Problems with Ike TTL and Nikon D80

I recently purchased the housing for the Nikon d80 and what a lovely piece of equipment it is!

I have been using it with the 60mm macro lens and the DS50 substrobe but having problems with the exposure in both TTL and Manual settings using the controller on the housing.

Most of the photos have been quite underexposed at apertures between f8- f16 which surprised me as I have previously used this strobe with an olympus 5050 using the manual controller and had difficulties with overexposure at f8 whilst taking macro shots. Actually often the shots were so overexposed that I felt like the strobe was frying the fish and I needed to move or partially cover the strobe with my fingers. B)

Further test shots on the surface don't seem to indicate much change in the output when the dial is set in different positions in either TTL or manual. Now I have spent a fair bit of time reading both the housing and the camera manuals to try to work out what is going on but I am a bit stumped.

It seems as though the camera doesn't need to be set in a special mode for the external TTL to work or be changed when the dial is set to manual( or does it?).

Is there something obvious that I am missing? Has anyone else experienced similar? Or if it works for you can you let me know what I'm doing wrong.

Thanks in advance

Hai Gerard,

just check these points:

* what is the serial number of the strobe: some older strobes require an update (you can check on ikelites webpage which numbers)

* did you have the strobe set on TTL

* did you use a blue banded cord (the other ones dont handle digitial TTL

* is the switch on the bottom of the camera plate switched to DS-50 and not to DS 125/200

another Gerard

Hai Gerard,

 

just check these points:

 

* what is the serial number of the strobe: some older strobes require an update (you can check on ikelites webpage which numbers)

* did you have the strobe set on TTL

* did you use a blue banded cord (the other ones dont handle digitial TTL

* is the switch on the bottom of the camera plate switched to DS-50 and not to DS 125/200

 

another Gerard

Hey Gerard, cool name and thanks for the info,

Ive rechecked those four points.

The strobe is 75302 which should be OK

The setting was TTL not manual

The sync cord was a new one with the blue band

and the switch on the housing was set to the DS50 side.

So any other ideas from here?

I think it would be useful to see some pix. The DS50 is not that powerful a strobe and it is possible that underexposure at F8-F16 simplt came from the strobe not being powerful enough for your shooting distance. Seeing the photos would tell us that.

Macro shooting with compacts often gets you closer to your subject than with a DSLR and therefore you can get away with less powerful strobes (especially as the smallest aperture is F8). On a DSLR you also have to content with the virtual aperture getting smaller as the lens focuses in - requiring more light.

Anyway, post a couple of pix and we can see if this was the case.

Alex

Hmm

Well like the diligent fool that I am I trashed most of the badly underexposed images so dont have much to show. <_< However I will do some more test shots and post them tomorrow.

What I find most confusing though is when I did some tests on the surface later on using the manual setting on the housing the strobe output seemed to vary very little.

I managed to get some correct exposure through adjustment of the aperture and the camera position but I was of the impression that I should be able to vary the output through the use of the dial in both TTL and manual modes to work with photo composition.

Point taken about the power of the DS50 but I should expect a consistent drop or rise in power whilst using the manual mode?

Check your flash mode. Make sure it is normal flash, not red-eye reduction for example.

What I find most confusing though is when I did some tests on the surface later on using the manual setting on the housing the strobe output seemed to vary very little.

If it is bright enough, the ambient exposre needs little strobe power, so this isn't surprising.

Set the rig up in a moderately dark room aimed at target wall about 2ft away. Set camera on manual at 1/60. While in TTL mode, take a series of shots, changing aperture 1/2 stop on each shot. You should find a range where the histogram is pretty much the same. If each stop down results in a darker shot, TTL is not working.

Hello,

I have the same problem, and I think now , I know why.

Last weekend , testshooting for my diving trip to France , a friend told me , TTL is smart.

It looks how much light is needed and than tell the strobe how much to fire......

The DS125 has also a focus light. When I start shooting without focus light the pictures seems a lot better ....

So I think , if you put your subject in the spotlight , the camera says he dont need that much light ???

Is this making sense ???? Or just wrong thinking ?????

Greetings from Belgium

Fotoduiker

My understanding is that the DS50 is not current enough to be TTL compatible with the D80. You need to have it upgraded, or use a later model strobe like the DS51.

No the DS50 is compatible as long as the serial number is higher than 7000, which mine is.

....It looks how much light is needed and than tell the strobe how much to fire......

The DS125 has also a focus light. When I start shooting without focus light the pictures seems a lot better ....

