Having to open housing to turn on electronics

Hey

I have a 5dSR housing from Nauticam with the Nauticam TTL flash fire and also the vacuum valve

I am finding it very frustrating that I have to open my housing to turn all of this stuff on though

Why would I want to open my housing just before a dive?

The battery only lasts for 150 flashes in the Nauticam flash so I don't turn it in ahead of time

My old simple Nauticam housing was much more simple and I could set it up the night before then not have to worry in the day

Is anyone else suffering from this? Does anyone have any solutions?

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Nobody have any opinions on this.

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I have a Nauticam Canon 7D MkII housing with vacuum valve and associated electronics (no Nauticam TTL flash fire,so I can't comment on that) for two years and have done close to 200 dives with it. I always pump down the vacuum the night before I go diving and leave it pumped down with the electronics turned on until I get back from diving the next day. Typically the electronics are turned on for around 18 hours each dive day (typically two dives per day) so that would be around 1,800 hours (100 dive days x 18 hours) of electronics on time. I'm still using the original battery that came with the housing! Noting that this battery is very cheap I think you're wasting time trying to save on battery power by opening up the housing and turning the electronics on just before a dive.

The TTL is the big issue, battery lasts only 3 hours on standby without taking a shot. It only last for 150 shots anyway.

I think it's rather poor given the price

I use the sleep function to extend a camera's battery power. I have left housed cameras for hours at a time in single digit degrees C water without issues. TTL is via wired cable, however, I mainly use manual flash. I use Seacam strobes that do NOT require ANY outboard circuitry for TTL, i.e., just plain wires going from bulkhead to camera hot-shoe.

The big issue is Nauticams TTL flash battery. Standby is only 3 hours and you can't turn it on or off once sealed.

For the price of the flash is just don't get it, 490 dollars and it doesn't even come with a battery. You have to buy a canon battery then this only last a few hours?

It's really ruining diving with a camera for me. I have had the last two fives ruined by having to set the camera up on location

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I am not familiar with the details of how a Nauticam housing works. Is this is a separate battery from the one in the camera body???? Or not???? The sleep function should preserve the battery if it is the one in the body but the sleep function is typically activated via menu in the camera.

BTW a Canon flash unit attached to the camera will follow the sleep, on, or off state of the camera if I recall correctly. I do not know if there is a time limit. If the main flash capacitor is being charged while it is asleep the battery will drain - I have not tested for this.

The big issue is Nauticams TTL flash battery. Standby is only 3 hours and you can't turn it on or off once sealed.

For the price of the flash is just don't get it, 490 dollars and it doesn't even come with a battery. You have to buy a canon battery then this only last a few hours?

It's really ruining diving with a camera for me. I have had the last two fives ruined by having to set the camera up on location


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The flash fire is completely independent of the camera.

The camera does not have an in built flash so this attaches to the hot shoe and acts as a flash to fire the strobes

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The flash fire is completely independent of the camera.

 

The camera does not have an in built flash so this attaches to the hot shoe and acts as a flash to fire the strobes

 

 

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OK I get it. I need to do the overnight test to see if the flash will still work if the camera is just asleep. I left cameras turned on in the camera bag while in sleep mode a few times (even for a few days) - forgetting to turn off the camera - the camera worked A-OK on waking up but I have not done this "trick" with a flash attached. Basically I like having the camera ready to shoot so I just have to touch the shutter release while swinging it up my eye to get those shots where the subject is not going to linger such as bears.

If the overnight test passes - flash still works - it would mean that Nauticam has not implemented a capacity used by Canon strobes and possibly could via a firmware update.

The same with my camera, I can leave it in for days no issues

The flash obviously stores a lot of energy ready for a dump and there is no controlling it from inside the housing which is crazy seen as both are made by Nauticam

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I just did a quick test by attaching my 600 strobe to my 1Dx2 camera with lens attached. Powered everything up and let the camera go to sleep. Strobe stayed on for a few minutes then went to sleep. The strobe woke up when I touched the shutter release button. I also did a test by turning off the camera power on the camera's main switch - with the camera off the flash stayed on until the flash went to sleep.

From the above above I deduce that the flash goes to sleep independently from the camera so there must be some electronics in the flash unit for doing this. The flash woke up rather fast when I pushed shutter release so need to do the test for a longer period like overnight.

It sounds like Nauticam needs to incorporate a flash sleep mode similar to a Canon flash. Maybe their engineers thought that 3 hours of power is enough - wrong!!

Sounds like yours us working great, I am very surprised that for 500 dollars this problem has not been resolved

In addition it didn't even come with a battery, I had to buy that separate for 50 dollars then another 50 for a charger

I now find myself having to have to buy 4 batteries to accommodate repetitive liveaboard dives making my total cost 750 dollars and I still have to open the housing just before every dive

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Sounds like yours us working great, I am very surprised that for 500 dollars this problem has not been resolved

 

In addition it didn't even come with a battery, I had to buy that separate for 50 dollars then another 50 for a charger

 

I now find myself having to have to buy 4 batteries to accommodate repetitive liveaboard dives making my total cost 750 dollars and I still have to open the housing just before every dive

 

 

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Yikes!!! Is there anyway you can retrofit to old fashioned cables? Are limited to fiber optic synchronization with your underwater strobes.

Update: I performed the overnight test. Left the camera with flash mounted on it (as above) all night - both left powered up and allowed to sleep on their own - both woke up on touch of the shutter button this morning.

I DM you as I see you are trying to sell this unit now. Did Nauticam resolve this? Will the flash trigger go to sleep if left?