problems with seacam Seaflash 150d

Hi,

I have 2 Seacam seaflash 150d strobes. On land by testing they give excellent TTL funktion. After the landtest during the dive they don't give TTL, just manual. I sent hem to seacam they found no dysfunktion but they didn't test underwater. After the service the same problem occurs. This is realy anoying. And yes I can shoot manual but for macro stuff it is easier to use TTL

Does anybody has the same or other problems with the TTL funktion of the seacam flashes???

Solutions?? I have 3 different strobekabels and also tested 1 and 2 strobes with just the same result; no TTL

Rob

To troubleshoot, did it ever work in water or is this a new issue? Have you messed with settings on the camera? For TTL to work on land and not underwater usually means the metering is off underwater. Or are you saying it only fires @ 1 power level? What happens when you fire in TTL mode?

The more details, the better we can help you.

Hi Drew,

I am shooting in manual mode.

I was on a 3 weeks trip in Bali and the TTL worked only 1 day ( the 15th day of shooting, before and after it didn#t work). I changed kabels ( 3) and also shooting in A-modus( aperture priority) didn't help.

When I am firing in manual mode the pictures are always about 5 stops under exposed. So it lookes like the strobe don't fire.

I used nikon 60m afs, 105 mm vr, tokina 12-24mm and tokina 10-17 mm FE always the same result

I have also a Nikon SB 800 in a housing. No problems with the same camera settings. The TTL is spot on.

Have you tried 2nd curtain and long shutter time... 1/2 sec or more to see if it's a sync issue? Sounds like when it gets underwater, the sync is off. Could be the seal on the battery? Any moisture in the chamber? Or in the strobe glass?

no moisture in the chamber or in the strobe glass. everything is dry.

you mean second curtain in manual and ttl-mode??

It's TTL that's not working correct? So test everything in TTL mode.

What kind of cables are you using? If my memory serves me well, I remember Stephen Frink mentioning something about iTTL only available for only 1 strobe with Nikon when the SF150 came out. I'm pretty sure that now with S6, dual iTTL is possible with Nikon. Is yours S6 or N5 cables? Have you updated your firmware? Are these new or used strobes?

Have you tried shooting one in TTL and one in slave without cable?

If that is not the issue, then you will have to trouble shoot more.

First you have to determine if this is an issue with depth (thus pressure), especially since you say that it works topside but doesn't @ depth. I think that Dive 2000 should be doing this with your entire rig. If you don't want them to do that, then go to a pool... start shallow and go deeper.

S6 cables are new, flashes are bought new ( now 1 year old)

Latest update

will try shooting 1 TTL and 1 slave.

I have no access to a pool the upcoming 3 weeks after that I will try different steps.

thank you for your help

Do they still work in iTTL on the surface? Try with different apertures and a speed of 1/250, try with one strobe, then the other, then both.

Use a tester to check continuity from the hot shoe pins to the connector pins and to the end of the connected sync cord. When you try this move around the hot shoe because you may have one of the housing´s mini cables broken inside the plastic and getting continuity depending on the bend of the hot shoe cords...

Clean the camera´s hot shoe contacts well.

Reset the camera.

I also think that if you paid fot iTTL you should get it.

David

He's saying he has iTTL topside but not underwater. That's not the same as it's not working at all. He's also saying his housed SB800 works underwater. He also claims it worked 1 day out of 15, which I'll interpret as either he got something right that day that he can't replicate. It's almost impossible to tell without him giving all the info necessary to diagnose the problem.

He's got to test every methodically to eliminate things. It could be the housing, the strobes, the cables.