anyone make a diy strobe case?

Hey everyone. has anyone ever made a diy strobe housing for an sb800 or 900? I've seen a few plans for some pvc underwater flash guns rigged with wireless connections but nothing that would be easy to modify for diving (im afraid pvc threads will leak under that much pressure)

thanks

Hi,

I made a strobe housing for olympus FL-36R.

As any strobe is simillar in shape, my experience might help you.

how to make is here. Sorry explanation is japanese but many photos.

It's a simple acrylic box with one push button for power switch.

in my case a mirror is needed for strobe control under the bright sea.

I have used it about 1 year with no trouble ( max 27m depth).

Good luck.

hey thanks for the response.

I dont see anywhere in there where you did the wiring though. how do you have it synced to your camera? Do you think a hot shoe connector (like the ones you can buy for wired remote flash operation) wired to a nikanos or ikelite 5 pin plug would work? or am i missing a serious step in wiring here?

I was thinking of something similar but using acrylic tubing, only I'm lost trying to think of a good way to close the housing in a method that doesn't require major surgery to pull the flash out.

What did you use to seal it off (that grey putty)? I'm sure its listed there but...you know...Japanese...

thanks again

Mike

Hi, Mike

In my case, set the internal strobe of E-3 (my camera) as wireless strobe commander mode, no need of synchronous code.

What is your camera?

If you set the internal strobe of your camera as commander mode, SB600, 800, 900 may be used as a wireless slave (remote) strobe.

IMO to make a strobe housing requires nearly the same level of skills of making camera housing.

It might save the money and time to buy the underwater strobe (for example INON D2000 etc)

rather than DIY strobe housing.

Hi,

You can look this thread :

http://forum-photosub.fr/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1317

The guy who make this is a friend, and whith his help i'm going to make one ...

The body is made with pressure resistant transparent PVC pipe.

Actually the front dome is "CNC-Machined" in a 40mm plexiglass plate, but we are looking to use "standard" 3mm acrylic domes (like security camera).

The choice of the dome in front of the housing, is made for the wide angle cover improvement.

You can see the difference with the 10.5 mm Nikon and a flat port or dome port on the strobe here :

http://forum-photosub.fr/forum/viewtopic.p...ighlight=#14339

Hope this help... bye

thanks for the replies. hanachan, im shooting a D200 and the internal flash not accessible underwater. (i see the mirror for triggering now)

My reasoning for wanting sb8-900's is partly because i dont have to go buy anymore, and partly because having perfect ttl for macro is a nice thing when you shoot in mud half the year. my reasoning for not wanting to buy dedicated strobes is cost. $2500 in lighting that I can only use underwater is a little much, particularly in times like theses...(inon d2000 is a little on the small side)

Hi,

You can look this thread :

http://forum-photosub.fr/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1317

 

The guy who make this is a friend, and whith his help i'm going to make one ...

The body is made with pressure resistant transparent PVC pipe.

Actually the front dome is "CNC-Machined" in a 40mm plexiglass plate, but we are looking to use "standard" 3mm acrylic domes (like security camera).

The choice of the dome in front of the housing, is made for the wide angle cover improvement.

You can see the difference with the 10.5 mm Nikon and a flat port or dome port on the strobe here :

http://forum-photosub.fr/forum/viewtopic.p...ighlight=#14339

 

Hope this help... bye

Wow, your friend is an engineering genius! Although I dun understand French, the photos are good enough!