Question about bulk heads on the Aquatica D200 housing

Hi guys

I have the Aquatica D200 housing. Just wanting to know from someone else who might have this housing how many electrical contact pins they have in the left and the right bulk heads. Mine has three and two respectively, and Im wondering if one has possibly fallen off? I ask because I am having some problems with the TTL synch on one of my flashes for macro work.

When using one strobe I get good balanced light in my images, but tend to get over exposure when using dual strobes?

Please help

Cheers

Steve

How are you getting TTL with the D200 / Aquatica combo ?

Hi steve,

I doubt very much that you are getting TTL with your set up!

For a start, you need 5 pin Nikonos bulkheads, and

secondly, Aquatica doesn't do TTL converters.

For i-TTL (Nikon TTL) you will need the 5pin bulkhead and some sort of external/aftermarket

i-TTL converter. There are a few available, but then again it all depends on what type of strobe

that you are using?

If you give us a bit more info, then we may be able to piece together a plan for you...

HTH,

Bruce...

Hello Steve, sorry for the slow response (I am doing what we are suppose to do, mainly travelling and diving), Bruce is on the spot, by default Aquatica are provided with manual connectors (2 contact on the hot shoe) unless specified at time of ordering, you can upgrade to a TTL compliant 5 pins manual connector by ordering it trough your usual dealer, while not rocket science to install, you do need patience as you want to install this properly for the obvious reasons.

For the record the following combination are available for Aquatica Nikon Camera housing:

5 & 5 pins for TTL converter usage only (very rare), the second 5 pins is suplied as a back up only and two strobes should never be connected directly to the camera without a converter in between. (when running dual strobes, you must absolutely connect thoses to the converter.

5 & 3 pins (for film camera and Fuji S2pro only)

5 & 2 pins, for TTL converter (single or dual strobes via converter) or housed single Nikon SB800 or SB600 land strobes and finally dual manual strobes if needed.

2 & 2 pins (our default) for manual operation of single or dual strobes. will not conflict or freeze with any strobes available.

5 pins Ikelite single bulkhead connector, for TTL usage with their iTTL connector 4301. use ''Y'' cord for dual strobes

2 pins Ikelite single connector, for use in manual only, use a ''Y'' cord for dual strobe

Things to remember:

When connecting strobe's to a 2 pins connector said strobe's will always trigger in manual even if it is in TTL position.

When connecting a strobe to a 5 pins connector and setting to TTL position without a converter, most likely you will end up with a camera freeze.

Nikon camera's will not let you connect two flash/strobe directly unless you are connecting only the ground and sync wire (two pins connection) the camera will lock/freeze and will not trigger. It is a quirk of the newest wireless technology.

TTL converter are actually translator that take a film based TTL technology and convert it to a language that the Digital camera can decipher, they are the only practical and reliable means of hard wiring two strobes for TTL.

Some strobes are starting to show up on the market with built in Digital compliant TTL, they can be connected in single set up only (see quirk of wireless techology above). using a second strobe has to be done via optical fiber or TTL slaved strobe

I realise I do not cover optical fiber, Canon set up nor TTL slave as they are off topic and the damm thing can get complicated enough already.

Also you need to find out if your strobes are compatible with a TTL converter either by visiting the strobe manufacturer web site or suplying the info in this thread.

Regards from Venezuela

Hey Guys - sorry about my lack of those extra details about my set up.

Jean - thanks for those details, im trying to make sense of all that technical information. Its interesting that you said "When connecting strobe's to a 2 pins connector said strobe's will always trigger in manual even if it is in TTL position". This may explain why im getting the overexposed images.

Im running dual Sea and Sea YS110's, both connected to the bulkheads using 5 pin nikonos synch cords. One bulk head has three pins (left) and the other one has two (right). Im not sure if this is the correct configuration?

Initially I bought the package with one strobe (and one synch cord) only, but i picked up an additional strobe and synch cord recently. When shooting macro (105mmVR) I switch both strobes to TTL. Settings on the D200 are manual mode 1/200 and F13. Mostly it works fine but im finding that i get quite a few shots that are blown out when using two strobes.

Id be greatful if you guys with experience with this set up could let me know if im doing somethign wrong. Im still a bit lost.

Cheers

Steve

I you want to have TTL, you will need a Sea & Sea TTL converter as the Sea & Sea YS 110 are not ''out of the box'' TTL compliant with today's digital camera. you will also need to change your main connector on the housing (the one with the hot shoe attached) to a 5 pins TTL connector, when ordering ask for a replacement 5 pins main connector for a 5/2 set up, in this case I highly recommend you go trought a knowledgeable Aquatica dealer, at least they will be familiar with your request.

So for TTL here is what you need.

5 pins bulkhead from a 5/2 set up

Sea & Sea TTL converter

For manual: you already have everything, all you need is some practice and understanding of how light travel, for that I would recommend browsing through the archives for thread about: TTL versus Manual.

I do recommend that you A) read those first before shelling out big bucks for the conversion and B ) put some time aside as theses where lenghty, pasionnate and very educative threads, so it might take a while to go trough them

Manual is not the scary thing people think it is, it actually has a very nice quality, that of giving you a reliable steady output of light, once you get to know this quantity, its very fast and easy to get good exposure.

Cheers

Things much clearer now after having discussions with my supplier in Cairns. Nice to know now that I have technically been shooting in full dump manual mode all along!

I feel a bit silly but now that Im equipped with this knowledge my macro work even better in future shoots. Ahhhhhh - a learning experience

Cheers and thanks for this help guys