Am I the only one who thinks Nikonos Bulkheads are terrible?

Yeah, the design of Nikonos bulkheads is pretty crummy, but in ten years diving I haven't had a failure. Since there are so many out there, the observed failures COULD be simple statistics (confusing absolute failure rates and relative failure rates).

I'm suspicious enough that I've replaced mine with optical connectors, but I'm now wrestling with the temptation of using TTL strobe control, that I haven't used since I retired my Nik V...

... and I'm still carrying my 5-pin cords (as backup!?!).

Inon Z-240 strobes mimic TTL through their optical cable, by tracking the cameras internal flash. The only problem I've had is a little light leakage into a big dome, solved by a plastic disc that pushes onto the lens and occludes the gap between the dome and the housing.

Although the Ikelite connection is good, just remember where the bulkhead was sited on the D70 housing, just where it pokes your nose!

Tim

B)

Cables are the weak point in the system, potential leak and snag points. I would like to see us ditching them altogether, be it copper or fibre. Surely in this time of cheap electronics and wireless communication, someone can come up a compact encapsulated plug in Tx/Rx unit with as many channels as necessary for full TTL.

It works on my dive computer, now its just got to be fast enough.

Anyone want a project

Hi Guys,

Gudge,

I contacted the Oz rep for Inon and he sent me out two of the new 'Optical Windows' and I then had the housing drilled and tapped for the 'windows'. I use a Nexus housed D70S and it is an older housing BUT, still has plenty of room to deploy the camera's flash unit. Try fitting your camera into the housing with the flash up and you might be surprised by how much room is actually in there... 'Windows' were about aud$90 each??

Tim,

I was also concerned about any strobe/flash light coming out of the housing and into the port. Once again I contacted my Inon rep and got hold of some of the clear flash tape that they use for blanking out the flash units on the compact/P&S cameras. The strobes read the infra red light signals which passes through the tape unrestricted...

The result of the experiment has been a complete success and I will now have to get a couple of the nice new Inons, unless someone has a couple that they want to donate to research??

Bruce...

I contacted the Oz rep for Inon and he sent me out two of the new 'Optical Windows' and I then had the housing drilled and tapped for the 'windows'. I use a Nexus housed D70S and it is an older housing BUT, still has plenty of room to deploy the camera's flash unit. Try fitting your camera into the housing with the flash up and you might be surprised by how much room is actually in there... 'Windows' were about aud$90 each??

I did check my 20D in the Subal housing last night and there is sufficient room for the strobe to be raised inside the housing and fire. So fitting optical windows to the housing is certainly feasible.

I also got an email from Ryan last night saying that he was looking at putting some optical bulkheads into the Subal 40D sync cord sockets along with some internal fibre optics so that Inon strobes could be used in TTL mode with the 40D. There probably won't know anything for sure until next month but I'm definitely interested if it works.

I have been shooting the Titan D100 with the wetlink strobe cords for a few years.

This was an option with the housing when new, and I’m surprised that they still don’t offer them.

This is also the same cords from the tetra housings.

I haven’t had any problems with them at all. Just push them in, and your ready to go. After diving just pull them out give a rinse, and a rub of grease done.

I have been shooting the Titan D100 with the wetlink strobe cords for a few years.

This was an option with the housing when new, and I’m surprised that they still don’t offer them.

This is also the same cords from the tetra housings.

I haven’t had any problems with them at all. Just push them in, and your ready to go. After diving just pull them out give a rinse, and a rub of grease done.

Does the L&M ROC system work with these WetLink connections? I didn't think it did.

Thanks.

K

The wetlink sync cords are 5 pin, and ROC work perfect with them.

They say you can unplug them underwater, but I have never tried this.