flah diffusion plate

[tal_y]

Hi,
I lost the flash diffusio palte of the under water case (canon a720):
I couldnt buy this part only ( i leave outside us, and couldnt find a way to get it yet).
How important is the flash diffusion plate for photographing with flash?
any suggestion where i can get such a diffusion plate?
Is there any "improvisation" to bypass the absence of the difussion plate (maybe attaching a layer of semi transparent paper)?

[daZZ]

plastic milk carton works

[tal_y]

i'm gonna try it

[turnpikemike]

I have a Canon SD850. I'm not too in love with the flash diffusion plate. It seems like when I use it, it's so dark I might as well not have the flash on at all, just a higher ISO. Of course, when I don't use it, it's terrible. There are always tons of particles that are lit up in the foreground. I usually just use my flashlight to light things up (take the picture from an angle other than the one the light is pointed), but I guess this isn't the most professional way to do it.

[tal_y]

10x al for the advices..

[CompuDude]

Originally Posted by turnpikemike

I have a Canon SD850. I'm not too in love with the flash diffusion plate. It seems like when I use it, it's so dark I might as well not have the flash on at all, just a higher ISO. Of course, when I don't use it, it's terrible. There are always tons of particles that are lit up in the foreground. I usually just use my flashlight to light things up (take the picture from an angle other than the one the light is pointed), but I guess this isn't the most professional way to do it.

Milk carton plastic is a pretty good DIY hack for replacing the part. Have yopu tried contacting Canon directly, though? Their parts dept should be able to sell you the part directly. Canon is a worldwide company based in Japan, so not being based in the U.S. shouldn't be a problem for getting access to spare parts.

Built-in flashes on cameras are generally pretty useless for anything except very close-up macro work, then they're actually quite good. The diffusing panels are important either way, but for shots of subjects more than 3' or so away from the camera, you're better off using ambient light than trying to use a built-in flash. If you want to take your photography to the next level, once you reach the limitations of the built-in flash, you'll need to start looking at adding an external strobe.

Once the light source is separated from the lens (think 1-3' instead of 1"), backscatter, while always a challenge, becomes more manageable.