Help!! Inon D2000S not working with D200

Hi forum,

I have been trying to use a pair of Inon D2000S with my Nikon D200 (using fibre optic cables) with min to no success.

I am facing the following issues:

1) With internal camera flash setting to TTL and Strobes set to TTL the strobes fire TTL but fire too late or too soon for the camera to catch them.

2) With the camera flash setting to manual and Strobes set to manual the strobes fire at the right time but they fire at a fixed power (ie changing the strobe manual power setting has no effect!)

Help!!!

Am I using the right settings? Is there some other setting i need to adjust ???

Cheers

Mike

hi mike,

i am not quite sure about the 2000s ... but i think it should be the same as other inons ... there is a little magnet that you can screw in a little hole on the backside of the strobe ... did you put that one? on my z240 i put the magnet in for sttl and leave it out for manual strobe.

when you are in manual the power does not change? do you have the left button on "M"? and when you turn the right wheel nothing happens?

greets, serge

Hi Serge,

hi mike,

 

i am not quite sure about the 2000s ... but i think it should be the same as other inons ... there is a little magnet that you can screw in a little hole on the backside of the strobe ... did you put that one? on my z240 i put the magnet in for sttl and leave it out for manual strobe.

when you are in manual the power does not change? do you have the left button on "M"? and when you turn the right wheel nothing happens?

 

greets, serge

Thats right the strobes fire but always at same (low) power. Left button on M and makes no difference where right button is.

hmm ... that sounds not normal. in manual mode there should be a difference in output.

ok so how weird is this:

Holding the slave cable end directly to the built in flash of the Nikon I get the same results: The strobe only fires at a fixed power level and setting it to any of the manual power settings or even setting it on FULL has no effect - it just fires at the same fixed level (quite low)

But,

Holding the slave cable against the built in flash on my point and shoot (sony DSCW7) it works as it should (manual power levels and full)

Just to make it even more strange if I set the Nikon built in flash to TTL the strobe works correctly...

So it apears that the D200 built in flash (in manual mode) isnt powerful enough to properly triggert the strobe???

HELP!!!!

Be careful how you are measuring the output of the D2000. Are you measuring the output from the camera's LCD/histogram? If you are doing these tests outside the housing where the built in flash is not blocked out. On ttl the built in will be doing all the ttling. giving you the same light output readings.

Also, The D200 has preflash in TTL and no prefash in manual

DrMike,

Have you ever considered that the reason your strobes are so confused could be related to the way you dive mate? Your poor strobes are probably Narked off their faces!

It sounds as if you may just get a pre-flash.

Now, I have just replaced electronically triggered Z-220s with optically triggered Z-240s, and so far they work perfectly with a Nexus D-200 housing.

I have never tried D-2000s, but they I believe that they were never intended for use with D-SLRs, hence the fusion (and complex it is, too) of D-2000 and Z-220 in the Z-240. I believe that you need to use the optical converter D unit, and that sometimes needs one contact of the hot-shoe connection to be disabled, using a small insulating disc.

I can't follow the details in the eccentrically translated Z-240 manual, and I suspect that the instructions for the D-2000 are similarly hard to follow.

The Z-240, for instance, needs its "Advanced Cancel Circuit" to be disabled when using manual strobe on the D-200...

... I think.

Tim

B)

More:

I've just checked on Inon USA's website: sTTL needs camera strobe on TTL and the D-2000 magnet out, manual needs camera strobe on manual and the magnet in.

A bit fiddly, if you are going to swap between modes, and probably why Inon have replaced the magnet with a button on the Z-240.

Tim

B)

very strange tim,

i use my z240 in sttl with the magnet IN and in manual with tha magnet OUT.

on a canon dslr.

i also use the d2000w ... there i dont put the magnet at all (because of fiddly).

both are working.

very strange tim,

 

i use my z240 in sttl with the magnet IN and in manual with tha magnet OUT.

on a canon dslr.

 

i also use the d2000w ... there i dont put the magnet at all (because of fiddly).

 

both are working.

yes, i agree with serge.

I used the D2000 and D2000s in s-ttl with the magnet in, and i'm stuck with manual without the magnet. maybe they got confused while writing the manual?

oh, is the left knob on "S-TTL" or "S-TTL low"? It should be in the low mode. I've used that with great success with cameras that have pre-flash (TTL). sounds completely contradictory, but the STTL-low mode gives more output that the S-TTL. *shrug*

DrMike, you're still in Singapore, right? i'd be glad to help you solve your problem

Not at all strange: Inons do different things with different systems, that's why it's so confusing. The Z-240 is so complicated because it seems to have been designed to work with lots of different cameras, all with their own idiosyncratic strobe protocols.

The magnet/Advanced Cancel Circuit button can have opposite effects in different modes! In optically linked s-TTL the Z-240 magnet is disabled, so it should not matter what you do.

With a Nikon D200, full "s-TTL" rather than "s-TTL low" appears best with wide angle and stopped down macro.

I can't speak for Canon cameras, but it is clear that they do not behave in the same way as Nikons.

Tim

B)