I just received my Sea & Sea DX-D200 housing and am wondering how to best connect my 2 legacy YS-120 strobes to the housing. The housing comes standard with a 2-pin docking port as well as a 5-pin Type-N docking port. My strobes both have the Type-S 4-pin connectors (as do my old single and dual synch cords). I am keeping my old Sea & Sea housing and film SLR as a backup rig and as such do not wish to modify my existing synch cords. Would it be possible to modify a cord to connect either the 2 or 5-pin camera port to the 4-pin strobe? At this stage I would be comfortable with shooting in manual mode only.
Thanks for the input!
GG
Easy - tape over all but the center pin on your camera's hotshoe. This will prevent any electrical signal or charge from passing through all but the "Fire" pin.
You can use your old dual Sea and Sea cord then I think.
Cheers
James
OR (if it will fit) you might make up a female hotshoe to male PC connector which will allow you to use the PC socket on the camera, bypassing the hotshoe connections altogether. To do so you will need to source a female hotshoe (try a camera repairer - the old Nikon hotshoes on top of the cameras used to be very slim), and a PC connector (half of a Nikon SC11 cord is fine) but ensure that you have sufficient room inside the housing first.
I use a PC socket as a back-up connection in my housings, and even if you have a pin fail later (on a cord etc.) you may still be able to use the connector to allow you to manually fire ANY flash unit connected to the housing.
You might also check, but on many cameras the PC socket has higher or better circuit protection than the hotshoe - I don't know about the D200.
Gengiant,
So, just to confirm, are your cords Type S or Type N on the housing end? If they're T-N pin then you should be able to just plug the dual cord into the 2 pin port, but if they're the old S-type on the housing side then you have a bigger problem.
S&S used to sell the Dual cord adapter for 4 pin bulkheads but unless you can find one from a dealer, you're out of luck, you could take this adapter and have the Type-S converted to Type N. This way, you won't need to modify your existing cords.
Stu
Gengiant,
So, just to confirm, are your cords Type S or Type N on the housing end? If they're T-N pin then you should be able to just plug the dual cord into the 2 pin port, but if they're the old S-type on the housing side then you have a bigger problem.
Thanks for the feedback! The housing end of my existing synch cords (both single and dual) is the 4-pin Type S connector. I don't think it will mate with either the 2-pin or 5-pin port on the new housing. I was able to get a hold of Kevin McDonell (sp?), the local Sea & Sea rep, this morning who confirmed that I will need new synch cords. According to him the Type N 5-pin cords will mate with either the 2-pin or 5-pin ports on the housing, both with reliable results. The TTL converter that Sea & Sea is to be releasing this summer will require the 5-pin connector to work.
So, anyone out there have a Type N 5-pin synch cord to sell they no longer need?
and am wondering how to best connect my 2 legacy YS-120 strobes to the housing. The housing comes standard with a 2-pin docking port as well as a 5-pin Type-N docking port. My strobes both have the Type-S 4-pin connectors (as do my old single and dual synch cords). 
I am keeping my old Sea & Sea housing and film SLR as a backup rig and as such do not wish to modify my existing synch cords. Would it be possible to modify a cord to connect either the 2 or 5-pin camera port to the 4-pin strobe? At this stage I would be comfortable with shooting in manual mode only.
