LX5 10bar housing + TTL Strobe

[slowhands]

Someone really ought to verify that an actual LX5 can successfully control the Ikelite strobe using the Heinrichs Weikamp Digital adapter on a 10bar housing. I don't know of any reason why it can't, but the problems that Aquanut had with the hardwired TTL Converter make me skeptical. Better safe than sorry.

 

[tarjan]

Any updates? I have a gf2, which also uses the olympus protocol and I would run into the same issue with my ys110a strobe when the 10bar becomes available. Converter would be the easy solution.

This is one place where oly wins over panny, the oly remote ttl minimal flash control is a big deal (almost no refresh time, just like ttl cable). Also allows remote flash in the air... Think us scuba people can get together and convince panny to add that into their cameras?!

Back to reality, has anyone asked if 10bar and hw could work together to offer plug in solution? Shouldn't be all that hard I believe as the parts already exist and could easily be sold. Once they work properly that is of course.

 

[JackConnick]

I know the Ike housings were delayed in trying to work out the software for the TTL conversion. It looks like a fairly nice housing.

Too many cultural differences I think for 10bar to work with HW...

10Bar is working on a GF2 housing, probably later next month.

Thanks,
Jack

 

[slowhands]

I know the Ike housings were delayed in trying to work out the software for the TTL conversion. It looks like a fairly nice housing.

Too many cultural differences I think for 10bar to work with HW... ...

As you may know, the HW Digital Adapter is an optical sensor that reads the camera flash and drives a Nikonos or Sea&Sea electrical connector. It's not the HW TTL Converter that mounts on the hotshoe -- that seems to have linguistic challenges with Panasonic's dialect of eTTL (but works fine with all my Olympus cams from C5060 to E620).

I've used both versions of the DA (Nikonos and S&S) with many hardwired strobes and most work like a charm. Some old strobes can't handle pre-flash on the faster cams, such as Olympus and Nikon DSLRs. But for most Point and Shoots, no worries.

Most of the modern strobes have fiber cord triggering, but if you want to try an old strobe you have, the HW DA may work on the 10Bar housing placed in front of the flash. No point really with the Ikelite LX5 housing, they built their TTL converter in the housing and made sure it works with their strobes.

 

[tarjan]

Huh?

HW

That is what I am talking about. Lists compatibility with most of the hotshoe capable cameras from 2010, but not showing the lx5 or the gf2 yet.

 

[slowhands]

Huh?

HW

That is what I am talking about. Lists compatibility with most of the hotshoe capable cameras from 2010, but not showing the lx5 or the gf2 yet.

This topic was about trying to get the HW TTL converter to work in a 10Bar housing with the LX5 and Ikelite DS161 strobes. For whatever reason the original poster could not get it to work, gave up and used the fiber optic cord to his S&S 110a strobe, which is not quite as elegant, but works.

The LX5 is not listed in the HW Cameras List, which probably means it has not been tested by HW. The LX3 is listed and seems compatible. From what I observe, the focus at HW is their recent development of an improved dive computer. It's not obvious to me that the LX5 will be tested any time soon. Same for the GF2.

 

[Aquanut2]

Ok thought I chime back in with a bit more info seeing how I started this whole thread.
I think my earlier posts covered most of this but here is a summary:
Prior to returning the converter I did speak with HW and they claimed having tested the OLY TTL converter with the LX5 and several strobes but not the IK 161 (or turns out a 110a). I borrowed a DS161 from a friend who graciously let me put it through the paces and after trying two revs of HW firmware I could never get the TTL power under control. I began to think maybe the 161 was the problem but didn't want to purchase one to rule it out. I even tested the LX5's hotshoe with some Oly flashes at the camera store and confirmed that the camera's TTL worked.

Still wanting a wired solution and on HW recommendation I purchased a S&S 110a and a S17100 S&S to Nikonos sync cord which unfortunately demonstrated the same problem controlling power output of the 110a. HW was responsive (given the time diff) and provided a complete refund but thats when I gave up and went the optical route.

