S6

In reply to Jon's post at http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=19166, here is what the S6 looks like and why it should be the universal standard for housings:

* elegant and robust

* dual o-rings on outside of thread for easy maintenance and redundancy

* water droplets, if they do occur, happen on the exterior of the connector, away from electrical pins

* easy insertion, with no registration issues like with Nik V connector system

* 6-pins, to enhance TTL capability for Canon cameras (Nikon only requires 5 for I-TTL, but Canon uses 6 for E-TTL)

* Already widely accepted in Europe

Requires S6 bulkhead on housing (that's how I ordered my last Seacam housing for 1DsMKII) and custom cord. I got the cords from Seacam too (for both Inon and Ikelite strobes), but with universal acceptance from the strobe manufacturers, S6 cords should be a standard option.

C'mon strobe and housing guys ... let's move away from the prehistoric Nik V dependency.

BTW ... this housing is a year old and has had plenty of use. I don't baby it, but do rinse it with fresh water when I can. No corrosion or electrolysis from S6 system. In fact, I have to admit I've never even greased the external O-rings, but I'm not recommending you be so casual about it.

It looks a lot like the Ikelite connector. Is the housing bulkhead delrin or some other non-conductive material to prevent the dissimilar metals issue we saw in the previous thread?

Is there any strobe in the market with the S6?

Is there any strobe in the market with the S6?

My Canon ringflash came w/ S6...

My Canon ringflash came w/ S6...

Also Seacam Seaflash 250, and probably all of the Subtronic line are available with S6. Seacam offers S6 to Ikelite and S6 to Sea and Sea/Inon cords, so therefore Inon/Sea and Sea/Ikelite strobes can all be used with any housing with an S6 bulkhead. There may be a domestic vendor for these cords too, but I don't know of one yet.

I agree that it's a great connector - loads better than the Nikonos.

The Subal flash housings come with S6 bulkheads too. It is a great connector design and is much like the Ikelite, except the S6 has dual o-rings.I picked up one for the 580EX and would like to get an S6 bulkhead installed on my housing. The only constraint is the cost of the cords. An Ikelite single sinc cord from Nik to Ike costs about $120. The Seacam S6 cord to Ike strobe costs >$300!!!

Cheers

James

Hi folks ,

I know a guy who does souch stuff in any way needet

the problem is there are only a few (2) manufakturers in Germany/Austria who produce the plugs for the S6. I plan to do myself a own Version .In a few weeks a Ikelite/S6 housing bulkhead is available based on the Ikelite thread and adaptable to my S6 bulkhead there are also other adapters available ( Olympus PT/ PTE housings ) aditional it is posible to use the same base also for S8 or S4 connects if someone needs, the inserts are available in different pin numbers. My New S6 is compatible to all other S6 Versions.

I already rebuild Ikelite housings with S6 by milling up to a M14 x 1 tread into the original Ikelite housing it is no problem at all cause the Ikelite thread is smaler. I already changed the Ikelite synccables into Ikelite/S6 ones by mounting a new S6 plug to the old cable. Last week I have done for a Subal Canon 20D user with two Ikelite DS125 I also addet a E-TTL MKII konverter to the Subal housing. Fits perfekt and works marvelous.

Michael

C'mon strobe and housing guys ... let's move away from the prehistoric Nik V dependency.

Mine is another vote for a revolution...the durability/and integrity of the S6 connector is fabulous. If everyone does it the price will come down.

Requires S6 bulkhead on housing (that's how I ordered my last Seacam housing for 1DsMKII) and custom cord. I got the cords from Seacam too (for both Inon and Ikelite strobes), but with universal acceptance from the strobe manufacturers, S6 cords should be a standard option.

Thanks for posting the images Stephen, that's a big help - and the double o-ring does look good, although to be fair, I've never had a failure there (mostly the failure has been between my ears, but I digress).

That looks fantastic (especially if they have a 90 degree elbow version. Does anyone else find that having the sync cord come straight out of the camera body is a good way for the cord to get mashed over a lot when the housing "rests" against something? Or am I the only one who doesn't wrap their gear in a fitted velvet lined box whenever it's not touching the flesh of my hands?

So I guess that leaves 2 questions:

1. Is there a 90 degree elbow in either the bulkhead or the sync cord?

2. How much do the S6->ike sync cords run?

Or am I the only one who doesn't wrap their gear in a fitted velvet lined box whenever it's not touching the flesh of my hands?

Everyone here knows the "velvet lined box" is for the Skittles, Rollos, Milky Ways and other candies we bring onboard (to be honest I keep my Ambien in there too ). My housing is plenty safe being all tied up and entangled with the other housings on the camera table............it ain't going anywhere!

Glad to hear I'm not the only one then! Although mine is more often than not, crammed into the bow of an 18 foot RIB getting hammered as we beat into 4 foot seas. It'd be in the back where the ride is smoother, but if the bungies let go, I'd hate to have all those tanks come crashing down on it...

But the velvet lined box is definitely for the sugar hit between dives!

Don't mean to be the grinch, but if you are shooting Nikon, do you reallly need it?

I've been shooting (not very well mind you) Nikon/Ikelite equipment for close to 20 years. Started way back in '88 with my first Nikonos V. I now shoot Subal/Nikon D2x. In those 20 years and ~1000 dives (only 1 with out a camera) I had only 2, count them 2, issues with Nikonos style sync chords/connectors. First time was in the mid '90s in Catalina. Put the wrong o-ring on the Nikon side of my Nikon/Ike sync cord. Of course it flooded the sync socket and then some on my Nik V. Then about 3-4 years ago I had an issue with the Nikon side of an Ikelite sync cord and my Subal Fuji S2 housing on a dive in Kona. Flash's started firing randomly due to a flool most likely. After the dive before the next one, I disconnected the sync cord, pulled off the o-ring, fired some contact cleaner and then some compressed air to dry it, hooked it all back up and it started working perfectly again, in TTL no less.

