In my hands

Well I finally received my Ike for my D70S w/flat port (60mm) 125 strobe
WOW can hardly wait till spring break.I am taking family to Keys for a week
I am getting wet this weekend in the pool to start trying it out
what kind of battery life can I expect with and with out the modeling light
The book says 150 fullpower shots and you lose 50 per hr. W/light how accurate is this?
Any other tips would be greatly appreciated.

Scot

Congratulations! If you have kids, you are going to love shooting them underwater!
Make sure those little buttons on the front where the port attaches to the base of the housing are locked down (spring loaded?) I almost screwed that up the first dive... and close the housing with both clamps on each side at the same time so you don't pull the o-ring unevenly.

The battery lasts a long time, just be careful the shutter lever does not bump against anything in the rinse bucket and discharge the camera.

enjoy!

150 without modeling light is about right. I had one of mine run down completely after about 150 fires. Not sure about with modeling light as I've yet to run down completely while using the modeling light.

If you use 60mm lens and shoot mostly macro at F11-F22, you end up shooting around 1/4-1/2 power most of the time so you will get quite a bit more than 150 flash per charge (this is based on my experience shooting manual, not sure about TTL mode).

I generally only use modeling light for nightdive. 60mm lens is incredibly good at focusing even at very low light. Modeling light is useful when you are using 105mm or 70-180mm but not all that important for 60mm in my opinion.

D70s battery should last several hundred shots so yo probably won't even need to recharge it everyday.

This is the third week that I have had mine, (the housing). I’ve had the camera for over a year. I am finally "Fully" converting to digital for underwater use. Moving from a Nikon F-100 in an Aquatica housing, to the D-70 in an Ikelite. The last three weekends I have tested the Nikon 18-70mm zoom, 60mm macro, and the Sigma 10-20mm zoom. So far I really like the 60mm Macro (always have) and the 10-20mm zoom. The 18-70mm zoom is OK, but for me 18-70 is a little wanting. At 18mm you want a little wider, and at 70 you want to focus a little closer. For the 60mm Macro I used a single DS-125. Never needed to use the modeling light. Lens focuses fast and accurate. With the 18-70 I also used a single DS-125, no modeling light. As would be expected not quite enough coverage at the 18mm setting but focus was ok. With the Sigma 10-20mm I used the DS-125 in manual mode and slaved a SS200. This weekend I’ll be trying out my favorite F-100 lens, the 105mm Macro. I’ll be using the DS-125 and a DS-50. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Rooster:

With the Sigma 10-20mm I used the DS-125 in manual mode and slaved a SS200.

Click to expand...

Rooster,

How did you slave the SS200?

Thanks,
Ron

Ron,
I used the Ike #4100 slave sensor. I swithced the main strobe, a DS125, to manual operation on the housing. Since the SS200 is set to ttl and synched to the main strob via the ttl slave sensor, it quenches when the main stobe does. So I only had to adjust the main stobe with the manual controls on the housing. Worked pretty good. I have since added another DS125 and double sync cord. I'll be tesing it today.

Rooster:

Ron,
I used the Ike #4100 slave sensor. I swithced the main strobe, a DS125, to manual operation on the housing. Since the SS200 is set to ttl and synched to the main strob via the ttl slave sensor, it quenches when the main stobe does. So I only had to adjust the main stobe with the manual controls on the housing. Worked pretty good. I have since added another DS125 and double sync cord. I'll be tesing it today.

Click to expand...

That is what I was afraid of... I've been trying to pickup a 4100 on Ebay since December. I missed one for $45 cause I was out of town, and since than the idiots on ebay have been bidding these things up to over $125...grrr...

I'm a bit unhappy that Ikelite does not support their product line better. The compatibility between various strobes, slaves, brackets, and accessiories is not only confusing and in not backward compatable, the fact that one can purchase a SS200 new right now, but can not get some of the other accessories new is annoying, and IMO short sighted.

I bought the SS200 primarily to use with a future DSLR, but I'm one part away of making it work with my S70 which would be cool.. Unfortunately that one part has proved difficult to find. So want to sell a 4100 sensor

In any event..... off my soap box, and thanks for the response.