Inon strobes with Canon dSLRs

Hi, guys -

I'm sure we all know by now that in order to use certain strobes with certain digital SLRs, we have to cover up hotshoe pins in order to have proper camera funtionality. Specifically, the Nikon D100, D1, D1X, D1H, Canon D30, D60, 10D, 1Ds, and possibly the Digital Rebel have this problem. (see Ike's page about this at http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/sync_cord_d1x.html)

On the 1Ds and Ike DS-125 with all of the pins connected, the camera knows a camera is connected (the flash icon lights up), but it will no longer allow aperture priority or shutter priority, always setting the shutter to sync at 1/250. Manual mode works fine, and fires the strobes properly.

Has anyone tried using INON strobes with all of the pins connected? I'm going to give it a try with some demo strobes I just received, but I thought I'd jump-start the process by asking here, first. I'll also try taping up some of the pins to see what happens.

They work with the D100/Nexus as long as the Nikonos magnets are not in place. Modeling light automation works as well.

Nikonos magnets? Can you be more specific for me.

Is this something that would apply to my 5000.

Eric,

I went through the whole Canon - Inon thing when I was trying to decide on strobes for my Canon 10D (housed in a Jonah housing).

I spoke to Mark Rupert of Inon, and posted various questions here, but no one seemed to have any experience using Inon strobes with all 5/6 pins of a Canon hotshoe. Basically, after speaking to people on the Inon side and also the housing dealers, the conclusion was that you can try it, but at your own risk.

I've posted questions on other boards (dpreview, Rob Galbraith) asking for information on the pinouts of the Canon flash hotshoe. No one knows anything other than trigger and ground. Or at least if they do they aren't telling. What I did learn is that most of the other pins are serial communication pins between the camera and the flash, and you run the risk of frying your camera if you connect them to strange strobe pins.

They definitely do not correspond to the 5 pins on a Nikon hotshoe, so it's your guess which Canon pin to connect to which strobe pin.

If you want to risk your 1Ds doing it, go for it! I want to know the results too. I'd like to get the focus light and laser working. One way to connect the pins would be to get the S6 - N5 wire that Seacam lists on its price list. I contacted Stephen Frink about it but he never got back to me about whether it would be feasible.

Yeang

P.S. You said you connected your 1Ds to all the pins on the Ike. How m any pins does the Ike have? and which of the Ike pins were connected to which of the Canon hotshoe pins?

Posts about INON TTL magnet settings moved to the lighting section.

I'll investigate INON/Canon interoperability and get back to y'all.

As for hooking up my Ike DS-125s, I just took the standard Nikonos connector (hooked up to 5 pins on the canon hotshoe) and used a standard Nik->Ike cord. Have no idea what pins go where, but the Ike interface is 4-pin, I believe. There are five pins, but two are bridged with some sort of resistor.

I am halfway talking out of my ass, as I have never disassembled one of their cords. But that is my understanding.

Hmm... didn't know that Seacam wired all 5 Nikonos bulkhead pins to 5 of the Canon hotshoe pins. How do you usually hook up your Ike 125s if not with a Nik - Ike cable? (I know you don't usually do this as you said that you lose Av/Tv mode, hence the reason most manufacturers only wire 2 or 3 of the 6 Canon hotshoe pins to the Nik bulkhead)

Of the housing manufacturers that I've surveyed for the 10D, Subal and Sea&Sea only wire 3 pins, and Jonah only does 2. The S6 connector has full 6 pin connectivity of course.

Yeang

I'm not positive that all five pins are hooked up, but there are five pins on the hotshoe (a sixth is removeable, and is wired in a fancy way in the hotshoe -- not sure what it does if you hook it up).

Ike provides a special sync cord that only runs two pins. I'm going to use these, instead, but I'll have to remove the other pins or tape up the contacts on my camera to try out the Inon strobes. I don't want to fry the camera, and I'm afraid to hook up all of the pins.