Athena vs Heinrichs adapters

I'm going to upgrade my strobes. I'm going to replace the FL20 housed flash (hardwired) and the Sunpak with 1, YS110 or ???.

The YS110 has advantages in that I can use the Athena cable/converter which seems a reasonable solution. I've also heard the Matthew Heinrich's adapter changes your bulkhead which makes it a Nikonos configuration which is suppose to be an industry standard. Which strobes available use the Nikonos configuration? Both the Athena and Matthew Heinrichs are roughly the same price.

I need advice.

Thanks,

Gary

Hi Gary,

I think you will find that the Athena cable/TTl converter contains the Matthew "board" which converts the signal in that sealed tube that is marked Athena. With Matthew the "board" is not encased and slides into the hot shoe on the top of the camera. I have both arrangements for my Olympus cameras with the dual cord version from Athena and prefer the build quality of having the "board" in a sealed unit. Reef photo has both versions.

Phil Rudin

Has any one actually used the athena cable ?

If so with what camera / strobe / housing combo did you use ?

Hey Phil,

From your photos It looks possible to start with one cable/strobe and add another down the line. Do you know what strobes you can use with the cable? I know its possible to use Sea&Sea...are there others?

Hey Gery,

Athena makes three types of dual TTL conversion blocks at this time.

#1 The type I have is for all of the Olympus DSLR housings (PT-E01, 02, & 03). The cord out of the block goes to the Olympus bulkhead on the housing. The two bulkheads on the block allow standard Nikonos-V five pin cords which are used with the Sea & Sea and Inon strobes. A list of the strobes that will work is in the Athena and Reef photo attachments. I have used the block with only one strobe attached and it still works fine.

#2 Is for the Olympus PT-020, 023, 027 & 030 digicam housings and can be used with one or two strobes. If you have the required strobes with the Nikonos-V five pin cords already then all you need is the Synchro converter block.

#3 Is a dual cord block that allows two Olympus land strobe housings to be attached with the Olympus cords and work in TTL.

The single cords work with the same Inon and Sea & Sea strobes and attach to the same Olympus digicam (PT) type housings to allow one strobe to work in TTL.

A single cord also shown in my first port is made for the Athena ring-flash anf has the Nikonos-V connector on both ends.

Go to reefphotovideo.com then open Athena under manufacturers, click on the parts and further details in english will be given along with a strobe list.

Phil Rudin