Titan D100 housing??

Here is an offical rumor. L&M is working on a derivative of their Titan housing for the D100 that with feature Digital ROC and use Subal dome ports. Note that this is a third hand rumor. Suppose to be ready in 4 months.

Questions for Titan owners. How do you like it? What are it's good and bad points? How well does the ROC work?

Thanks:cool:

I'll let you know in two and a half weeks... finally gonna get it wet! Yahoo!!

Richard

I've probably used my Titan more than anyone in the country. I bought it on the 1st production run and it has over 150 dives already. Here is the scoop:

Good Points

1)Beautiful construction - LMI produces some of the most solid equipment in the industry. Simple and easy to maintain, yet technically exceptional.

2)ROC control - Allows 12 increments of power for virtually any strobe. Works flawlessly. Better than TTL or dTTL in flexibility, but you will have to use your brain to make it work.

3)Handle operated shutter and AF(infrared) control, or traditional lever. This gives you 3 ways to AF your camera and trip the shutter. If 1 or 2 fail (handle flood, poor alignment of camera) you still can complete your dive. Also adds great flexibility for shooting at difficult angles.

4) The wide angle conversion lens is AWESOME (though expensive). Great flexibility in the available wetlenses.

Downside

1)Strobe base mounts are derived from LMI's video housings and mine failed - strobes are much heavier. Apparently mine is the only one that has been problematic, but I suspect there will be many more. The housing can be mounted to a traditional base, but it makes for a huge system.

2)White balance - you cannot switch between auto and manual without opening the housing. Quite an oversight, but I suspect they will remedy this on the D100 if it comes to market.

3) The macro lens takes quite a bit of getting used to. Cannot focus outside of 10" or so.

4)The base for the Q40 focus light uses plastic tabs to prevent unwanted rotation of the light. Those tabs have worn out every 30-40 needing replacement. I think they may have corrected this problem in new units. The rechargable and more expensive modeling light has a sturdier base, and should be less problematic.

Overall, I really like the system and it has produced great results. Most negative points are minor, but the strobe bases and WB I think were major oversights and LMI needs to address them. I guess that is the penalty for buying the first run of a camera housing.

Kasey

Thanks for the info. I'd appreciate any other insights. Is it correct that you can create ratio light if you are using two strobes??

Of course... Can't you do that with other systems?

Can do with any 2 strobes in manual. Just wanted to make sure could do it with the ROC

So, are you saying that all these guys shooting in TTL are creating flat lighting?!? What about non-digital systems like the Nikonos. I was taught that flat lighting is desireable only for fish-id pics.

You shoot TTL, the strobe fires until the camera tells it to quench, a predetermined exposure. You might be able to get some ratio lighting if the strobes are a significantly different distance from the subject. No top photographer that I know uses TTL for wide angle. They use manual and constantly change the strobe power or distance to the subject. The idea of ROC is enticing as you can very the strobes output without having to reach out to the strobe to change the power setting

Flat lighting is seldom the best choice for a photo. But if you shoot 2 strobes TTL, even if of different guide numbers you will get something close to flat lighting. The camera will quench the stobes when it believes that the proper exposure has been reached. You will have to change the distance of the strobes and the angle of the strobe to avoid flat lighting with TTL if you are using 2 strobes.