Strobe problem

I have a D70 and just purchased a second hand Aquatica housing for it. I've connected the camera / housing to a Sea&Sea YS-90DX strobe that I've had for a while, using a cable that I've used successfully before with my old Coolpix 5000 housing (also Aquatica).

I've got a problem in that the camera is giving an error (flash sign blinking on the LCD display) which according to the camera manual means that a "speedlight that does not support i-TTL is attached and set to TTL". When I try to take a shot, nothing works. When I switch off the strobe, the display stops flashing and the camera works normally. The camera is on Manual. I've set the strobe to TTL and Manual and the camera flash control to iTTL and Manual, and still nothing works.

The strobe still works well connected to my old Coolpix 5000 through the same bulkhead connector (i.e. the one in the D70 housing)

My suspicion is that the problem lies in the way the bulkhead is wired (it is a single bulkhead by the way)

Any tips?

Thanks

All pins except the Sync (X) and Ground need to removed from the hot shoe connector in the housing. The most important of which is the Ready Light contact. The pins are soldered into the shoe, if you're not comfortable with the removal yourself, we can handle this for you.

Looking from the bottom of the shoe connector, here's the pin layout:

X X

0

X

0

Legend:

X = Remove

0 = Keep

Dave Marsh

IF it will fit and your camera has an older style flash (PC) socket (can't remember if the D70 has, but the D200 has I believe) then this sort of accessory may be a solution, IF of course it will fit inside the housing:

http://www.adorama.com/FAPCHSA.html

I'm sure that a similar slimline version wouldn't be hard to make up!

Thanks for the tips.

I ended up fixing it by taping over the offending contact as per http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/sync_cord_d1x.html

Thanks for the tips. I ended up fixing it by taping over the offending contact as per http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/sync_cord_d1x.html

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Taping is OK for a temporary or emergency repair but I would not recommend it for a permanent fix. First the tape tends to move as the shoe is inserted and removed from the camera. Secondly and more importantly the adhesive from the tape can easily migrate with temperature increases and cause problems inside the camera.

Good point Dave. Many thanks for the eye-opener.