TTL with Fuji S2 and Aquatica

Hello,

I'm aware of the discussion about ttl not being necessary with digital photography. However, I'd like to know how it works and could use some help. When I hook up my Nikonos 105 stobes to my Aquatica housing and then take a picture with my Fuji S2, my strobes fire and then the lights on the stobes blink, signaling that the strobes fired full power. So, it seems that ttl is not working. I hooked the same cable and stobes up to my Nikonos V, and the stobes fire and the lights do not blink, signaling successful ttl.

Will all of the equipment above provide ttl support? I have tried setting my camera up as manual, A, S and P, but with the same results. I have checked connectors to see if they are clean, adn they are. I've used different cables, too.

Any suggestions to get my setup to work with TTL?

Thanks,

Jim

The clue might be in the word strobes. Are you using two? I am not sure that the Aquatica housing is wired for two to be used concurrently. I know my Subal housing is. My Nexus housing can be used with two strobes but the left socket takes precedence(If I turn one strobe off it has to be the one on the right to continue to get TTL.) My Sea & Sea housing was wired for TTL with two strobes. My Aquatica had two sockets but could only be used aletrnately, if I remember right.

The Fuji S2 has a shutter like a film camera and the same TTL protocols.

The S2 only gives ttl control up to 400ISO so this is worth checking too. Also check that you are not outside the ttl range of the flash units (doubtful but you never know). What are the exposures looking like?

IF you have a dual sync aquatica S2 housing AND the TTL version of the sync sockets (all five pins connected from the shoe to the left sync bulkhead) then the left sync socket (viewed from the rear) should work with your SB-105, the right sync socket is wired for manual strobes.

What Dave said. Unless modified, the left bulkhead is wired for TTL (5 pins) and the right is wired for manual control (3 pins). I have used dual cords with the right hand strobe set to manual and the TTL on the left worked great. however for "full" TTL a "Y" cord on the left bulkhead works best.

Hi everyone,

Thanks for all of your help. As some of you mentioned, my two port are wired so that one has ttl and the other has only manual. I tried my dual sync cord on both and neither would give ttl. On the port that allows ttl, I did see some corrosion on the pins. So, I cleaned the pins with contact cleaner, and tested the two smaller pins to make sure that they spring up and down when pressed with a tooth pic. I called Aquatica and discussed all of this with them and they said if the pins are now clean and do move up and down, then there is probably some corrosion inside the port that is disrupting the ttl signal.

I've already made some dives on this housing since buying it used and I can shoot fine with manual, so that is probably what I'll continue to do (at least until I find a period of time when I wont be diving so that I can send it in for repair.

One other thing I can try is to test continuity with each of the five pins with the connectors on my hot shoe. Likely, one or two of the connectors wont have continuity.

I did look through my Fuji S2 menus and did not see anything that controlled ttl, so that does not seem to be the issue.

So - for now, manual it is!

Thanks again for your replys.

Jim

TTL on the S2 is full time... no menus to worry about.

I had some problems with corrosion myself, but in my case the strobes just quit firing all together. You really should consider pulling the bulkhead and sending it to Blake to test and or replace.

I use manual a lot, but TTL sure is a nice fall back in many situations!

As Richard mentions if cleaning the sync socket pins did not bring it back to fully functioning condition then the sync bulkheads should be replaced. We have them in stock and can pressure test and function test the system after replacement. We can also supply you with the bukhead assembly if you're comfortable with replacing them yourself.