TTL, Inon, Sea & Sea questions

Hello there, i'm hoping that I can get some advice here please. It would be fabulous if I can

I have a D300, Tokina 10-17, 60mm & 105mm. I used to have a Sea & Sea NX65 35mm set up & have been told that my existing ports will still fit on the MDX-D300 housing. I've been saving up for ages to go digital !

I've gone around in circles over the housings; Subal, Aquatica, Hugyfot, but due to existing ports that will fit, and my budget, I've decided to stay with Sea & Sea.

The Inon Z240 strobe has been recommended to me. I found out today that only the manual functions of the Z240 will work with the MDX-D300, not the TTL. Does TTL get used much...will it be a pest not to have the option? Also, apparently, a fibreoptic cable can't be used? are there problems to this? Can all of this be 'got around'?

I plan to do some photography in cave systems eventually. I'm expecting that I'll need an additional strobe at some distance to the camera as a slave. Can I slave an Inon from a Sea & Sea housing or should I be looking at Sea & Sea strobes like the 250 pro so that everything is compatible?

Any help that anyone can give on this would be hugely appreciated.

Many thanks.

Safe journeys.

Annie

Annie

When I went from film to digital (N90 to D70) the loss of ttl did give me reservations. Initally I went for the S&S ttl converter. These work with the D300 and Inons (I think!!!). However, my converter had problems with a leak and while I was waiting for S&S UK to sort it and give me a new one I started shooting manually. It is a very steep learning curve and by the time I had my new converter I didn't what it anymore and decided to stay manual.

It needs to be remembered that ttl only works effectively when the subject covered a large part of the frame (i.e. macro rather than wide angle). For scenics manual is likely to be the better option anyway.

Personally I prefer the idea of hard wiring over optics as it should be more reliable.

Slave strobes usually have a sensor that detects light from another strobe and fires in sync. For remove cave lighting with slaves it will be matter particularly what fires the primary light as long as it is strong enough for the sensor to detect it.

The Z240s are very popular with good reason. The YS250s are large and this can be an issue when trying to get the proverbal 'quart into a pint pot' that is packing for overseas trips.

Daniel

Personally I prefer the idea of hard wiring over optics as it should be more reliable.

I would say that the INON optical link is very robust, and as reliable as an electrical cable, as well as being "wet", and so easily disconnected in the water. The biggest problem is an unexpected one: you have to make sure that no light from the internal flash bounces off the dome port, particularly if the strobes are turned off (it's difficult to turn off the flash on my Nikon D200 as it's mechanically switched by popping up the flash head, and the menu actions to control the strobe are hidden away); I use a home-made circular plastic disc that fits snugly around the lens base.

Even with TTL control I find that manual strobe settings work much better in wide-angle photography, especially when the background is bright, when the strobe can be completely inhibited by the sunlight. If the background is dark, the TTL may need to be limited by adjusting the strobe's maximum output. Optical links are therefore not quite as useful as sometimes claimed, and having only manual control via a cable link not as disadvantageous, though it can be a bit frustrating compared to TTL in macro-photography.

I find that the INONs work very well as slave strobes, provided that they are configured in the right way. There is a button that enables or disables the strobes response to the preflashes used to control TTL firing. Most people find a setting that works by trial and error.

The INON manual is unintelligible.

Tim

i agree that ttl is much less useful for wide angle than macro. there is also no way to ratio the Inon strobes (or any other, i believe)

the Z240 is a compact, well-built strobe and yes, the manual(s) are incomprehensible

i am only beginning to get experience with the Inon fiber optic link - it's straightforward, but the connections are a bit fiddly - looks like you could daisy-chain multiple strobes

have no experience with remote triggering

Hello there, i'm hoping that I can get some advice here please. It would be fabulous if I can

 

I have a D300, Tokina 10-17, 60mm & 105mm. I used to have a Sea & Sea NX65 35mm set up & have been told that my existing ports will still fit on the MDX-D300 housing. I've been saving up for ages to go digital !

 

I've gone around in circles over the housings; Subal, Aquatica, Hugyfot, but due to existing ports that will fit, and my budget, I've decided to stay with Sea & Sea.

 

The Inon Z240 strobe has been recommended to me. I found out today that only the manual functions of the Z240 will work with the MDX-D300, not the TTL. Does TTL get used much...will it be a pest not to have the option? Also, apparently, a fibreoptic cable can't be used? are there problems to this? Can all of this be 'got around'?

 

I plan to do some photography in cave systems eventually. I'm expecting that I'll need an additional strobe at some distance to the camera as a slave. Can I slave an Inon from a Sea & Sea housing or should I be looking at Sea & Sea strobes like the 250 pro so that everything is compatible?

 

Any help that anyone can give on this would be hugely appreciated.

 

Many thanks.

 

Safe journeys.

Annie

You will most probably do fine without TTL, but if you get a TTL-converter, you can have TTL with your D300 and Z240's. Sea&Sea has a few different versions (make sure you get the correct one) and then there s the Heinrich Weikamp unit (which I use with Z240's and a Nikon D200).

Not sure what you mean by slaving a Z240 from a S&S housing? You can certainly slave an Inon Z240 from any flash triggered by any camera in any type of housing. It reacts to the light from the flash, so there is no problem.