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Sealife Sea Dragon flash Instruction Manual

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Summary of Contents for Sealife Sea Dragon flash

  • Page 2: Table Of Contents

    Care and maintenance ..........24 Replacing the O-rings ..........25 XII. Expanding your Flex-Connect™ Lighting System ............26-27 XIII. Great pictures made easy........28-30 ........31-33 XIV. Troubleshooting Guide ............34 Specifications ...........35 XVI. Parts and service http://www.sealife-cameras.com/service/manuals.html Español - Deutsch - Français - Italiano - Nederlands - Türkçe...

  • Page 3: Safety Warnings

    Turn OFF flash if foreign objects or water has entered the the battery compartment or internal electronics. Continued use in this state may cause fire or electrical shock. Contact the SeaLife service center for repairs. The battery chamber is waterproof. If no water has entered the flash head, the battery chamber may be cleaned without causing permanent damage to the internal electronics.

  • Page 4: Check What You Got

    II. Check What You Got Sea Dragon Flash (with attached diffuser, optical cable, grip and tray) Universal Flash Link Cable Adapter (SL992) Sea Dragon Case O-ring Lube (SL9807) (Small SL941 or Large SL942) Spare O-rings O-ring remover (SL98303) (SL9808)

  • Page 5: Product View With Call-Outs

    III. Product view with call-outs Major parts 9 – Battery cap 1 – Flash head 10 – Pressure safety valve 2 – Auto Bright light sensor 11– Power On/Off dial 3 – Diffuser (removable) 12 – Test button (Auto Learn 4 –...

  • Page 6: Preparing Your Flash

    IV. Preparing your flash INSTALLING BATTERIES: 1) Unscrew waterproof battery cap. 2) Insert 4 new or freshly charged AA batteries according to the polarity markings. 3) Align cap notch with key and screw on waterproof battery cap. Lightly hand-tighten - Do not overtighten using excessive force or tools.
  • Page 7 Attach camera (housing) to the tray. Carefully hand-tighten the mounting screw. Do not over tighten! Important: Only attach the flash to cameras/housings with minimum thread depth of 0.28" (7.2 mm) and using standard ⁄ -20 tripod type thread. Never force or over-tighten the screw, or you may damage the housing seal and threads.
  • Page 8 Connecting Flash Link optical cable to the external flash The Flash includes the Flash Link optical cable (item #SL96208). The optical cable is used to transmit light from the camera to the light sensor under the flash head. The external flash will fire when the light sensor detects light coming from the end of the cable.
  • Page 9 Connecting Flash Link optical cable to SeaLife cameras For SeaLife cameras: Attach the other end of the optical cable to the camera adapter included with your SeaLife camera. 1. Push the optical cable into one of the grooves so it’s locked firmly into position.
  • Page 10 Connecting Flash Link optical cable to NON-Sealife cameras The universal cable adapter included with the flash allows you to attach the optical cable to any underwater camera housing. Step 1: Cut two small strips of adhesive backed hook-and-loop fastener Step 2: Remove adhesive backing strips and firmly attach above and below the flash window of the underwater housing.
  • Page 11 Connecting Flash Link optical cable to NON-SeaLife cameras (continued) Step 4: Loosely screw on the smaller half of the adapter. Step 5: Insert the cable(s) so about 1mm sticks out of the other end and tighten the cable adapter assembly. Hand tighten –...
  • Page 12 Secure the Flash Link optical cable to the Grip Fasten optical cable by pushing into groove along inside of grip.

  • Page 13: Preparing Your Camera

    2. Make sure your camera battery(ies) are new or freshly charged before each dive. 3. Set SeaLife digital cameras to External Flash mode 4. For Non-SeaLife camera’s, do this: a. Set ISO to 100 (or less if available) but not Auto.
  • Page 14 Synchronize flash to non-SeaLife cameras The flash is factory set to work with your SeaLife camera. Follow these instruction to synch the flash to other underwater camera brands: 1. Turn OFF flash power. 2. Push and HOLD test button, and power ON flash.

  • Page 15: Testing Your Camera And Flash

    VI. Test the camera and flash [above water] Now that you have made all the correct settings to your flash and camera, take a few test pictures to make sure the camera and external flash fires together. 1. Power on the camera and flash. a.

  • Page 16: Adjusting Your Camera Exposure And Flash Brightness

    VII. Adjusting your camera exposure and flash brightness This section will show you to make quick and easy adjustments to your camera and flash for achieving the best picture color and brightness. Make sure you become familiar with these basic adjustments before you dive with your new external flash.
  • Page 17 For SeaLife digital cameras, set the scene mode to Ext Flash (or Ext Flash Auto mode). For information on how to set your SeaLife camera’s scene mode, please refer to your SeaLife camera instruction manual.
  • Page 18 EV value to darken pictures. Just like ISO, higher EV values will result in more grainy pictures. For SeaLife cameras, set the camera to Ext Flash mode (or Ext Flash Auto mode) and leave the EV Compensation at “0”. Your SeaLife camera is pre-programmed to automatically select the optimal EV value for underwater flash pictures.
  • Page 19 Almost all digital cameras allow you to select the flash setting to Auto, Force ON, Force OFF or Red-Eye Reduction. For SeaLife cameras, set the camera to Ext Flash mode (or Ext Flash Auto mode). The SeaLife External Flash mode is a special...