I tested a make shift audio TOS-Link cable gaffer taped to the flash port window and the YS-110a the flash worked superbly in TTL mode and I couldn't be happier just to see the dam thing work

Since then I ordered a 10Bar Sync Cord Cap and a S&S fiber optic plug from Jack and a StarTech THINTOS10 10 feet Thin Toslink cable from newegg a $35 total solution compared to $65 and I have 7' extra of opt cable as back up or if I want to add a second strobe

Newegg.com - StarTech THINTOS10 10 feet Thin Toslink Digital Audio Cable M-M

All is well now but if I had to do it over I'd go the whole IK route and have spent less time, $ & aggravation in the process to get it working.
On the plus side the 110a is much more compact that the 161 and power seems comparable even if the spec is rated slightly lower, after shooting some video with the 161 vid light I'd have to say it's a fairly weak solution even in a pool with enough ambient light so a dedicated one like the Light&Motion Sola would perform much more admirably.

Hope it helps

 

[Puffer Fish]

Thanks for the update.. I wonder what the problem is with the hard wire... all the Oly/pany camera's use the same sync protocal....it should have worked....

I use optical fiber connections also, but hard wired would be nice, darn.

 

[derway]

Jack, or anyone..

The big problem here, is ikelite and 10bar are offering only flat ports, for a 24mm equiv wide angle.

Flat ports do not work well even for 28mm!

Is the 10 bar wide angle converter lens is flat on top, and flat on the bottom.

Is there any way to just get a dome port? With what housing?

Thanks,
Don

 

[slowhands]

....ikelite and 10bar are offering only flat ports, for a 24mm equiv wide angle. Flat ports do not work well even for 28mm!

Is the 10 bar wide angle converter lens is flat on top, and flat on the bottom.

Is there any way to just get a dome port? With what housing?

Yes, 10Bar does have a dry mount lens with dome port option. For wider angle use, Ikelite recommends using their W-20 wet lens (see thumbnails).

Details
The 10Bar solution uses a dry mount wide conversion lens inside a dome port. It is said to yield an good improvement but I have not tested it.
10Bar Panasonic LX5 Housing - 10Bar Underwater Housings - Optical Ocean Sales Underwater Photo - 800-359-1295!

Ikelite apparently does not want to develop a dome port for this market, believing their W-20 suffices. They have made domes in the past, for at least a couple of compact cameras (Olympus C8080 and Nikon CP5000, as I recall). But today they don't offer dome ports for compacts.

What Ike recommends is using their standard port with their W-20 wide conversion lens. This question has been asked and answered in the Ikelite forum:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ikelite/371218-lx5-housing.html

"We did evaluate the DMW-LWA52 lens and found that there is not enough gain to warrant a custom port to accommodate this lens. The W-20 ends up being a less expensive option, with a significant gain in angle of coverage and the flexibility to remove and replace the lens underwater. We do not intend to offer a custom port for the DMW-LWA52 lens at this time."​

Since the Panasonic LWA52 lens is only a .75x wide converter, it is not very effective behind a flat port compared to the .56x wide W-20. Since the W-20 requires you to zoom to 35mm, you lose some of the wide angle capability of the LX5 lens, but there is still a net gain.

It's my hunch that the Olympus PTWC-01 might not require as much zoom, so allow even wider angles. That's based on results using the PTWC-01 on the Olympus XZ1, subject to verification on the LX5. You can compare the size difference between the Ikelie and Olympus lenses in the thumbnail below. Clearly the Olympus lens has a different optical design that gives it better performance with at least 28mm lenses, if not 24mm. The third lens shown is a dry mount .7x converter that has 67mm threads and also works quite well; note the much smaller size.

Ikelite still does offer dome ports for video, which might be usable for the LX5 housing with some mods. They have two ports, one without a conversion lens (you supply a lens for your video camera) and one made by Farallon with built in lens. Pricing is about $250 for the simple port and $870 for the Farallon. But the threads on these ports probably do not match the threads on the Ikelite LX5 housing, so you might have to make an adapter if you wanted to try to fit this to your LX5 housing.