens? The dyron +7 macro lens gives some great results with that camera.

Scott

[dlearyous]

I was under the impression that TTL only worked when you have a direct connection from the camera to strobe? At the moment I just use a fiber optic cable attached to a bit of velcro on the front of the housing.

If I wanted to start using TTL mode would I need to get a magnet for the strobe?

I dont actually use a macro lens but i've been looking into both a macro and maybe even a wide angle. Thanks for the tip.

[scottg]

hi Devin

The Inon and Sea & Sea strobes can do TTL when using a fiber-optic cable. The magnet is not needed to use the strobe's sTTL mode.

Scott

[dlearyous]

That sounds great! I'm definitely going to try that this weekend.

One final question... We har had a ys-30 strobe laying around the shop for ages and I think I could probably get it from my boss for little to nothing. Is it something I could use together with my setup? Would I then just have two cables running to the camera?

Thanks again.