  • Page 20: External Flash Adjustments

    VIII. External Flash adjustments Now that you are familiar with camera adjustments that effect picture color and brightness, this section will describe how to adjust the external flash. Flash Brightness control You can manually or automatically control the external flash brightness by adjusting the brightness control dial located on the back of the flash head.
  • Page 21 The Auto brightness feature works by measuring the amount of flash bouncing off the subject into the light sensor located on the front face of the flash. If the flash measures a high amount of light bouncing of the subject, it will cut-short the flash before it deploys the full flash and over-exposes the subject.
  • Page 22 Aiming the external flash Make sure the flash head is directed at the subject before taking a picture. If the flash is not aimed correctly the image may appear underexposed (darker). Remember that subjects appear closer underwater than they do on land, so direct the flash a little over the intended target to compensate for this underwater effect.

  • Page 23: Maintaining A Waterproof Seal

    O-rings. Wipe off excess lubricant. The o-ring surface should have shiny, wet appearance. Important: Replace O-rings every year if damaged or not. Visit your local SeaLife dealer or www.sealife-cameras.com for information on ordering spare o-rings.

  • Page 24: Care And Maintenance

    X. Care and maintenance (After your dive) 1) After each dive, soak the sealed flash in fresh water for about 15 minutes to remove any residual salt, sand and dirt. Never allow the saltwater to dry on the flash. 2) Push the test button about 10 times and rotate dials to clean any saltwater or sand trapped under the button.

  • Page 25: Replacing The O-Rings

    XI. Replacing the O-rings Replace the two O-rings if damaged or at least once per year. 1) Use the O-ring Remover tool provided to lift and remove the O-ring. 2) Carefully clean O-ring grooves and O-rings before installation 3) Install O-rings by stretching and lifting O-ring into the groove.

  • Page 26: Expanding Your Flex-Connect™ Lighting System

    XII. Expanding your Flex-Connect™ Lighting System Get brighter, more colorful results by expanding your Sea Dragon underwater camera system. The modular Flex-Connect arms, grips and trays easily clicks together to create these popular configurations: Pro Set Pro Duo Maxx Duo w/ single flash w/ light, flash and w/ light, flash, 2 flex...
  • Page 27 Cold Shoe – Mount a light or flash over the camera for the most compact lighting solution available. Or use it to add a third light when using a dual tray. Easily slides on to cold shoe of SeaLife and most other underwater housings. (SL991).

  • Page 28: Great Pictures Made Easy

    XIII. Great pictures made easy There are plenty of challenges that photographers face in the underwater world. Please take some time to review SeaLife’s online guide called Great Pictures Made Easy by visiting www.sealife-cameras.com. The guide is located under the Technical Support menu.
  • Page 29 3. Move calmly and control your buoyancy Control your buoyancy at all times and set yourself up in the ideal position before taking a picture. This allows you to hold the camera steady and control your shooting distance. Good buoyancy control will help you avoid stirring up the sandy bottom which will cloud-up the water and cause backscatter.
  • Page 30 b. Get the entire subject into your picture frame. Don’t cut- off the hands, fins or head of your subject. You can always crop you image later on your computer if you want. c. Learn the compositional rule of thirds . The rule states that an image can be divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally- spaced vertical lines.

  • Page 31: Troubleshooting Guide

    Check the battery power. Replace or recharge batteries, if necessary. c. If above does not correct the problem, contact your local SeaLife dealer or SeaLife Service Center in your country. For a list of dealers, please visit www.sealife-cameras.com. 2. External Flash fires when pushing TEST button, but does not fire when triggered by camera.
  • Page 32 3. Flash fires sometimes but not all the time. a. This is normally caused by a damaged Flash Link optical cable or if the optical cable is not set-up correctly. Inspect the optical cable for damage and make sure the cable is attached and secured.
  • Page 33 The reflectivity of your subject will cause some areas to appear brighter than other areas. For example, dark coral needs more light than would white coral. Adjust flash intensity accordingly. 6. For updated trouble shooting information, refer to the SeaLife website at www.sealife-cameras.com or contact your local...

  • Page 34: Specifications

    XV. Specifications: Sea Dragon Digital Underwater Flash (item # SL963) Guide Number: 20 (meters on land) at full power setting: 1.5m (meters on land) at low power Power adjustment range: 8% to 100% (Auto or Manual mode) Controls: Power (On/Off), Test(program), Brightness (Manual/Auto) Coverage angle: 80°...

  • Page 35: Parts And Service

    If it is determined that the product requires servicing, a return authorization number will be issued. Please contact your local SeaLife dealer or the importer in the country where the product was purchased for return information. Your local authorized SeaLife Dealer can also assist with product servicing and ordering replacement parts.

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