Aquatica D200 & Sea & Sea YS 90DX: TTL Options

After several years using an Oly 5050, I've just purchased a used D200 with an Aquatica housing. The housing has one Ikelite ttl bulkhead and one nikonos non-ttl bulkhead. I'll be using my S&S YS 90DX strobes. I'm trying to figure out my options if I want ttl. I think I can replace the Ikelite bulkhead with a nikonos ttl bulkhead, purchase a Sea & Sea ttl converter and will have working ttl. Is this right? Do I have any other options?

Assuming I purchase an Ike to S&S synch cord, will the Heinrichs-Weikamp internal ttl converter http://reefphoto.com/index.php?main_page=p...352cd0ff690d6d2 work with the Ikelite bulkhead and the S& S strobes? Are there any other possibilities?

If I am correct, you would probably want to switch out both bulkheads to Nikonos TTL for use with a TTL converter: that way you have a back up. Being a former TTL addict for macro/film, I thought it was going to be a huge deal going manual with this setup. Not really a big deal. You will learn what works pretty quickly using manual, remembering that wih an SLR and smaller apertures you will need more light than with your prior system when shooting macro. The converter has had a lot of reliability issues, and is rather pricey, considering it may not work properly all of the time. It is also really bulky.

While you are getting the folks at Aquatica to switch out your bulkhead(s), have them do a maintenance; you don't know how the system was maintained, and it's probably overdue.

As for the Heinrichs, someone else will hopefully chime in.

Good luck, and enjoy your new system,

Marli

Hi Reuben,

I think that you will find that the Ike to S&S sync cord will be manual only and therefore

not useable in your situation.

I think that the Heinrichs converter is the most reliable of all the third party converters

and Ryan and his crew are first class with their installation work. Just check the Heinrichs

web-site to make sure that the YS90DX is listed as being compatible. I'm pretty sure that it is...

Instead of sending your camera to Aquatica, I'm sure that Ryan could install new bulkheads

and 'O' rings into your housing and that way the housing is only away once...

Bruce...

If I am correct, you would probably want to switch out both bulkheads to Nikonos TTL for use with a TTL converter: that way you have a back up. Being a former TTL addict for macro/film, I thought it was going to be a huge deal going manual with this setup. Not really a big deal. You will learn what works pretty quickly using manual, remembering that wih an SLR and smaller apertures you will need more light than with your prior system when shooting macro. The converter has had a lot of reliability issues, and is rather pricey, considering it may not work properly all of the time. It is also really bulky.

While you are getting the folks at Aquatica to switch out your bulkhead(s), have them do a maintenance; you don't know how the system was maintained, and it's probably overdue.

As for the Heinrichs, someone else will hopefully chime in.

 

Good luck, and enjoy your new system,

Marli

Hi Marli,

Thanks for the reply. Marna forwarded me the link to you Solomons' pictures. Beautiful work. They brought back good memories.

I was wondering if you could answer a few more questions about manual strobe settings. I'm interested in the possibility but a bit concerned as well. On my 5050, I had a ttl converter. When it worked it was wonderful. When it didn't, it was a tremendous pain. My usual practice was to choose my shutter speed based on how light or dark I wanted the background and whether the subject was moving, then set my aperture so that the camera's meter would show around - 2 and then let the ttl pick the strobe duration. This seemed to work reasonably well as long as I stayed within the limits of my strobe's power. Of course, some things, like shooting a dark subject on white sand, just didn't work without reworking the flash compensation. My problem is that when I was forced to use manual power settings, my choices always seemed like complete guesses. Sometimes I made good choices and got good exposures and sometimes I got really bad exposures. Of course, I could look at the screen and adjust. But is there some systematic way to make choices about strobe settings? Or is my approach in choosing shutter speed and aperture the problem?