Bottom line, if the design works why change it, and if it ain't broke, why fix it.

Don't mean to be the grinch, but if you are shooting Nikon, do you reallly need it?

 

I've been shooting (not very well mind you) Nikon/Ikelite equipment for close to 20 years. Started way back in '88 with my first Nikonos V. I now shoot Subal/Nikon D2x. In those 20 years and ~1000 dives (only 1 with out a camera) I had only 2, count them 2, issues with Nikonos style sync chords/connectors. First time was in the mid '90s in Catalina. Put the wrong o-ring on the Nikon side of my Nikon/Ike sync cord. Of course it flooded the sync socket and then some on my Nik V. Then about 3-4 years ago I had an issue with the Nikon side of an Ikelite sync cord and my Subal Fuji S2 housing on a dive in Kona. Flash's started firing randomly due to a flool most likely. After the dive before the next one, I disconnected the sync cord, pulled off the o-ring, fired some contact cleaner and then some compressed air to dry it, hooked it all back up and it started working perfectly again, in TTL no less.

 

Bottom line, if the design works why change it, and if it ain't broke, why fix it.

I don't necessarily recommend anyone with Nik V on their housing already go to the expense and bother of converting to S6, unless they need it for the 6 pins to accommodate e-TTL. But, S6 is so much better I'd like to see housing manufacturers and strobe designers making it an option for future purchases.

My point is that there is no real logical reason to stay exclusively with Nik V, moving forward, when a better option already exists. Economies of scale would make cords and bulkheads less expensive. Even now, ordering the housing with an S6 instead of Nik V is only a slight increment in price ($61 for Seacam). Changing the Nik V to S6 is obviously more expensive. Still, the wild card is strobe compatibility. As James rightly points out the existing S6 cords are expensive. But, if Ikelite, Sea and Sea, and Inon all had factory S6 cord options there would be no obstacle to ordering a housing already fitted with an S6 bulkhead.

OK ... off my soapbox for now.

I wouldn't mind switching to S6 but then the Sea & Sea TTL converter isn't an option. I would love to see a robust, fully capable sync cord used universally by everyone. Not only would it lower costs but it would improve our odds of borrowing the correct cord should we have a problem. A sync cord is the type of part that should be more interchangable than it is.

Not meaning to hijack the thread, but I'd even more like to see a fiber optic sync cord standard that does TTL. Such cords should be cheaper, lighter, and provide less drag and better bouyancy in the water. They would be field repairable, wet pluggable, and eliminate one of the biggest frustrations we have...wet bulkheads and flooded cords. Sync cords and bulkheads cause more than their share of problems, and a faulty cord setup can cause cameras to behave erratically. A fiber solution would also eliminate the hotshoe mess we currently have. A Heinrich-style TTL circuit driving an infrared LED to an Inon/Nexus-style fiber connector and packaged like the current Inon fiber converter but as a bulkhead replacement is exactly what I want! I'd also take a Sea & Sea-style device but with fiber ports rather than Nikonos ones. Unfortunately, that entails more dreaded o-ring seals.

The only thing better than an improved sync cord standard is the elimination of sync cords! Meanwhile, bring on the S6.

My new Subtronic Midi comes with one S6 conection and one trad Nik connection. The S6 connectionj is actually for charging, but I got them to send me a cable that allows a connection to my housing. It's all part of a very long and boring story that ends with the moral: 'make sure your flash is fully compatible with your housing in manual and d-ttl modes, if you have the choice of both'.

Subtronic's three-o-ring connection pins have, in my experience, proven unfloodable. Heavy strobes, mind you.

I agree with Steve. Cable/connector issues are the #1 problem in u/w photography when you talk strobe lighting.

The Nik design has been the workhorse for a long time but the S6 system is a much better though out system; not from a connector pin number point of view but from the o-ring location and number.

If ol'Ike was still around, he would adamantly defend "his" standard. It happens that the S6 system is even an imporvement of Ike's idea.

So, underwater photographers of the world unite..!

Michel

I too use S6 connectors and have done so for several years. They have worked reliably and with some, fairly minimal mantainance (I think that I have stripped out the 'O' rings once in 3 years). The connection plug has a sleeve on which can be removed to access the 'O' rings and whilst removing and cleaning them is fiddly, it is no more so than removing the 'O' ring from a Nik5 plug.

I too would comment that flash plugs and sockets are the most likely failure point in my experience and anything which makes them more reliable should be considered. For those who are interested, Nikonos 5 type sockets generally have two springs inside - water, especially salt water, in the socket innevitably results in corrosion sooner or later and at this point the socket stops working! Often rotating the sprung pins will allow them to operate again for a time (emergency remedy) but eventually they will stop connecting and must then be replaced. The S6 does not rely on sprung contacts and is of a more robust design as can be seen from Steve's pictures.

Unfortunately here in Britain we are somewhat conservative in outlook it would appear and the S6 has not been adopted to any great extent - it may be different in mainland Europe though.

Lastly, not all cables are substantially built and cable failure near the end plug is another fairly common problem (to date I have to say that I have not had a Seacam cable failure of either my own or client's). I have had cable failures on a variety of other cables in the past and in my experience it appears that the more soft and flexible a cable is the sooner it MAY give problems. I've spent a few dives gripping the flash by the cable near the plug and pushing it into the plug whilst attempting to compose a shot, and it doesn't help in doing so!