New Ike housing, Canon G3, SB-105 strobe problems!

With the first trip "out of the box" my IKE housing for the Canon G3 wouldn't even fire my SB-105's with the dual sync cord. I used the single sync cord (also brand new) and fired second strobe as slave while diving for 8 days. All images needed more light and I was set M - mostly 1/80th and f/2.8 to f/3.2 - ISO 100.

NO WAY!!! Something is wacky!

My SB-105's worked great with the Oly 4040/L&M set-up in Nov. 2002. So... it's on it's way back to IKE but my confidence level in them is blown. All the equipment was hand carried on - no banging - and it got TLC all the way.

Is it the housing connector? The strobes firing out of sync? (no red-eye), what could it be?

Anyone else have a problem with Ike to Nikon strobe cords?

Thanks,

Sydney aka Lori

Let's see: We have at least four things that could go wrong:

Strobe

Sync cord

Camera

Housing cord

Of those, the two things I would look closest at are:

User Error = was the strobe set to full? Is the camera compatible with the SB105?)

Sync cord = these fail - it's a fact of life, whether its a Sea and Sea, a Nikon, or an Ikelite cord

Did you use the correct cord? Some cameras that can only fire an external flash in manual require a special manual cord. Is this the case with your setup? If so, did you use a special cord?

Cheers

James

My SB-105's were set to full - yes.

And the sync cords were the ones (single and dual) sold by IKE with their housing for the canon G3 so I would assume (yes I know the definition of the word) that they were compatible.

I do know that the camera had one setting in error that was that I had the Neutral Density set to ON which does make a 2 stop difference. But to have to shoot at 1/60 and f 3.0 is way out of line - especially with some of my squid shots within 10 feet of the surface.

I think I'd best be patient and see what Ike has to say.

Thanks for the reply.

Give us a day to check on this. We just found a few housings where the hot shoe wires were reversed because the engineering types did not tell thems that do the work that polarity made a difference. Result is locking up the camera. This possibility does not seem to fit your description, especially when one strobe worked but not two.

I've done more research in the camera manual ( Now that I'm home from the trip - duh!!) and the Neutral Density filter seems to decrease the aperature by one-eighth.

Not sure how that calculates except the manual says it changes an f-stop of 5.6 to an f-stop of 2. That seems pretty drastic to me and could account for the lack of strobe on the subject. And why the close-ups (at full SB-105 power) were able to light the subjects.

I never would have suspected such an impact.

Anyway... the dual sync cord not firing from the housing is still under question so the gear will be packed up tomorrow and back to Ike.

Your posting is different than problems you expressed on the phone to one of our engineers, but tests today do confirm that housing hot shoe wired backwards produces erratic exposure and erratic firing of strobes.

Ah, you didn't mention the neutral density filter in your original post Sydney. Can you tell us more about it?

It sounds like you were using a 3 stop filter. It would cut your light output in 1/8th or 1/2^3

That will have a VERY drastic effect on your strobe exposures to say the least! :-)

Cheers

James

I'm still waiting (Sept 12) for a response from IKE about the strobes not firing on the dual sync cord (and later the single sync cord when back home) - but until then you can view the images I did take in St. Vincent at the web gallery I have. Of course I TEWAKED them a bit to bring in some color - but the only ones that had enough color on their own were then macro shots.

look at www.calweb.com/users/l/ldemars/vincy

to see the Canon G3 with Ike housing

and at

www.calweb.com/users/l/ldemars/nikv

to see the Nikonos V shots.

Comments?

Gladly acceepted.

Sydney

BTW If you look closely at the squid photo you'll see a fish tail hanging out - partially consumed. YUK!

Whoa, Sydney. My response from two postings above: "Your posting is different than problems you expressed on the phone to one of our engineers, but tests today do confirm that housing hot shoe wired backwards produces erratic exposure and erratic firing of strobes."

See August 27th post above about some G3/G5 housings having polarity reversed in the hot shoe that attaches to the camera. This only affects strobes connected with a sync cord. Please advise about the e-mail response for which you are waiting.............

Ike,

I did read about the possibility of the hot shoe being wired backwards - but I assumed it was a general problem with some (not all) housings. The answer I am waiting for is the one directly related to MY housing and MY two sets of sync cords (which were returned to IKE by Dolphin Scuba Center).

I have order numbers if that helps.

Sydney (aka Lori)

Yes, please! E-mail me (ike@ikelite.com) with repair number because we do not find a G3 housing repair from any of the six Dolphins we sell............

Monday - 9/15/03

I just got a response from Ikelite this afternoon that the hot shoe polarity was the problem with my new housing - and it's been fixed and tests fine - even with Nikon SB-105 strobes.

Should be shipped back to me shortly.

Now to schedule another dive trip....

Thanks to wetpixel contributors for their posts.