Hey guys, how are you this fine Wednesday? Did you realize that this September, this little ol’ blog will have been here for 4 years? Holy cow! We’ve covered a lot of topics too. In fact, to date (including this one) we’re at 358 blog posts. Holy cow!
I bring this up because there was one series of blog posts we did that I think we all had a lot of fun reading, or at least I did. I sure hope you did! That was the “getting to know the diver” posts. The year we did this, the goal was set at 52 blog posts that year featuring 52 divers. There were some weeks I wasn’t sure we were going to make it.
Again, I bring all this up because we’re bringing this line of posts back. Now, there won’t be a huge push to get 52 in a year or anything, they’ll be sporadic. We’re all a family here and it’s always fun, in my opinion anyway, to learn about our family. So I hope you enjoy this, and now I’m looking for new people to interview. And new in a sense that I didn’t include them in the 52 weeks. I would like new divers as well as seasoned divers to interview! I have my first one lined up, who wants to be number 2?
Now that we have our house keeping taken care of… Let’s look at today’s Product feature:
Sea Dragon Strobe.
In our Open Water Classes we learned that you lose color the further down underwater you go away from the sun and you lose those colors in the form of ROY G BIV (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet). So if you aren’t careful, you can be down 100 feet easily in the ocean, see something gorgeous, take a photo, and be disappointed with that photo because it comes out a grayish blue color. Bummer.
How do you avoid that? With the help of artificial light. Not only do they make underwater cameras, but there are also underwater flashes that attach to the camera body housing and you’re in luck, today we’re going to learn about one of those.
The particular one we’re going to focus on today is the
Sea Dragon Digital Universal Flash.
This universal flash is a powerful piece of equipment that every photographer needs. The point of this flash is to add light and color to your images as far down as 200 feet/60 meters, which is deeper than the limit of recreational diving. This particular model adds vibrant rich, deep colors to pictures and is compatible with not only the SeaLife Camera but also many other cameras including but not limited to Olympus, Canon, Sony, Nikon, and other brands of underwater cameras that have a built-in flash feature.
This flash comes with variable settings to help adjust and fine tune the brightness of each photo so you achieve that perfect shot. There is an Auto Mode and then numbers 1-10. While leaving the flash on Auto Mode, the camera and flash decide automatically how much light to add to each photo based on surroundings. There is a quick-release button that detaches the flash head for obtaining those hard to reach places, but keep reading because I have more on this issue in a minute. Finally, the flash comes with a diffuser to prevent too much light and help evenly distribute the light that is pushed out by the flash to help prevent hotspots or backscatter.
Two new words maybe we should define.
- Hotspot: A hot spot basically is a portion of the photo that is blown out and really white because it receives the most amount of light. In photography, you typically learn to avoid using camera flash to avoid those hotspots and to use either natural light (not an option underwater) or off camera flash, such as this.
- Backscatter: There are always particles of matter floating in bodies of water. Sand, debris, fish poop, etc. The diffuser is placed on the flash to help minimize the amount of those particles that you catch in your photos.
IN THE BOX:
Sea Dragon Universal Flash head with Flash Diffuser
Flex-Connect Single Tray w/ standard ¼-20 mounting screw
Flex-Connect grip
Optical Cable and Universal Flash Link Adapter
Optical Cable Plug (For Olympus, Sea&Sea and other housings using a 7mm optical cable flash port)
Spare O-rings, O-ring lubricant, O-ring removal tool
Instruction manual
Sea Dragon Case
Flex Arm
Earlier I mentioned to keep reading, well as Paul Harvey would say, “Now, the rest of the story.”
This camera flash is a nice addition to your underwater photography, but it has a small limitation. The flash arm seems a little short. That’s why they promote that it has a quick release head to help with those hard to reach places. But, I have the fix for that as well, or I guess technically they do, but I’m sharing with you their solution.
They have an added piece you can get called a Flex arm. The flex arm allows for creative lighting, easy aiming, and reduced backscatter by positioning the flash in the optimal position to achieve the lighting needed for each photo. Each arm now has a 100˚ bending motion and adds 7” of length.
The flex arm quickly and easily clicks into a Flex-Connect tray, grip, cold shoe adapter, or to the top of another Flex Arm. Oh the possibilities are endless. Up to 2 arms can be added to each side.
These flex arms are made of fiber-reinforced polycarbonate material and stainless steel hardware for maximum durability.
So have I sold you yet? If not, you really need to come in and see one in person. I mentioned with the SeaLife DC2000 that I’ve had a couple underwater cameras and I’m extremely impressed with this camera and strobe combo. Please come talk to us and see for yourself.