Help! with D200 manual flash and Ikelite housing

I just got back from Cayman Brac.

I was using my brand new D200 in an Ikelite housing. My old dual DS-125s and strobe cable from my old D100 Ikelite setup.

It turns out my strobe cable at the attachment to the bulkhead has some faulty wiring. Most likely due to the wear and tear of the cable. In my old D100 setup (with no TTL), the flash would fire with manual flash settings. The new setup, the TTL would sometimes default and not fire ( this is associated with positioning of the cable). So without another cable, I switched to manual settings on the flash and the camera.

Still, I had about half of the photos not manually flash. The pics exif files said "TTL settings" for the ones that had insufficient flash, and "flash not attached" for the manual and sufficient flash. What am I doing wrong? I had the flash set to full (non TTL), and the camera set to manual flash. The only thing I can think of that I didnt' consciously set was the manual/ttl dial on the back of the housing. I don't know what the setting was when I was taking the pixs. Does it make a big difference?

My plan now is to get the cable fixed and make sure I have an extra cable for the next trip! But I would still like to get an answer for the future.

Also, has anybody tried to fix their strobe cables? I'm going to send mine back to Ikelite, but on a trip, are you SOL?

First, make sure you were using the correct cable. I have a suspicion you need a different one.

Barring that, you could certainly have a faulty cable. It needs to go back to Ike if you were using the correct cable but it was acting wonky.

When this happens next time (hopefully there isn't one, right?) put some electrical tape on the cameras hot-shoe and cut a little hole in the tape so that only the center pin can make contact. That will usually give you foolproof manual flash.

Cheers

James

thanks James.

the cable is the correct cable.

I was able to zip-tie the cable into the only position that would make the cable work.

It did make some of the other divers nervous hearing the beeping of the strobes as it went into default on the first dive before I figured out the problem.

The correct cable is the one weith the blue band. I think they changed to a new cable once they started with digital TTL.

I have the one with the blue band.

the TTL works, but it depends on the position of the cable.

It's in the mail back to Ikelite.

On my Ikelite D200 housing, to use manual flash control, you set the strobes to TTL and dial in the manual power setting with the dial on the back of the housing.

If you use the power settings on the strobe, I don't know where the TTL/Manual knob should be located. I have a suspicion that it won't work that way.

Karl

But if you do this Karl you get the same output from both flash units.

My take was that if the DS125's were not in TTL you got whatever you dialed in on each flash unit - the switch on the back of the housing was ignored.

I am going to have to test this now ! if it is not going to work that way then some pins are coming out of my hotshoe connection.....

Paul C

Paul, i had the same thought, but it didn't work that way.

Oh great.

Will have to give it a go myself then - I realy don't want ttl at all - it is a pain in the butt when the equipment 'thinks' it knows better than the driver.

When I make a mistake I can figure out what went wrong ( usually ) - when the gear makes a bad 'guess' then I have no hope.

And some want to pay extra for iTTL ? I am coming to the conclusion that I will pay extra to leave it out !

Paul C

And some want to pay extra for iTTL ? I am coming to the conclusion that I will pay extra to leave it out !

 

Paul C

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Paul, I used to feel the same way, but I used iTTL for macro for the first time on our Lembeh trip with the D200 and I was totally satisfied with the results.

I still use manual for WA, but don't discount TTL for macro unless you have tried it. You might be surprised....I was!

Karl

Before, I didn't have any options. No TTL for the D100 housing. I would have to take several pixs of a subject with macro to get what i wanted.

The TTL for macro is GREAT! My exposures are spot on.

I still only use manual for WA.

All a bit odd this.

I take your point on macro Karl, and I have to respect your results - I will try it before the pliers and soldering iron come out.

Well I had a bash last night and my setup seemed to work as I had expected.

When the DS125's are not in TTL they produce the amount of light that is dialed in regardless of if the lens cap is on / off or pointed directly at the strobes or the position of the dial on the housing.

Camera was set to manual, it kind of all worked the way that I had expected - so what is going on ?

If I had been designing it this is the way I would have had it work - max flexibility.

When I had my D70 whenever I turned on the strobe the darn thing would set the shutter to 1/60, maybe there was a camera setup as on the D200 but I just took most of the pins out of the hotshoe connector and the 'problem' went away.

Paul C