Getting D200/ND20 to work with Sea & Sea Strobes

Hi, I've seen a fair amount of posts on issues with getting Subal and Sea&Sea to work correctly in TTL mode. Was wondering if there's a final word on this? My experience so far:

Setup1: ND20/D200/TTL Converter II (N)/YS90TTL DUO (TTL Mode +/-0EV)

- Worked fine doing some test shots on land

- First time in water noticed that large number of shots were under-exposed (e.g. no flash, although flash was cyling and I confirmed charging)

- Came back out everything worked fine on land again

- Turned off lights (sat in darkened room) and now able to reproduce on land

- Issue appears to be that flash goes off OK, but timing not syncrhonized properly with camera

- Issue impacts 1-in-3 photos

- Only occurs in relatively low light conditions

- Strobe fires every time

- Manual setting works

Took everything in for service (strobe, camera, housing, ttl converter). Received new ttl converter. Issue was still present after service. Was informed that YS90TTL DUO was too old. So I purchased a YS110 ...

Setup2: ND20/D200/TTL Converter II (N)/YS110 (TTL Mode +/- 0EV)

- Went straight into my darkened (not pitch black) room

- Seems to work better, however 1-in-10 shots completely over-exposed

- During over-exposure strobe does complete dump

- Not moving camera / changing settings between shots

- Same subject, just some pictures come out completely over-exposed

Called back shop, now told that to expect occasional over-exposure with Sea&Sea with ND20???

Help!

Is there something that works more reliable than this?

Thanks,

nick.

hey nick, sorry you're having so many problems..

regarding setup #1, its well known (at least for me and my friends) that the YS-90's do not work with the TTL converter II in low-light scenarios with the D80/D200 due to the inability to keep up with the pre-flashes. sorry you had to find out the hard way!

many of us use / have used the YS-110's with the D200 and the TTL II converter without problems, but that is with the S&S housing. I don't know why it would be different with the subal housing, but maybe the internal housing circuitry is different. I haven't heard of this "1-in-10" overexposure problem, sorry you are suffering from it, good luck figuring it out. In the words of meatloaf, "9 out of 10 ain't bad".

Scott

Yeah, exept my wife still makes fun of me for being able to get the Whitley's with her S400 Powershot ... and I had a black photo

Wondering if someone's done a schematic on the ND20 PCB to see what's there? Maybe some debug required ...

Apart from that, interested to hear if anyone has had success with ND20/YS110, or problems.

Thanks,

Nick.

Here you go - helpful reply from Sea&Sea:

<email from sea&sea>

Hello Nick,

SEA&SEA focus on the compatibility within their own product. SEA&SEA does not test compatibility of other manufacturers product. It can not be said why you are experiencing full discharge of your strobe at times. Thank you for your inquiry.

* This product is compatible only with the above SEA&SEA Housings and Strobes. Use of other equipment void product warranty.

* Use of other equipment void product warranty.

http://www.seaandsea.jp/products/accessory/ttl.html.

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Sea&Sea Imaging

T: 562.498.3708

F: 562.498.0415

www.seaandsea.com

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</email from sea&sea>

Wait a sec - can that be right? So using Ikelite strobes w/ a Sea and Sea housing will void the housing warranty?

Cheers

James