I just purchased a UFL-1 Olympus strobe for my underwater camera.

It came with a removable diffuser. I noticed that on my underwater camera case the diffuser is not removable. In the strobes user’s manual it tells me how to remove or put on the diffuser but nothing about when to use it.

I know the diffuser reduces the intensity of the light emitted by the flash, creating soft even lighting. My question is this, whet are the conditions for using or not using a diffuser. Do I simply keep it on all the time?

Is there anyone out there that has any experience with diffusers that can help me?

I think you should generally keep it on, but have a read of this it will explain it better.

Great web site, I think I’ll put it in my favourites.

How are you getting on with your strobe now?
I've had my first real outing with mine and shooting in full manual. I found it's a big learning curve..

Got any pics to show yet?

Nice hearing from you Wookie. I guess in the summer we are more outside then on the computer, in Canada anyways.

Unfortunately my day job required most of my time up till this week so I have no pictures to share.

However I am scheduled for my first 2010 dive in July. I will be doing 2 wreck dives in the Saint Laurence River. The visibility is poor so this will be a good test for my strobe.

I will also be doing my NAS course in August, Looking forwards to this.

I have signed up for a package we have called the Master Scuba Diver Challenge. It's a deal between PADI and a dive shop in Montréal. 13 specialties in one year for $1500, this leads to a PADI Master Scuba Diver card. This is about 1100 Euro I think. It includes all the dives, books, DVDs and PADI cards.

This is a PADI deal available in any country.

www.padi.com/scuba/special-offers/master-scuba-diver-challenge/default.aspx

So as you can see, I will be very busy in my scuba education.

You must have many pictures to share. I would love to see some of your favourites and read the stories behind them.

Just found you Egypt pictures.

Incredible

your doing all 13 specs?

we have the same master scuba challange here, but you only need to do 5 specs, rescue diver and have a min of 50 dives. I just have my rescue to do, which is booked in for sept. Then on to DM


Just found you Egypt pictures.

Incredible
Thanks, the strobe batteries ran out just as I got to the turtles, I was really annoyed as it was a good photo oportunity. There were some eagle rays and leopard rays apeared after too

I was also in the wrong place and missed the manta someone else got a great pic of.

took a bit of getting use to changing settings with the different back grounds (coral/ sand)

Congratulations on your DM

The process to becoming a Master Scuba Diver is the same here as you described.

What I signed up for is somewhat different. I wanted to take 8 specialty courses such as wreck, Nitrox, deep, peek performance buoyancy to complement my archaeology courses. The eight specialties would have cost me almost $350 more if I didn't take the Master Scuba Diver challenge. And with this challenge I get five additional specialties. Plus PADI gives you toys like a cap, bag, or t-shirts for each course your taking that is one of PADI's so called "the dive of the month". The catch is you must complete the courses in 12 months.

Let's see???

$1,850 for 8 specialties
$1,500 for 13 specialties plus toys

It's a no brainer

So you can see the reason I chose this path.