 

So I think , if you put your subject in the spotlight , the camera says he dont need that much light ???

The DS50 doesn't have the focusing light so I dont think that is the problem but hey thanks for the suggestions.

I'm going home now to take a few test shots as suggested by scorpio_fish and see what I get.

Gerard

OK so now that I've done some tests I'm still pretty convinced that either both TTL and Manual are not working properly or that I'm missing something on the camera that I should be setting.

A series of shots taken at 1/60 sec from f22 to f6.3 in TTL mode show steadily increasing brightness and the histograms marching across their axes. I took a comparison test with the camera outside the housing using the built in flash at 1/60 sec from f22 to f3.3 just to make sure that the camera's TTL was OK and all the exposures are relatively the same. They are great all the way down to 3.3 with very little change in the histograms at all. Nice to know that the camera is OK

Ive attached a few of the shots I took in TTL using the DS50 to show the change in exposure.

One other thought I had, I wondered for those of you who might have the housing does the TTL dial on the back click into place at the different settings? Mine just seems to rotate without any real feeling of it clicking to a setting. Normal?

Gerard

that is odd. images 2 and 3 look almost the same to me. It seems this isnt simply a case of the full powered output all the time. Especially at 6.3 the strobe should quence quick enough to get a good exposure. Did you check the camera settings for flash exposure as suggested by an other poster?

I've just gone back through the camera settings and actually I didn't check before but I think the flash setting in manual was on red-eye. Red face

Well, I will now test in the normal flash mode and fingers crossed problem will be solved.

Thanks for all the suggestions, I will post the results.

Gerard

My understanding is that the DS50 is not current enough to be TTL compatible with the D80. You need to have it upgraded, or use a later model strobe like the DS51.

I think that this could be correct. I would send an email to Ikelite to clarify if TTL on the D80 actually works with a DS50 strobe.

No thats not necessary, this has been checked already. The DS-50 is fine:

http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/uttlssnreq2.html

The DS-50 only offers more manual settings.

So, now I have tested the TTL and manual settings in the other flash modes but it doesn't make any difference. It seems as though the strobe output is fairly consistent and so the shots just fade from bright to dark as the f stop is increased.

I had an email from ikelite who suggested that the DS50 circuitry might not be working correctly but I think I'd like to try the housing with a DS125 and test it in a similar way to see what results.

For those of you that use The DS125 with the Ike housing and d80 , what do you have your flash set to for TTL?

In the instructions it says that Balanced Fill flash can't be used. Does that mean you don't set the flash to Fill flash but to Rear Sync?

Gerard

The traditional test of TTL strobes is the following:

Face your strobe directly to the lens and take a shoot. The strobe should fire only a little. Turn away your strobe and repeat the exposure. The strobe should fire at maximum output.

If you get the same intensity in both case, something is wrong.

I guess it should work also for digital TTL.

Hi Gerard,

I had the same problem with Ikelite housing, dual 125s' and my Nikon D200. My pictures were constantly underexposed either on TTL or manual, even with the max compensation (2 or 3 stops if I remember correctly). It was very frustrating since I have just sent them to Ikelite for the new circuit upgrade. However, I was lucky enough, end a few months ago I had a malfunction on my main DS125. I sent it again for repair. When it came back miraculously I was able to get proper exposures again. I believe that our TTL circuit in the housing is very similar so I would strongly consider sending your strobe for examination.

Dany

Hi Gerard,

 

I had the same problem with Ikelite housing, dual 125s' and my Nikon D200. My pictures were constantly underexposed either on TTL or manual, even with the max compensation (2 or 3 stops if I remember correctly). It was very frustrating since I have just sent them to Ikelite for the new circuit upgrade. However, I was lucky enough, end a few months ago I had a malfunction on my main DS125. I sent it again for repair. When it came back miraculously I was able to get proper exposures again. I believe that our TTL circuit in the housing is very similar so I would strongly consider sending your strobe for examination.

 

Dany

Thanks Dany

Yeah its looks like I might be able to get a DS 125 on Monday or possibly a bit later in the week to test whether the same thing happens. This should confirm whether it is the housing or the strobe. I spoke to my local Ike rep this morning and he is going to sort something out.

If it works then the strobe will have to go in for a check up.

Thanks again everyone for all the advice. It just reinforces in my mind what a great site wetpixel is and how generous everyone is with their help.

Gerard

Just to end the story.....

I used another strobe yesterday and the TTL and manual worked very nicely- it was very good to know that the new housing was OK. The DS50 is now on its way back to have its circuits checked.

Gerard