Housing and strobe connection

I am new to UW photography and was wondering if anyone could assist with the following basic questions:

1. How is the bare end of the Inon optical D cable connected to the Nexus housing..is a special connector required...?

2. What is the required camera setting (TTL) and is it required to tape over the camera flash using the Inon Z-240..?

Torbjorn

So far I've only tried this on land as my S&S DS-90's don't seem to do ttl so I stuck with electrical. But found I could simply use a length of audio optical fiber cable at a fraction of the cost of the "proper" ones. Just cut the gold ends off and strip back a few mm of outer sheath.

These I held in place on the Nexus housing by puting them inside a plastic sleave which just fit snug in the "light plug" of the housing. (not sure what to call it). Maybe not perfect but seemed to hold the fiber optic. The proper, i.e. expensive, fiber was no different than my audio one in this regard. Not sure if their is supposed to be a proper connector or not.

2. I don't know but would be interested as thinking of buying a Inon Z-240 for the ttl and optical connection. Trying to find if it really does work on the Nexus D200 housing.

The Nexus box of bits (including a set of Allen keys) should include two black tubes about 1" long. they go over the end of the optical cable and into the optical bulkheads. I used a short stretch of hose-sealing tape to fix the tubes to the cables. Despite being push fit, the connection seems to be quite robust.

Use the sTTL setting on the strobe and TTL on the D200, fine-tune with exposure compensation or the right-hand rotary control. Don't worry about the button beneath the rotary control on the Z240, as it's disabled on this setting.

It is essential that the camera flash is reaching the optical bulkhead lightguide (the conical element in the top of the housing), so do not cover it! The light emitted by the flash seems to be very low, as I guess that it quenches very rapidly when the Z240 fires, and it doesn't (at least I haven't seen it yet) produce any ghost images by reflection in the port.

Tim

B)

PS

You do need the expensive Inon optical cable, because it has the cap that excludes ambient light from the Z240 sensor. Making something from scratch seems too difficult for me!

Tim

B)

I'll toss in my two bits. Nexus D80 w. 2 Z-240s, optical cable.

It is a tight fit. I slightly "crimped" the optical cables and wraped them in teflon tape so they will slide into the optical "port". Works great. I do rinse out this port throughly at the end of the day and also service the strobe connections and the capped strobe cord outlet.

I'm still new and learning about the Nexus D200 let alone its optical connections, but have just bought an Inon Z-240. I didn't know about the little black plastic tube till a few days ago, tried it and it sticks in the housing rather firmly. Fine, except mine then picked up a bit of black plastic fluff which wouldn't easily come out as the hole is small. I had to pry the black tube out again with a screwdriver to clear it. Have gone back to a 1" length of softer more flexible tube that clamps into the port securely but can be withdrawn. This holds the fiber cable fine but night hot melt glue the two together.

I also found out the need for that expensive Inon fiber and its black cap but hadn't ordered with the flash and too late now for an upcoming trip. Made a cap with a bit of black rubber tube which snugly fit the sensor by filling one end of that with hot melt glue and drilling a hole through it for the optical cable. So far with testing only on land it works just fine.

Thanks tdpriest for the comments to use the flash on sttl and camera on ttl. The camera flash seems to fire the external flash reliably without the extra little Inon mirror setup (which doesn't appear to fit anyway).

I'm still new and learning about the Nexus D200 let alone its optical connections, but have just bought an Inon Z-240. I didn't know about the little black plastic tube till a few days ago, tried it and it sticks in the housing rather firmly. Fine, except mine then picked up a bit of black plastic fluff which wouldn't easily come out as the hole is small. I had to pry the black tube out again with a screwdriver to clear it. Have gone back to a 1" length of softer more flexible tube that clamps into the port securely but can be withdrawn. This holds the fiber cable fine but night hot melt glue the two together.

 

I also found out the need for that expensive Inon fiber and its black cap but hadn't ordered with the flash and too late now for an upcoming trip. Made a cap with a bit of black rubber tube which snugly fit the sensor by filling one end of that with hot melt glue and drilling a hole through it for the optical cable. So far with testing only on land it works just fine.

 

Thanks tdpriest for the comments to use the flash on sttl and camera on ttl. The camera flash seems to fire the external flash reliably without the extra little Inon mirror setup (which doesn't appear to fit anyway).

No problem!

I'd be interested to hear (and see) how you get on.

Tim

B)