Just got my Ikelite housing for Canon 20d and I am eager to get it wet. At the moment the only strobe that I have access to is Substrobe 400 as my DS-125s are being upgraded.
For some reason ss400 doesn't seem to co-operate with the housing. According to the housing manual you should be able to use this strobe given that the strobe is set to manual mode. The strobe just keeps beeping and doesn't fire.
I've tried different sync cords, 4103.51 ( the one with blue band), with no avail. The strobe fires if I use slave sensor (4100??) and trigger it with the built-in flash. The strobe also recycles normally after firing.
Any idea what is going on? Should I use different kind of sync cord? Camera settings to change? Custom function 7 is set to fire the strobe.
Try using a piece of electrical tape cut into a square with a small hole in the center, placed on the camera's hotshoe. Make sure all the pins are covered except for the center one. This should allow you to use the SS400 with the strobe and cords you have now. Simply peel the tape off when you get the DS125's back.
HTH
James
The TTL connection is different on the SS400. The green wire is always connected, unlike the other strobes. Putting the strobe in manual though the strobe should fire, but because the green wire is always connected to the ICs, the ready light will blink and the audio will beep. The controller in the housing is not powered so it is grounding the green wire. To use the 400 he needs to have a cord without a green wire connected. The 400 is unique, this is one of those exceptions that we did not cover in the instructions. We could disable the beeper in his strobe. The strobe should still fire in manual though. So there could be an issue with his front.
Good info, thanks Ike.
With that said, is the SS400 still available? It's one heck of a wide and powerful strobe.
Cheers
James
SubStrobe 400 has been officially discontinued. It provided very even and very wide coverage in a big and heavy above water configuration that handled very nicely underwater............
Thanks for the advice. I think I'll wait for my digital strobes, I don't want to ruin my sync cords just for to make few dives. SS400 works with slave sensor and that is the way I plan to use it most of the time anyway.
I bought the SS400 from Ebay. I think that I got lucky, it was a slow week on Ebay because of some U.S holiday (passover?), I was the only bidder and got it for $275, previous auction for SS400 ended +$500
