What does this mean?

The camera flash is blocked by the housing, but a deflector is included that allows use of the Manual Controller that provides 10 power settings with the DS-50 or DS-125 digital SubStrobes. The very short pre-flash duration of these cameras precludes use of the TTL Slave Sensor.

I understand the first part about the camera flash being blocked by the housing, but I really don't understand the rest of it.

Its a description for a housing for the Sony CD400. The price is comming down, but I probably could still pick up a new camera and housing for the cost of this housing. ($750 at helix)

TwoBit

I'll give it a try.
This photo on Ikelite's site is the DS-125. The top setup has the manual controller. The deflector that comes with it will allow that manual controller to see you cameras flash so it can activate the strobe. The controller has 10 power settings on it for the brightness of the strobe when it fires.

The TTL part would have allowed the strobe to fire on an automatically determined amount of light based on the cameras pre-flash. This will not work with your camera because of the short duration of its pre-flash.

This all translates to the strobe has to be manually set by you for each photo. After some practice with F stops and shutter speeds in the manual mode on your camera you will find the "sweet spots" on both the camera and the strobe settings.

A friend of mine here on Maui has the CD500 with that strobe setup. Those cameras take great pictures.

Thanks, Gilligan.

So, essentially, I would need to learn to manually run the flash. Not so much a bad thing, just a little more time. The package deal with the flash and all is about the same with the manual and with the TTL setup, so money isn't really an issue.

I love my CD400. It has a really short shutter lag and I am not limited by a memory chip. The CDs are RW so that works too. So many opportunities to spend money.... so little money to spend on those opportunities.

TwoBit

TwoBitTxn:

Thanks, Gilligan.

So, essentially, I would need to learn to manually run the flash. Not so much a bad thing, just a little more time.

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Manual will take a little time, but to start getting good images it shouldn't take long. Controlling things precisely and getting creative take a bit longer - but well worth it, I think.

TwoBitTxn:

So many opportunities to spend money.... so little money to spend on those opportunities.
TwoBit

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Welcome to the money pit