Olympus TG-4 First use at Cove 2
Posted: Sun May 14, 2017 4:48 pm
Well, there was certainly a bit of learning curve. However after the near two hours of dive time Saturday ( thanks JT) I learned quite a bit about this combination. First everything worked as planned and designed.
Second, manipulation with the 5mm gloves was no problem at all. Certanly not as easy as bare fingers but easily workable. The education was mosly about the amount of light used. Initially I was way over exposing and washing out everything. I assumed the flash was way to direct. This YS-3 flash had the white opaque deflecter cover on too. Turns out it was the very powerful focus light that was the problem. The flash is about perfect combination for this, at least for my use. From 2-3 feet away, to the macro close photo's of shrimp.
Upon finding a photo worthy item I had to turn the arm with the light up and away from the camera and then only use the flash. At which point the pictures were nothing short of spectacular from such a small and relitively inexpensive system.
A benifit of the focus light is that it's doubles as a navigation dive light. I never turned it off the whole time. It burned for about 80 minutes before the red low battery light came on. Since we dove about 100 minutes its use fell short of the total dive time. Easy fix for next dive, Battery swap when I swap tanks now.
The floppyness of the flash and focus lights on the extended arms was a non issue under water. They stayed more or less where they were placed. Also the length of the arms is nice using them to peek under and into holes and crevices. People with more experience then I have clearly designed this.
Another shortcoming of mine was completely forgetting the video is a one button function which is so easy to use. Just push the single button and it's taking video. I had completely forgotten this button. The Octo I took photo's of was in the open and walking along the bottom, I forgot all about video! Oh well next time. Hear that JT, we are going to have to do this again!
Second, manipulation with the 5mm gloves was no problem at all. Certanly not as easy as bare fingers but easily workable. The education was mosly about the amount of light used. Initially I was way over exposing and washing out everything. I assumed the flash was way to direct. This YS-3 flash had the white opaque deflecter cover on too. Turns out it was the very powerful focus light that was the problem. The flash is about perfect combination for this, at least for my use. From 2-3 feet away, to the macro close photo's of shrimp.
Upon finding a photo worthy item I had to turn the arm with the light up and away from the camera and then only use the flash. At which point the pictures were nothing short of spectacular from such a small and relitively inexpensive system.
A benifit of the focus light is that it's doubles as a navigation dive light. I never turned it off the whole time. It burned for about 80 minutes before the red low battery light came on. Since we dove about 100 minutes its use fell short of the total dive time. Easy fix for next dive, Battery swap when I swap tanks now.
The floppyness of the flash and focus lights on the extended arms was a non issue under water. They stayed more or less where they were placed. Also the length of the arms is nice using them to peek under and into holes and crevices. People with more experience then I have clearly designed this.
Another shortcoming of mine was completely forgetting the video is a one button function which is so easy to use. Just push the single button and it's taking video. I had completely forgotten this button. The Octo I took photo's of was in the open and walking along the bottom, I forgot all about video! Oh well next time. Hear that JT, we are going to have to do this again!