Hot shoe connector

[Bent C]

Hi

I have now repositioned the camera tray. It gave a little bit more space, and with a careful sanding of the hot shoe connector, I think everything will work out fine. If not, I will be in touch again.

It might be good for you to know, though, why the connector was displaced. As it happpened during dives, no precheck routine could intercept it. When I looked at the camera sideways, it was fairly clear that using the buttons on the top right of the housing (the focus point selector or flash lock button) the camera tilted slightly, but enough forward to slightly press the connector out of the hot shoe. Not always very much, but often enought to make strobes act weird from time to time. Just a couple of mm more of pocket would be enough to stop this from happening.

Cheers

Bent C

 

[Ikelite Staff]

You didn't mention whether there is enough wire coming from the camera tray to the hotshoe? I think perhaps this was accidentally made too short and it's not allowing any "play" in the cord. The cord should not be tight against the camera when installed.

Regards,
Jean / Ikelite
IKELITE Underwater Systems

 

[Bent C]

There certainly is not a lot of play on the wire, but it is not strained an any way when mounted. I would think that the wire is of the correct length. But, as I wrote above, I can see the camera mooving a little bit forward when I push the upper buttons on the back plate. I tried to put a thin piece of paper between the hot shoe connector and the housing roof (through the port hole) and the paper gets pinched when I push back plate buttons. Before pushing the buttons it is very hard to get the paper in there, but there is a tiny bit of distance. So I am pretty sure that the issue is lack of space in front of the hot shoe connector.

Regards Bent

 

[blibecap]

Brent you said "I can see the camera mooving a little bit forward when I push the upper buttons on the back plate." Caused me to ask the question id the tray is adjusted properly?

On the bottom of the camera tray there are a couple of screw type adjusters that keep the front of the tray from flexing down as they provide contact with the bottom of the housing. If there is a space between these adjusters and the camera housing the tray could tilt down on the bottom also resulting in the top of the camera tilting forward. It might be worth looking into this situation.

Also with the wire connector if the wire is stiff and bent in the wrong direction it could be pulling a bit on the connector. I have found that a little heat from a hair dryer will temporarily soften the wire and enable you to possibly reshape it so it pushes forward as opposed to pulling backwards. I had a similar problem with a D200 housing and was able locate a small rubber-band that I installed around the flash connector and cord that applied a little force to keep the strobe connector in place.

Hope that you get this problem resolved.

 

[Bent C]

Hi Bill
Thanks a lot for the suggestions. I have not done any adjustment of the screw type adjusters. To be honst, I did not know that they existed! I will definitely check them out. And also thanks for the suggestion with the hair dryer, I will try that as well. I am leaving for a couple of weeks diving in the Red sea soon, so it would be great to have it fixed beforehand.

Regards Bent C

 

[Bent C]

As it turned out, the adjusters seems not to be present on my housing only see a screw in the central part of the plate, but that screw seems to be holding the switch for the choice od strobe type. Weird! Do you have those screws on a 5DM2 housing? And Jean, should there be such screws on all housings?

Regards

Bent

 

[blibecap]

Hi Brent
I don't have a a Cannon Dslr Nikon here. I would imkagine that all the Ikelite dslr housing would have these screws. They are used to help support the weight of the camera by supporting the front of the camera and pressing on the inside bottom of the housing. I will attempt to attach a photo.

 

[Bent C]

Hi Brent
I don't have a a Cannon Dslr Nikon here. I would imkagine that all the Ikelite dslr housing would have these screws. They are used to help support the weight of the camera by supporting the front of the camera and pressing on the inside bottom of the housing. I will attempt to attach a photo.

Hi

My housing has one of those screws, more or less in the center of the plate. However, it looks as if that screw holds a switch controlling whether the strobes are of the smaller kind (DS51) or the larger ones (125-200s). But I might be wrong on that one and it really is a suport screw. In that case it is odd that there is just one of them for my housing and two for yours. The obvious place to have them is where yours are situated, mine will still allow some movement. Jean should be able to answer that after the holidays.

On the other hand, your screws can easily be exchanged for something else such as thin shims or some thing like that. I just need to get the thickness of them exactly right. So that should solve the wobbly problem. With a small rubber band, and my eraser distance, and some shims, I am pretty sure that the connector will stay in place!

Thanks Bill for the picture.

regards Bent C

 

[Ikelite Staff]

The 5D Mark II housing does have one support post in the bottom of the tray. Some housings have two as Bill showed.

Again I'm sorry for the difficulties...

Regards,
Jean / Ikelite
IKELITE Underwater Systems

 

[blibecap]

Your welcome Bent, good luck and please update this thread with the final outcome so others can refer to your solution.