D100 and Titan Housing problems

Ok, have a guest here with this set up and she is having massive problems, hoping someone can shed some light.

Basically, she is using all manual with autofocus. Same problem wit 12-24 and also 105. We have switched her over to AF-C to see if this has solved the problem but no.

The problem consists of not being able to fire the shutter. She says everything is in focus, using spot focus on the 105, but the shutter just won't fire. The focus dot in the eyepiece is blinking, on center focus when things are in focus. She is getting extremely frustrated and i can't figure out why it is not firing. The AF-C should solve all of that because it should fire everytime.

The underexposure is also flashing but that shouldn't matter either, camera should still fire no? Unless the D100 has some seriously different things going on from the D70

ANyone? Thanks for any ideas that may come in, i don't know anything about the D100.

Mike

Will the camera fire if set to MF?

Is this intermittent, or will the camera never fire?

Check the menus for focus options - I don't recall if the D100 allows focus priority in the AFC mode like the D2H/X.

Unplug the camera from the ROC housing controls and try to fire with only the mechanical shutter actuator. Perhaps you are getting some ROC malfunctions.

Hey Kasey, thanks for the quick reply

it does fire intermittantly so i also think it may have something to do with the ROC stuff. However, what was confusing me is the fact that the shutter release itself is manually pushing the button....

We changed the focus priority from closest focus to AF-C which is what i thought would solve the problem but it didn't...She is using the ROC focus button on the handle instead of half pressing the button so that also leads me to believe the ROC problem like you suggest.

Don't have the setup in front of me so not sure...is the ROC control a seperate setup from the hotshoe? Or is it all in one? I sure hope not.

Thanks again will suggest the non ROC

M

Right, just thought of something else, actually someone else did but thats ok, switching the handles! Going to give that a try in the morning as my partner here had some luck doing that with someone else's Titan in the past. The nice thing with L&M is the fact you can switch and mirror the controls from handle to the other.

Will let you all know if that works tomorrow

Cheers

Mike

Hi Mike,

I use a Titan and D100 - the ROC/camera tray has nothing to do with the shutter release, this is purely mechanical. You can see if the tray is working correctly from the change in shutter speed and aperture from either handle, also from the movement of the ROC lights.

The shutter release in the housing has a very fine adjustment - first take the camera out of the housing and confirm that it is firing correctly at all - having the tray connected makes no difference. If yes then try extending the shutter release button - you will see that it is retained by a small allen head screw, simply unscrew a little to extend it. LMI did send out an improved shutter release kit last year as I think this problem has occured for other users.

Hope that helps.....

Mark Webster

www.photec.co.uk

Mark is correct, ROC should not affect shutter release. The early Titan D100's did not have the adjustment on the shutter release this was added about six months after the initial release. Also the Focus Button on the housing can be reprogrammed to allow different functions and can affect af perfomance.

First test: Does the camera operate normally in normal land use.

Second test: Mount the camera to the housing tray with the shoe connector installed and check operation without installing it in the housing.

If both of the above test OK the problem is either the shutter release adjustment as originally mentioned or the programming of the focus button. You can remove the right grip from the housing to confirm that the focus button programming is the problem.

If you isolate the problem to the right grip, please check the Titan D100 manual on how to reset the programming of the focus button. If the manual is not available I can look it up for you and post it here.

Finally if none of this works, I'd recommend contacting Light & Motion Technical Support at: support@lightandmotion.com

I would suspect that Mark Webster described the problem.

I did have the rails that the tray locks into back out a couple of threads once, which caused the same problem.

I agree w/ Ryan and Mark. I had to adjust the shutter lever on the Titan I used - I could get it to fire, but only if I MASHED it in. After I adjusted it so that it pressed the button sooner in the "throw" I had no problems.

Cheers

James

I shoot with the same set-up and have had the exact same problems in the past. After fine tuning the shutter release lever with a small allen key- backing it out for longer throw, the problem corrected itself. Also, I did notice that the camera tray can twist just slightly on the D100 body and that small amount can cause the release lever to not quite push the shutter down all the way to fire. I hope all of these posts from very qualified members help sort your guest out. Tell her to load it all, leave the back door off and look at where the lever contacts the shutter. You can see how a small amount of adjustment could make all the difference. Good Luck!!

Aurabest,

john

Thanks for all the help guys. I tried the shutter release trick yesterday and it still didnt' help....

However, perhaps i didn't unscrew it enough, it is a little white plastic thing that i thought was quite loose. However, after the two morning dives we came back and unsrewed it some more, jumped in the pool, didn't help, unscrewed some more, back in the pool, and it worked.

So, going diving in about an hours time (its 730am friday here) and so will be able to tell you how it goes this afternoon.

Thanks again for the help, that is what is so great about Wetpixel, throw up a question and get soooo many useful responses.

M

Glad to hear that you got somewhere with it, if even in the pool...It is still Thursday in the Cayman Islands but I will look for your post when you return from your 2-tank....If the problem persists....make sure the tray is "square" with the camera body...there seems to be such minimal margin for error, especially with the 60mm nikkor...my setup has been fine since the last adjustment with every lens I use....Re-assure the rig's owner that it will work out....Light and Motion will do their best to help, but it will require sending the housing to them for "service"

These slight adjustments should do the trick....let me know if there is anything or advise on.....

Aurabest,

john