Body/Housing/Strobe/Trigger Question

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McLovinIt

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Sorry guys. Haven't found much detailed info, but still looking. So I figured I'd ask the people who actually do...

I have a Nikon D750. After reading great reviews, I purchased a Seafrogs housing for it. Now I'm looking for strobes/triggers. But I'm kinda in the "dark"right now.

Probably an elementary question, but will the majority of strobes work with the majority of housings? And are fiber optic cables/connections mostly universal/standardized connectors?

I am probably over simplifying this, but like I said, I haven't really found any good..."Let Me Walk You Through This" information sources.

I'm a tech diver and been a pro level photog for a long time. I've just never put the 2 together until now.

Thanks a ton for any help y'all might have!! Be safe, but have fun!!

Shane
 
You have a pop-up flash on your camera, and the housing has fiber optic connectors, so you don't really need a trigger - any optically triggered strobe will work out of the box.
For macro, you can get away with one or two Backscatter MF-1s, but if you plan to do any wide-angle shooting, you will need powerful strobes.
Used Inon Z-240s or Sea & Sea YS-D1s are basically entry level, with used or new Inon Z-330s and Sea & Sea YS-D3s (avoid the YS-D2; reliability problems) sitting above them. Retras are better still, but expensive, especially once you start piling on accessories.
Avoid wired-only strobes like Ikelite, as you will need optical slaves to trigger them, and entry-level strobes like Inon S-2000 and Sea & Sea YS-01 as they don't have enough power for a full-frame camera.
Fiber optic connections are pretty standard; you usually see Sea & Sea L-type and Inon D-type. The former is push-in and held by friction, the latter is threaded. Housings almost always have the push-in connectors (yours included), while strobes vary - Sea & Sea uses their connectors, Inon uses theirs, and some support both. For example, my Retra Pro strobes accept the threaded Inon connectors, but they come with a cap that screws over the connector and provides a mounting point for the push-in Sea & Sea ones.
However, looking at the SeaFrogs housing for D750, I can see several issues:
  1. No vacuum valve port - you have to be really careful every time you seal it.
  2. No access to OVF - you will have to use live view all the time, turning your DSLR into a crude mirrorless camera
  3. Limited selection of ports - you can get an eight-inch dome for it, but it's still fairly small for a full-frame camera; they really need something like 230mm or even 250mm to work well. This is compounded by the fixed extension, so you can't use extension rings to fine-tune the dome positioning to suit different lenses.
  4. This is a minor one, but one of the latches being on the bottom means that you will have to take the housing off its tray every time you want to get at the camera inside.
While it's often tempting to house the camera that you already have, in underwater photography, the camera body is a minor part of the whole system, and if the rig is not built properly, the whole can be significantly less than the sum of the constituent parts. Poor lighting will hobble even the best of systems; improper dome size and position will significantly degrade the output of the sharpest lenses, etc. While I personally use a SeaFrogs housing with my Sony A6300 camera, I would not use one with a D750 - for that, I would either look for a used Nauticam or at least Ikelite housing, or just get a premium compact like a Sony RX100 series or Canon G9 X series and house that with wet optics.
 
You have a pop-up flash on your camera, and the housing has fiber optic connectors, so you don't really need a trigger - any optically triggered strobe will work out of the box.
For macro, you can get away with one or two Backscatter MF-1s, but if you plan to do any wide-angle shooting, you will need powerful strobes.
Used Inon Z-240s or Sea & Sea YS-D1s are basically entry level, with used or new Inon Z-330s and Sea & Sea YS-D3s (avoid the YS-D2; reliability problems) sitting above them. Retras are better still, but expensive, especially once you start piling on accessories.
Avoid wired-only strobes like Ikelite, as you will need optical slaves to trigger them, and entry-level strobes like Inon S-2000 and Sea & Sea YS-01 as they don't have enough power for a full-frame camera.
Fiber optic connections are pretty standard; you usually see Sea & Sea L-type and Inon D-type. The former is push-in and held by friction, the latter is threaded. Housings almost always have the push-in connectors (yours included), while strobes vary - Sea & Sea uses their connectors, Inon uses theirs, and some support both. For example, my Retra Pro strobes accept the threaded Inon connectors, but they come with a cap that screws over the connector and provides a mounting point for the push-in Sea & Sea ones.
However, looking at the SeaFrogs housing for D750, I can see several issues:
  1. No vacuum valve port - you have to be really careful every time you seal it.
  2. No access to OVF - you will have to use live view all the time, turning your DSLR into a crude mirrorless camera
  3. Limited selection of ports - you can get an eight-inch dome for it, but it's still fairly small for a full-frame camera; they really need something like 230mm or even 250mm to work well. This is compounded by the fixed extension, so you can't use extension rings to fine-tune the dome positioning to suit different lenses.
  4. This is a minor one, but one of the latches being on the bottom means that you will have to take the housing off its tray every time you want to get at the camera inside.
While it's often tempting to house the camera that you already have, in underwater photography, the camera body is a minor part of the whole system, and if the rig is not built properly, the whole can be significantly less than the sum of the constituent parts. Poor lighting will hobble even the best of systems; improper dome size and position will significantly degrade the output of the sharpest lenses, etc. While I personally use a SeaFrogs housing with my Sony A6300 camera, I would not use one with a D750 - for that, I would either look for a used Nauticam or at least Ikelite housing, or just get a premium compact like a Sony RX100 series or Canon G9 X series and house that with wet optics.
SIMPLY GORGEOUS! Thank you so much Barmaglot! I just needed some direction. You've provided that! And detail. I truly appreciate the thought and effort put in. Can't Thank you enough for the thoughts! Outstanding!
 
Doesn't the housing have a single FO port outlet? If so then your wiring/plumbing/fiber opticing for two strobes will be a bit more complex. But still you have the ability to fire almost any modern strobe via FO cable. I would look for a pair of used Z240s or new/used Z330 Inon strobes. S&S (now Fisheye/Fix) has had some quality issues and with a new buyer the future is not so clear.

In any case if you need advice on setting them up let us know
Bill
 
It has two, but even with a single outlet, all it takes is a double bushing, which is actually, I believe, the default on Inon connectors.
Yeah, you can put two fibers in the Inon bushings (mostly I use one). I must have seen an older version but I thought I remembered a single FO port.
Bill
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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