Flash sync issue - any ideas?

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scubanimal

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Scuba Instructor
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Location
San Diego
# of dives
500 - 999
I recently shifted to my first DSL. Nikon D200 with Sea&Sea housing, TTL adapter, and 2 S&S strobes.

My photo's are coming out very dark, yet I see the strobe fire. My biggest clue came when I turned on a modeling light, most of those shots turned out. These are daylight settings, should be fine. Same settings, same distance with strobe firing and the shot is nearly black on some of the shots. I tried using settings that my old 5050 would have been fine with, and yet nearly black shots.

Any ideas?

Thanks!
 
Keep in mind the max sync speed is 1/250th sec on the D200, so if you're shooting with a faster shutter than that, it may not sync properly. Also, are you using TTL? I have the same camera, but do not use TTL, so you may have to ensure your TTL controller and strobes are set properly.

The other thing might be that if your strobes are set to handle pre-flash (as it would with the Oly C5050), that might be causing problems syncing.
 
For Lens - I've been using the 10-17 tokina, and a 18-70

I usually start with 125 speed & 5.6 F-stop then adjust from there. Those shots in mid day - 50' viz have been very dark.

Pre-flash I'll look into, I noticed that when the camera gets bumped around in the camera bucket sometimes the buttons get pushed changing the settings.

Thanks for the ideas, any others?
 
Have you tried a dry-run on land? Assemble everything just like you would use it UW, but shoot on land. You can jiggle cables, disconnect and attach cords, etc.

I had an issue with my strobes not firing a month or two ago and it was the sync cable not making a good connection to the bulkhead -- I think. Jiggling the cord where it connects to the bulkhead fixed the issue.

I have to wonder about the TTL adapter. Maybe you got a lemon?

Are the strobes set to TTL? Do they have to be set a particular way to work with the TTL adapter? Does the adapter have to be set a certain way to work with the housing or strobes?
 
Back from my trip, and what a waste, camera did not work out so good. Dry land shots worked fine, but in the water it was hit & miss.

Did not finally give up on the ttl convertor till the last day :dork2: and that turned out to the be issue. Unfortunately I did not have diffussers with me so I have little to show for my trip. Overall a major bummer considering that I was on a rebreather and the animals were very friendly.

Still have a lot to learn about the camera, but there is hope.
 
This sounded like you had a pre-flash setting on the strobe that is turned on, that you don't need with the D200.

Mark
 
Mark,
Good idea, but I'm pretty sure we checked that. There were two other D200 users and I had them check for my dumb settings, but just in case I'll check that. Good idea thanks.
 

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