What else can I use my old school Substrobe 200 flash with?

[Rob9000]

I bought an Ikelite setup for my Nikon n90 years ago and stopped using it because it was just too much of a pain to lug around. Now, I am not so sure if I am willing to trash an expensive macro lens and camera body in a flood in exchange for UW pics.

I would like to use my Substrobe 200 with some other camera system that is more compact and less costly to recover from a flood. Of course my strobe is not digital compliant, so that rules out all modern point and shoot digital cameras. I do have a Nikon Coolpix P&S camera that uses the older film type of TTL from the hot shoe, but of course the housing for it has been discontinued. What else can I use the strobe with? I believe I can still use with with a Nikonos. What about a Sea&Sea MotoMarine setup? Any other suggestions? I am fine with using film.

 

[azcaddman]

any of the canon P&S cameras, that have manual flash settings (this disables Pre-flash) can be used with the old ike strobes, if you also use the old orange 4100 ttl slave sensors (or the strobe has a slave sensor already in it).

you just have to pick the power level on the strobe itself, then adjust the camera for proper exposure, a bit of trial and error, but once you get it figured out, settings dont change much.

The olympus 350 also works

I use 2-3 SS200's with my canon a640, and used to use them on a canon s70.

 

[alcina]

As above, you certainly have a lot of choices for digital options and it's not that hard to figure out how to make it work underwater. Just a bit of dilling in

I've used the ancient orange Ike 50s on a wide variety of cameras from the Canon A20, A70 and A75 to Oly 5050 etc. I have the slave sensor thing and turn the camera's flash output as low as it will go. Didn't have problems with backscatter from the internal. You'll have more control as the 200 actually has power controls - the poor 50 doesn't

 

[Rob9000]

I don't have the older optical slave to trigger my strobe, and I understand they were prone to flooding. I like the idea of the MotoMarine camera, but it used a 5 pin head and I believe my Ikelite housing and strobe use a 4 pin head.

I guess another option would be to look for a used housing and camera for a cheaper film camera...one with a nylon body so it would be lighter, and then use a cheaper lens for macro.

 

[alcina]

How about just the slave?

Don't know about flooding - never had a problem with mine at all.

Why not a digital compact? There are 100s to choose from so there should be something in your budget/needs. There's a starter list in the Sticky in the main UW Photo area - you can get there via the Pink Link in my signature.

Maybe talk to the guys at Ikelite and/or Reef Photo to see what options and costs are involved in getting the strobes you have now to work with a new system.

 

[azcaddman]

never had any flooding issues with the 5 i've had over the years.

the other option is the Heinrichsweikamp adapter

 

[gert7to3]

Here are a few web sites which may have the slave trigger for your Substrobe 200. Also check with Ikelite.


www.keh.com

www.bhphotovideo.com

www.helixphoto.com

www.underwaterphotography.com

www.uwphoto.com

www.adorama.com