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Tips and Tricks:
Tip 4: Care and Maintenance (continued)
Make sure you have your equipment serviced by a professional
outlet and according to the manufacturer's guidelines every year. Reputable
service outlets will check all the working parts, grease and
replace o-rings if necessary, and pressure test the system.
Tip 5. Know the Guide Number of
Your Strobe
Many readers might wonder
why I'm even including this at all. The concept of guide
numbers is based on manual flash control, and setting the aperture
of your camera. The reason is simple:
I believe in trying to keep diving and underwater photography as
simple as possible.
Too often I've witnessed sophisticated and
expensive electronic equipment failing over something as
frustratingly simple as a 50-cent
component that goes bad. When sophisticated technology
fails, it's nice to have a simple backup that won't fail you, one
that doesn't rely on technology at all.
At first, the concept of guide numbers seems antiquated, even
difficult to master ("You have to do math in your head? --while
underwater?!") But after you've practiced with it a bit, guide
numbers are really easy. And since it's only one number that you
have to remember for each film/ISO combination, you avoid Murphy's
Law with respect to sophisticated technology.
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