Camera won't fire with Ike housing

I had this problem before I left, but I thought I had figured it out. Now I'm at Wakatobi and I've got a $2000 Ikelite anchor. Any ideas? Help!

1) D200 Ike housing. Two DS51 strobes. Camera won't fire with hot shoe connected. I've tried in manual strobe mode, manual setting on housing, with my DS125 TTL updated strobes.

2) As soon as I remove the connector from the hot shoe, the camera's shutter fires. Strobes off, the camera fires. I changed the order of startup, camera/strobes. Nothing.

3) Don't tell me to contact Ikelite. They never got back to me the first time. They have not responded to my e-mail. Not even a "too bad, tough luck" response.

Wakatobi is great. They showed a slide show last night of images by some guy named Eric Cheng. Anyone ever heard of him? He's not half bad.

Lucked out. We got a temp dive guide named Yon (sp?). He usually works out of Bali. Does some work for Diving For Images and a guy named Graham Abbott. Great critter spotter. Now if someone would explain how to shoot a Hippoplatypus Denise in a stiff current I would appreciate it.

I picked up a 105mm VR before the trip. Somethings wrong. The images are very soft. I may have a bad copy.

Hi George,

In a pinch, get some tape and tape over all but the center contact on your camera's hotshoe. I just take a piece of take and cut a small hole in the middle w/ a pocket knife. Then you should be able to get manual strobe control and have a pretty useful setup for shooting macro. You can full and full + diffuser, which should work for most macro.

Say hi to Jan for me - he's a great guide. Here's a photo of Jan and I at Scuba Seraya:

I like this image because it makes me look tall. Too bad it can't make me look like I have more hair on my head...

Good shooting,

James

Adding to what James said, do you know that your sync cord is OK? Try crossing the ground and trigger parts of the cord (with a paper clip) to see if the strobes will fire. Ground is center and trigger bottom right when you hold it so that the holes are at the bottom when looking directly at the connector end of the cord. maybe you can find someone else with a cord that you can test to see if their one will work.

Good luck, Wakatobi is great. Have some great dives.

Rinjani

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Sorry to here about your problem. I had the same thing with my old Oly C-8080. Ike did not get back to me till after my trip was over. Initally they gave me unhelpfull info. finally I just kept experementing with different camera flash settings and it finally started to work. Could also be a bad sync cord or some problem with flash. Is there another photographer you could swap parts with to see if it can be made to work?

I am getting ready to buy a housing for my D200. So if you figer out what the problem was let us know.

Good luck

Diverdon

Best guess is the hot shoe connector that attaches to the camera. It must be completely into the shoe, and some seem to stick. Or the opposite that it is coming out of the shoe slightly as you close the housing...............

You r first post is a bit confusing. Which strobes are you using? DS51 or DS125s?

In either case the strobes should be set to TTL mode not manual. Set manual on the housing if you want manual.

Make sure the hotshoe is pushed in all the way. I think there is a switch for DS125s and DS50s inside the housing that needs to be set.

Keep trying to contact Ikelite. I have always gotten a response usually the same day. Maybe try calling? Their service is the best.

Good Luck!

He confirmed that my guess on the hot shoe was correct by e-mail.

I hear criticism about our not answering e-mail which is disturbing. We try to be very conscientious about answering e-mai. We are swamped by hundreds of junk e-mail every day, so what you list as the subject is very important as to whether it will be opened and read. The other possibility is some ISPs block other ISPs if they are guilty of forwarding large amounts of spam e-mail.

Try again if you get no response, and there is always the telephone when all else fails.