Inon Z220S & dual bulkheads??

Is anyone using dual Inon Z220S strobes on a SLR housing with Dual bulkheads? If so what camera/housing and how are the bulkheads wired (5 and 5 or 5 and 3)? Do the modeling and LASER lights work correctly? I have a Fuji S2 in a Sea&Sea housing and the dual Inons behave strangely. For reference please see these threads:

http://www.wetpixel.com/modules.php?op=mod...3774&highlight=

and

http://www.wetpixel.com/modules.php?op=mod...3552&highlight=

Thanks, Art

One user, with this camera, in an Aquatica housing, reports that his lights are always on, independent of shutter operation when in the on position. They can be turned off with the switch on the back of the strobe.

They do, however, quench when the shutter is open (correct behaviour), but never act as a true shutter-linked modeling light.

I am not sure whether or not he was using 2 single sync cords, or 1 dual. He is away right now, or I am sure would have responded.

In my setup, using the dual bulkheads wired 5 and 5 on a Sea&Sea S2 housing , the modeling lights and LASERs come on when the shutter is partially depressed, turn off during the exposure and come back on after the exposure is complete. Before exposure the modeling lights and LASERs stay on for about 18 seconds if I do not take a picture, and stay on about 23 seconds after I make an exposure. I did some tests against a white surface and in a mirror and it appears that the modeling lights and LASERs do shut off during an exposure. Also lindai who sometimes posts in this forum has the exact same setup and her setup does the same thing.

Art

In my setup, using the dual bulkheads wired 5 and 5 on a Sea&Sea S2 housing , the modeling lights and LASERs come on when the shutter is partially depressed, turn off during the exposure and come back on after the exposure is complete. Before exposure the modeling lights and LASERs stay on for about 18 seconds if I do not take a picture, and stay on about 23 seconds after I make an exposure. I did some tests against a white surface and in a mirror and it appears that the modeling lights and LASERs do shut off during an exposure. Also lindai who sometimes posts in this forum has the exact same setup and her setup does the same thing.

You are doing better than me.... The lights either are on or off in my setup and only go off during a shot. I would like the option of both setups, but right now I just manually turn the focus lights on and off as I need them.

Although the lights stay on longer than expected at least they DO go off for you - I can't get it to do that all. I have tried the magnets in both the N and Z slots with no change.

I have tried with both dual and single cords (nikonos connection to Sea&Sea on an Aquatica housing)

I am waiting for a full translation of the manual (which Ryan tells me may be coming reasonably soon), but I think it may just be the way the hotshoes are wired.

M

You said it only goes on during a shot? The way it supposed to work is that the modeling light and LASER should turn on with light pressure on the exposure trigger, turn off during the exposure, and stay off after the exposure. Which is exactly how it works using a single Inon Z-220S on eithe a Sea&Sea S2 housing with a Fuiji S2 and a Sea&Sea N90 housing with an N90. As soon I attach the second Z-220 to the Sea&Sea S2 housing the two strobes come back on after the exposure and stay on for about 23 seconds.

I am testing an Aguatica housing with dual bulkheads but I can't get it to work correctly. The second strobe won't work at all and both strobes stop working when I hook up the second bulkhead with the small connector inside the housing (I think that there is a short in the second bulkhead wiring). With this small connector disconnected inside the housing (thus only the left bulkhead is connected up) the single strobe comes back on after the exposure and stays on for about 23 seconds). This is totally different than the way the Sea&Sea housings behave with a single strobe connected.

Art

Actually with the Aqautica/S2 housing I can get the strobes to fire no problem using either a dual or single cord. So the actual strob functions in terms of image lighting is working great.

The problem is that if you set the strobe to the 'light' setting the focus light and laser both come on when the camera is on and stay on permanently. They do go off when I trigger the shutter, but otherwise they are always on.

M

Very interesting. Do you have both bulkheads wired 5 & 5 or 5 & 3? I am testing both wirings on an Aquatica S2 housing. I sent you the manual.

Art

With the help of Blake and Norma at Aquatica I have been testing various ways of wiring Nikonos type bulkhead connectors to support the use of two Inon Z-220 strobes when connected to the dual bulkheads on housings for Fuji S2 digital cameras. I have found that the two bulkhead connectors must be wired identically (see attached wiring drawing) with five wires wired to each of the bulkhead connectors (i.e., 5 & 5). If one bulkhead is wired with five wires and the other bulkhead is wired with three wires (i.e., 5 & 3), as is often done, then the modeling light and LASER light of the Inon Z-220 connected to the three wire bulkhead do not work.

When the dual bulkheads are wired 5 & 5, then with either one or two Inon Z-220 strobes connected to either a Sea&Sea S2 or an Aquatica S2 housing the modeling lights and LASERs come on with light pressure on the trigger (and remain on for about 23 seconds if no picture is taken), the modeling lights and LASERs go off during an exposure, and the modeling lights and LASERs come back on after the exposure and remain on for about 23 seconds at which time they turn off. I discovered that it did not seem to matter as to whether the magnets were installed in the Inon strobes or not as long as both strobes were configured identically (both magnets must be installed or not installed – if only one strobe had the magnet installed then the modeling light and LASER for that strobe did not work). I would recommend that the magnets be installed so that they can’t get lost.

Note that with one or two Inon Z-220 strobes connected to the Sea&Sea or Aquatica housings (wired 5 & 5) with a Nikon N90 SLR connected to the hot-shoe, the strobes work as described in the Inon manual with the strobes only staying on for eight seconds when the trigger is squeezed lightly, and the modeling light and LASER do not come back on after an exposure. It thus appears that there is a significant difference between the Fuji S2 and Nikon N90 electronics that control the strobes.

Another caution that I should mention is that the Inon Z-220 strobes are very sensitive to the soldering of the wiring to the pins of the bulkhead connectors and hot-shoe that connects to the camera. Any solder flux or conductive debris that allows for even the slightest conductive path between the connecting pins will cause the modeling lights and LASERs on these strobes to malfunction even when other strobes such as Ikelite or Sea&Sea strobes seem to work fine.