How does one select a strobe? How does it connect to the camera and what features are important.

There are many “slave” strobes available on the market. They are called slaves because they use the cameras built in flash to trigger the external strobe. Sensors on the external unit detect the internal flash firing and trigger external unit to fire simultaneously.

A fiber optic cable can also be used with most strobes to help ensure proper firing. This is especially important in super clear water where light will dissipate easily. Fiber optic cables usually attach to the outside of a housing and require no through housing connection hole (likely leak source).

Make sure to cover the forward firing area of internal flash to help protect against backscatter.

The two most important features to look for in an external strobe are variable pre flash setting and variable power.

Most digital cameras use a preflash or series of preflashes. The strobe needs to be set to fire on the actual flash and not the preflash.

Variable power allows you to set the output brightness of the flash to meet specific shooting conditions.

An external strobe should be mounted on the camera. Typically this is done with a base stay and arm system.

The base stay attaches to the bottom of the camera housing with a standard size screw that threads into the tripod hole on the bottom of camera/housing. The ars then attach to the base stay and the strobe head to the end of the arm.

The two most common types of arm are flex arm and ball arm. Flex arms are the simplest and least expensive option. They attach directly to the base tray and strobe and are flexible to allow for strobe head positioning.

Ball arms are more expensive and require more parts, but allow for more usage versatility. A ball arm uses a connector to attach to the base tray and another connector at the end to connect to additional arms or the strobe head. You can build out ball arms so you have a variety of shooting angles. For example, you canbuild out so the strobe is actually in front, firing back towards the subject.

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