DS125 Sensor or Sync cord?

Hello all,

First off I'd like to thank everyone who helps out with all the highly enlightening posts and answers for lots of problems some of us less educated and experienced folks don't have a clue on. I've found this forum site probably the best place for up to date information available anywhere. WIth lots of research and lots of time spent here reading just about every topics I could find, I"ve now decided on what to buy and have been buying up everything I needed for the setup. At this point I've order the Nikon CP 5000 and am going to order the Ikelite 6190 housing and a DS-125 strobe for starters. About the last question I have (for now anyways:D), which do you think would work better with this camera in an Ike housing the Sync cord or go with the Sensor that comes with most of the DS-125 packages? Thanks again and happy diving.

Jeff

The Ikelite housing comes with a bulkhead for attaching a 5 pin sync cord. Why not use it - it's there for a reason.

Cheers

James Wiseman.

James has convinced me (see several other posts) to "stop monkeying around" with the TTL slave for now and to go for a direct connection between my CP5000 and DS125. No more calling me a weirdo, James! :-)

Try as I might I was getting overexposed pics with most settings I tried, even with the exposure compensation set at -2 (no takers in my exif Q in the processing forum and I haven't had any joy with that Q elsewhere either). A conversation with the folks at Ikelite yesterday did confirm James' assertion that with the cord you can use the speedlight settings in the camera to tell the strobe to cut down its output (i.e. essentially use the strobe at 1/2 or 1/4 power but still in TTL mode) which does seem to be a control worth playing with. Of course, if my problem is that the TTL sensor in the camera is a little insensitive, the camera will keep the strobe on long enough to overexpose regardless of the strobe output power, but eliminating the bounced light feedback loop has to IMHO eliminate one more variable. Ordered the cord yesterday and with any luck I'll be able to do some side-by-side comparisons.

Bob.

I have had no luck with the Nikon CP5000 and the DS125 in TTL mode with an Ikelite housing. Let me know if it works for you.

I have had no luck with the Nikon CP5000 and the DS125 in TTL mode with an Ikelite housing. Let me know if it works for you.

I've setup and used the Ikelite Housing with the Coolpix 5000 but the strobe is on backorder. I should hopefuilly have it in two weeks or less and I"ll let ya know how that works out. So far I love the camera and the housing both.

jeff

I have a Canon G2 and am on the brink of buying an Ikelite housing and DS50 strobe. The pictures of the slave setup look really clumsy and a real PITA to keep the slave aimed properly. I queries Ikelite customer service if it was possible to use the strobe without a slave, and they replied tersely, "Have to use the slave. No external sync cord available."

What I'm reading here makes me think that's not quite true ... or is the difference in the other pieces (camera and strobe)?

Thanks.

To connect a strobe with a sync cord, you need two things:

1) A connection for the cord such as a hot shoe or a sync port

2) A camera that can fire one of today's available underwater strobes

Can you connect an external flash to the G2's hotshoe? Does it fire a preflash?

That may be the problem. If you hook one of today's underwater strobes to the G2's hotshoe it probably won't work. If it did, Ike probably would have gone that route - like they did with the hotshoe on the Coolpix 5000.

That's just a guess though.

HTH

James Wiseman

With the G2, you don't have a choice. You can't use a hard wired connection, and get TTL.

I'm using the G2 and DS50 and optical slave, and it is working great.

The extended arm bracket, which allows you to put the slave sensor below the pivot point of the strobe arm, works great. It means you can aim the sensor once, and forget it.

I used the previous version of the slave, on a film SLR system, and it always worked great there too.

Good luck.

Don

Here's a picture of the G2 from Canon's website:

It has a hotshoe on it right? Why is it there? Canon says it's compatible w/ the 550EX, 420EX, and 220EX.

See This Page on the Canon Site for details.

So if other cameras like the D60 that use the 550EX flash can use a sync cord and manual flash - can the G2?

Still no TTL though...

Cheers

James

Since I get perfect TTL, using the ikelite slave, I'll stick with that.

TTL compatibility with Canon ETTL is probably not going to happen. Attaching to the G2, D30 and D60 hot shoe will only provide manual flash. Our Sensor system does work very well with these Canon cameras.

One advantage of a sync cord with the Nikon Coolpix is extended battery life without running the camera strobe.

Well, that's an answer...not the one I was hoping for, but....

I know being a "minimalist" isn't really compatible with scuba diving, and certainly not with u/w photography, but I surely did want to omit that slave unit!

Oh, well....

Hey Ike!

I'm not sure I understand. If I get the DS125 for my G2/Ikelite system, can I expect to have problems with either the sync cord or the slave? Are the bugs worked out of the slave unit?

Are there any other strobe options out there?

Thanks.

Tuga asking a trick question? The strobe system is supposed to work very well, and does for us as evidenced by the Canon G2 pictures on our web site. We did make a product that worked once but not always?

I heard that if you don't read the directions, sometimes it is confusing and hard to get a product to work.

You need to make a product that works without reading the instructions!!!

Cheers

James

Ike

I re-read my message and I hope you didn't think I was being sarcastic or even asking a trick question.

I have been having a ball with my G2 and Ikelite case. I was going to order the DS125 with the slave (#3944.65) when I ordered the camera and housing but B&H Photo was out of stock on the strobe pkg. Then I found this forum and read about a lot of problems with the sensor so I thought I'd wait til the bugs were out.

Then other posts sounded as tho a hard wired sync cord was more reliable but I didn't think it was even possible to use a sync cord with the G2 system.

I'm getting some fun pix with the built-in but I'm more than ready to add the strobe.

Tell me the best way to go and I will order it today!

Thanks!!

Tuga

I was simply using your question to poke fun at Ikelite and maintain my immature and rotten image. We are still several weeks behind on orders for DS-125 SubStrobes.

Back to my G2 with Ikelite housing, DS50 substrobe and slave sensor. The slave gives me TTL control of the external strobe, but only with the built-in strobe ON. So why will I not have a back-scatter problem. I have heard of another type of system that uses a fiber-optic cable to sync the strobe to the built-in, and covers the built-in with black tape. That sounds sensible to me, but I can't black out the built-in if the slave has to be able to see it.

I think that's why Ike makes a "flash blocker" for the cameras internal strobe. The flash blocker allows light to go to the slave sensor, but now shoot out straight toward your subject - creating backscatter. I'm sure they can provide one for your housing if you ask - it might even have come with your setup - I think it's a black piece of plastic with an octopus on it.

HTH

James Wiseman