Ideal strobes for Aquatica D100 housing

[dsafanda]

I'm new to underwater photography. I managed to acquire an Aquatica housing for my D100. I'm lnow looking to purchase strobes. The research that I've done has me leaning towards a pair of Ikelite DS-125 with TTL Slave Sensors. It seems that Ikelite has put a lot of thought in to strobes designed specifically for digital SLRs.

Would those of you with more experience suggest an alternative? Sea & Sea? Are there any issues you can think of that would prevent me from using a housing by one manufacturer and strobes from another?

Any helpful advice would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[Jason B]

Inon
http://inonamerica.com/index.html

 

[Marriard]

I'm new to underwater photography. I managed to acquire an Aquatica housing for my D100. I'm lnow looking to purchase strobes. The research that I've done has me leaning towards a pair of Ikelite DS-125 with TTL Slave Sensors. It seems that Ikelite has put a lot of thought in to strobes designed specifically for digital SLRs.

Would those of you with more experience suggest an alternative? Sea & Sea? Are there any issues you can think of that would prevent me from using a housing by one manufacturer and strobes from another?

Any helpful advice would be appreciated. Thanks

Inon Z220's are better choices than your above choices and you will have to hard wire them (same if you choose a different strobe)

Slave sensors are not the way to go for your primary strobes on a housed dSLR - especially as they wont work because slaves need a master flash and you wont be using the internal flash on a D100. Even if you were you couldn't see it as the housing is not transparent.

Aquatica does not make strobes, so you can use any of the above mentioned strobes with this housing.

M

 

[dsafanda]

Great. Thanks for steering me in the right direction. I'll give Inon a close look.

 

[ssra30]

Either Inon or Ikelite should be fine. You can hardwire the Ikelite strobe to the housing as well. I use dual Ikelite DS125 with my D70. My dive buddy uses 2 Z220 with his D70. The Inon is significantly smaller than the Ikelite. Ikelite claims that the DS125 is quite a bit more powerful than the Inon but I never compare both of them side by side. Ikelite has great support, I am not sure what kind of service you can get with Inon if anything goes wrong.

 

[dsafanda]

From what I've heard about Ikelite service support it's certainly a route worth considering.

Ok...so next beginner question would be...what's involved with hardwiring the housing? I've done a few searches but I'm not coming up with much in the way of dumentation. Anyone know of a good online resource for a step by step guide to hardwiring the housing. If you're dealing with TTL strobes and a TTL ready housing is it as simple as purchasing and connecting the appropriate cables/device to the hot shoe on my camera body?

 

[ssra30]

As far as I know, beside the Fuji S2, you will not be able to use TTL with any other DSLR at this time. Ikelite and Aquatica is working on decoding e-TTL (Canon) and i-TTL (D70) but as far as I know noone is trying to decode whatever TTL version that D100 is using yet so you willl only be able to shoot your D100 with manual strobe setting only.
Saying that, for the DS125, you just need the Ikelite single or dual connect with Ikelite strobe connector at one end and Nikonos connector at the bulk head end (I assume that Aquatica uses 5 pins Nikonos connector) which is available through Ikelite. Your housing should have a little cable connecting the horseshoe on your camera body to the bulkhead on the housing already.

 

[Marriard]

Anyone know of a good online resource for a step by step guide to hardwiring the housing. If you're dealing with TTL strobes and a TTL ready housing is it as simple as purchasing and connecting the appropriate cables/device to the hot shoe on my camera body?

Aquatica housings come with one or two bulkheads which allow you to connect strobes to the housing. You will need a "Strobe-type" to Nikonos cable to connect the strobe to the housing. If you buy two strobes you will need either a dual cord (one bulkhead to two strobes) or two cables. I carry both.

Unless you 'house' a land flash (which is generally massivly expensive and land strobes are not so good for underwater usage in my opinion though some have had great results), the available strobes on the market will not support TTL on the D70 and there is nothing on the horizon that looks like it will (Nikon is not publishing the TTL protocol on the D70). You will be shooting manual - which is actually a good thing.

M

 

[fdog]

dsafanda, as you've found out, strobes are expensive. Don't blame you one bit for researching before plunking down your $.

Pretty much evey strobe can be mated to a Nikonos 3 or 5 pin bulkhead, in all likelyhood what your Aquatica housing has. All you need is the appropriate sync cord, usually in the $80 range.

This I'm sure is a holdover from my days with film, but I can't ever seem to have too much strobe power. When shooting wide angle (14mm digital) I find that foreground flash that balances with background blue water (at roughly 60' with 150' of vis, sunny skies at noon) is usually half power on an Ikelite Substrobe 400. This is when at equivalent to ASA 200. In shallow water when shooting towards the surface, I often use all the power available.

Macro, which I will be the first to admit is not my usual, for me has always soaked up flash power as well. I always seem to pick those interesting critters that are in a space that restricts strobe placement. To get out to f22-32, I am usually at full power with an Ikelite Substrobe 225 at full, roughly 18 inches from the subject. Fill with an Ikelite MS50.

Since you will in all probability be stuck at manual, why not pick a predominatly manual strobe with power to spare? And most of these have "standard" TTL available, for the future, when Aquatica releases a TTL conversion board that provides a standard quench signal. These stobes are a bit less than the "digital compatable" strobes. Check ebay for "Ikelite Substrobe" and you'll be shocked at how low the prices can be, even adding in a factory overhaul.

Speaking of factory overhauls, I will add my vote to the Ikelite support kudos. Quick, and I have always recieved quality service.

As much as I wish I could give an inteligent review of the Inon strobes, which everyone seems to be talking about, I never seem to be in a place to try one.

All the best, James

 

[dsafanda]

Thanks for all the help everyone! I've been rockclimbing for about 15 years and have spent a fair amount of time lurking around the online rockclimbing forums. These were my first posts on a scub a site. It's a bit wierd being at the beginner stage of on an entirely different activity. Thanks for not laughing at questions that I'm sure seem very obvious to most of you.