Canon 7D Ikelite Housing and Inon Strobes

[monkeygod290]

Hello,

I recently upgraded my UW housing setup to a Canon 7D with ikelite housing. I already own two inon D2000 strobes (1 type 3 and 1 type4), and it seems like I will not be able to use them with this housing. Please correct me if I am wrong, but it appears that the inon D2000 strobes do not have an attachment for an electrical sync cord, and are thus incompatible with the housing.

I would really appreciate any advice regarding this predicament. The worst case scenario in this case would be me buying new strobes that have an attachment for electrical sync cords (such as inon Z240).

Hopefully I can get this sorted out soon in time for my 5 week trip to indonesia. I’m leaving in about 2 weeks

 

[Larry C]

D2000 is optical only. If you want to use the built in ttl circuitry in your housing, get Ikelite strobes. The DS161's will let you shoot some video, too. Or you can get Z-240's and shoot manual or Inon auto mode. You'll need an Ike to Inon cord, too.
I don't think your flash will pop up in the housing, so you don't have much choice.

 

[Delphi76]

Monkeygod,

Watch-out: I think even if you buy the Inon Z-240 you will not be able to have the strobes controlled by the camera TTL system. Hence, you will not be able to use the strobes in automatic mode (through TTL). This is for two reasons:
1) The 7D flash cannot pop-up inside the housing (hence no optical connection is possible)
2) As of today, I am not aware about any Ikelite to Inon TTL converter (Ikelite TTL converter onyl works for Ikelite strobes9.
This is bad news, since you'll need to buy either the Sea&Sea housing or the Nautilus housing (much more expensive). These housings allows the flash to pop-up therefore you can use an optical connection.

If anyone know about a Ikelite to Inon TTL converter please reply to this post !!!

 

[slowhands]

Hello,

I recently upgraded ... to ...ikelite housing. I already own two inon D2000 strobes, ..it seems like I will not be able to use them with this housing. ... it appears that the inon D2000 strobes do not have an attachment for an electrical sync cord...

... The worst case scenario in this case would be me buying new strobes that have an attachment for electrical sync cords (such as inon Z240)....

There is no way to use your optically triggered Inon strobes on your Ikelite DSLR housing directly because you can't raise the strobe. But I imagine you could make a very small LED flash for the hotshoe that would follow the X trigger signal, manual only. These might allow you to do some manual strobe operation, with an external sensor on your strobe.

Ikelite does not support using non-Ikelite strobes in TTL mode using a copper cable on your Ikelite DSLR housing. Manual, yes, TTL, no. You can see how this plays out. Ikelite makes a good strobe and they prefer that you buy it. So sorry, limited support for other brands.

Here are the details I have pieced together from a lot of sources. Ikelite has a TTL converter in the housing that translates the Canon eTTL strobe gibberish into Nikonos strobe gibberish (which most underwater strobes use), but with a twist. IKelite uses a connector that is physically different than the Nikonos connector, and it has an added power line from the strobe to the converter in the housing. In my understanding, their converter will not work in TTL mode without the power from the strobe , but it will allow your camera to trigger the strobe in manual mode (but not use the converter's manual control metering feature). Unless you have the custom "Ikelite" power signal, the converter acts like it's not there and somehow the strobe trigger signal gets propagated to the strobe. I'm not sure how this is implemented, but it sounds like the converter goes into a sort of dumb pass through mode when it detects a non-Ikelite strobe, without enabling its advanced features. So in essence, manual yes, TTL no.

If you want TTL, you can either buy new Ikelite strobes and cords, or possibly modify other strobes internally to appear like ikelite strobes (supply power on the 5th wire), and make a custom cord from Ikelite to your strobe that has the power wire (or put a battery in your housing to fake it). Ikelite does not supply such a cord - they apparently leave out the power line in their Ike to Sea&Sea cords. Sea&Sea and Inon use a non-Ikelite connector on the strobe end, so you have to refit the Ikelite 4104.31 TTL cord with a Sea&Sea strobe connector. I believe a competent tech can do this, but if you consider the cost, it may not be economically viable. Another option would be to put an ikelite connector with the power signal on your non-Ikelite strobe and pretend to be an Ikelite to the converter. I have not done such a mod, so take this all as inspired guesswork needing a working prototype to prove it.

I come back to the simple answer, that that Ikelite makes a good strobe that works well with their housing. In the end, getting Ikelite strobes is probably the wisest choice.

 

[HerraduraDivers]

Does the internal strobe on your 7D fire?
If so you can use the Inon strobes in optical slave mode.

My Ikelite D90 housing will not allow the internal strobe to open completly
because there is a switch disabling the strobe until full open...
A Canon technican should be able to eliminate or modify the switch, so that the strobe will fire if not fully open (but also with the pop-up strobe closed...).

Chris

 

[slowhands]

yeah, A Canon technican should be able to eliminate the switch,

The switch is there to guarantee the flash is up when it fires. Otherwise, all the heat energy of the flash will get absorbed by the plastic of your camera body. Conceivably it can melt, deform, catch fire. You might be able to get away with a few shots, but it's not the wisest. I've had a camera that fired when the flash was down, due to a problem (we do a lot of repairs). I did not fire it much, but it did get hot.

I did exchange emails with Matthias Heinrichs regarding a LED flasher for the hotshoe. They made a proto, but flashes could not following the LED accurately enough for him. He likes precision, and said it should never be a product because it would not fire the external flash accurately enough. He prefers a wired solution, which of course he makes.

 

[HerraduraDivers]

Yes i know, you are 100% right,
BUT the flash has oviously beein open as much he will, if he stays closed or not enough open he will not trigger the optical strobe.
On my Ikelite D90 housing the strobe pops open +/- 95%, so there will be enough space for the flash to escape the DSLR housing without melting it. I have no idea how it is on the Ikelite 7D housing, but i guess it's the same.
Actually i don't understand why Ikelite made the space for the open strobe, but it's a few tenths of a inch to low, so the strobe won't fire.

The problem is somewhere else, as the switch is modified in a always "popped-up" position the strobe will fire always as the cameras "brain" think that the photographer pop'ed it open because he would like to use the strobe.
The only way to stop the camera from thinking wrong things is to set the strobe to "fire never" in the menu. Not a very comfortable solution...

Chris