Hello all, upgraded last minute from Canon G12 to just got the E-PL3 and have the rest of the week to learn it before going on holiday.
Got the 14-150mm and 9-18mm lens with it.
I need to know some good custom features like pre-flash similar what the G12 Canon has. How do I do that? I see it just flickers before the flash is shot. How to setup a pre-flash in the custom settings?
I read the manual but cant find it.
Reason I ask I am getting the underwater housing and need to setup a srobe from Sea and Sea which the pre-flash is a good function to operate in TTL.
Any help please?
Also other recommendations are appreciated. Thanks

First off, welcome to . Sounds like you're jumping in with both feet.

I'm not sure I understand what you are attempting to do. I have no experience with using strobes (underwater or not) so I'm not sure how much I can help, but I suspect that if I am confused, others might be as well, which could explain why this post isn't getting any traction.

As I understand it the underwater housing includes an integrated flash, so I assume that you are attempting to control an off-camera strobe with this flash. Can you elaborate?

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Not really sure what your are asking as well, Isn't pre-flash the red eye reduction option.... if you want this flash flickering, just turn the red eye option on.

Perhaps I misunderstand what you're asking, but you seem to be saying that you want to use the Olympus flash to trigger an off-camera flash and control the exposure with the camera. Is that right?

You can use the on-camera flash to trigger an off-camera flash, but the camera won't control the light output of the off-camera unit unless that flash is an Olympus (or one of the Olympus-specific Metz flashes).

So-called "TTL flash operation" is not possible unless your off-camera unit is Olympus-specific. The camera and the off-camera flash must be able to talk to each other. Only those two brands -- Oly and Metz (that I'm aware of) -- are capable of interpreting the signals your Olympus camera sends for true TTL-off-camera flash operation.

If your off camera flash is equipped with a "slave mode" your Oly flash can trigger it, but you'll have to set the camera and the external flash for manual operation. You would set your Oly on-board flash output to Manual (usually at 1/4 power or less), keep your Oly's shutter speed to 1/160 or slower and set your f-stop manually.

You'll probably need to experiment with power levels for the on-board flash until you find the level that triggers the off-camera unit without affecting your shot too much.

Take a look at page 60 in your E-PL3 manual for more info about this. It's written in the usual obscure fashion of all Olympus manuals, so feel free to ask specific questions back here if you can't figure it out.

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Peace,

thanks for the input. Yes it's a external Underwater strobe from Sea and Sea YS-01. Im trying to do TTL mimic, the strobe can be set to TTL mode, but it does not seem to understand the cameras output. I can only control it manual with full flash and then set the strobe output myself. Any ideas how Olympus does it with their strobe?

In essence, the on-board flash sends a series of coded signals to the off-camera Olympus flash which regulate the off-camera flash output. If the off camera flash doesn't speak the Olympus language, it can only act as a remotely-triggered slave. It'll fire, but it knows nothing about the camera's exposure settings. You must set those manually on the camera to match your strobe's light output (guide number).

If your strobe has a TTL mode, then it's usually manufacturer-specific: only useable with a particular brand of camera. I don't know anything about the Sea & Sea strobes and their website is less than forthcoming about how to use them, so haven't been able to get any specific info that might help you further. Perhaps someone on one of the scuba photography boards can help.

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Peace,