sea $ sea DX1g == Manual sync cord

[KeithG]

I am currently McGyvering my spare Sea & Sea DX1G housing to support manual sync cords.

I bought the standard DX1G & YS110 package several (many?) years ago as my starter kit for under water photography after I decided to abandon my high end Amphibico Sony video rig (still complete, gathering dust, 50 lbs heavier than a Go Pro, any reasonable offers accepted ...).

As a slow learner, it took me a while to discover that the YS110 strobes were not "perfect" when used as optical TTL strobes with the DX1G. I still love the DX1G - and continue to learn what it is capable of. I take lots of shots and come away with many awesome shots every trip. But I wish it was more repeatable.

My last few dive trips have made me love the DX1G just a little more and hate the YS110 just a lot more. Too many times when the flash totally washed out the shot - this led to a hankering for the old days of manual control.

So we are off to see the wizard. The wonderful wizard of manual sync cords. I came from the world of using a Nikon FE above water in manual mode.

Progress to date has been very encouraging. The Ricoh GX100 (sea & sea dx1g) has a hot shoe. But no smart flash stuff from the hot shoe.

So this means it is manual all the way.

---------- Post added July 2nd, 2013 at 12:34 AM ----------

My first test was to try to connect the Ricoh to my YS110 electrically. SUCCESS!

This required several new pieces of very sophisticated apparatus:
1) a cable
2) a hot shoe connector
3) something to connect them

Being extremely cheap I recognized that the cost limiting factor would be the custom bulkhead connector. There is also the space issue as I wanted to retain the original DX1G housing (I had already bought a somewhat overly dysfunctional spare unit from someone who shall remain nameless - but I am watching you!)

The Ricoh has a hotshoe. Very primitive, only ground and X. So no ability to do any kind of intelligent TTL, we were stuck back in the dark ages...

Based upon the bulkhead connector issue my first pass IS based upon the Sea & Sea Motormarine cable system (remember them?)

 

[KeithG]

So I paid top dollar on Ebay to obtain a Motormarine body and a Sea & Sea 17200 cable.

 

[KeithG]

And I cut the bulkhead connector out of the Motormarine. Several pics of the carcass above.

I was able to electrically connect my DX1G to my YS100 and use the strobe under manual control.

Best piece of news was that at it's lowest power level the strobe was able to keep up with the camera in continuous mode. At the highest JPEG this meant 4 shots in the first second and about 1 shot every 0.7 seconds afterward. I ran this for more than 50 shots in a row. Way better than anything I could do under optical control.

This was all with a single strobe.

A second slave optical strobe sucked.

---------- Post added July 2nd, 2013 at 12:59 AM ----------

The YS110 has been slammed regarding its ability to do TTL and/or appear as a well behaved citizen. I slam it also.

My attempt to go sync & manual is based upon my experience over the past years. 70% of the time my optical rig was awesome. 30% of the time it sucked. I have never been able to identify (and hence compensate) for the conditions under which it would not work. It never worked when shooting into shallow sand with lots of sun light.

With a manual sync cord I was able to finally test the optical behaviour (or maybe I am just totality wrong here...)

I performed a series of tests with the DX1G connected electrically to a YS110 which was then optically connected to a second slave YS110. I tested 3 different optical cables (as well as no cable) to the second strobe. The results were all the same. The second strobe fired erratically or at best every other shot.

---------- Post added July 2nd, 2013 at 01:05 AM ----------

I was impressed by the combo of the DX1G, YS110 & electrical sync cord under low power continuous mode.

I was able to grab 4 shots in the first second and then limited to a shot every .7 seconds afterwards (I believe this was based upon the speed on my memory card - some of my tests ran to more than 50 consecutive shots). These were in high resolution JPEG, not raw mode.

The downside was the behaviour of the second optical strobe...

---------- Post added July 2nd, 2013 at 01:11 AM ----------

I tried 4 different methods of connecting the "slave" YS100 to the electrical YS100:
- fiber optic cable
- my other fiber cable
- no cable at all, let the YS110 detect the other YS110 firing
- homebrew fibre optic cable made from a TOS I bought for $4 from Active Electonics and carved the ends to fit the strobes

They all revealed the same performance. Manual 1 it never fired. Manual 2 it fired every other shot. TTL it fired every time, but alternated between a dim & a high flas

---------- Post added July 2nd, 2013 at 01:14 AM ----------

So this means I am highly motivated to get both of my YS110s electrically connected to my DX1g so I can use them in 1960's manual mode.

All I need now is another cable.

Pictures to follow...

---------- Post added July 2nd, 2013 at 01:56 AM ----------

I do have a question for the scuba masses - I chose a 4 pin MotorMarine bulkhead pinout since MotorMarine camera seem to be real cheap. I have already obtained 1 MotorMarine ($10) and chopped it to extract a useable bulkhead connector,.

But I believe that going the Nikonos 5 pin route would be a better long term route.

I would appreciate idea and opinions from the great unwashed...

 

[KeithG]

And an belated update on my monologue....

I have scavenged a Sea & Sea NX100 housing for a Nikon F100 for a pair of bulkhead connectors. As an added bonus it also included an "axillary" port which was populated with a 5 pin connector. This could be part of a fall back plan to use a single connector with a more costly dual cable.

My primary plan is to utilize the dual bulkhead connector so that I can use single cables.

The stupid way out is to use a Motor Marine (polystyrene) bulkhead connector glued to the housing and then utilize my external 2 way cable splitter to connect 2 strobes.

I sourced a scrap piece of lexan from the local Plastic World (yes that is their name) and am currently working on fabricating a standoff to mount the dual nikonos bulkhead. Currently it looks very ugly.

The F100 bulkhead connectors have been a challenge. Unlike the axillary port which features 2 o-rings (1 surface & 1 in-hole) and a less tolerant hole, the F100 dual uses a very strict 18mm hole with only a single in-hole o-ring. So the tolerance is much lower.

 

[KeithG]

And I took the easy way out. My first attempt at the dual bulkhead leaked like a sieve (in the sink). I used a dissolving glue which does not fill gaps, but my surfaces where not flat enough.

Second attempt was a single Auxilliary bulkhead with a simple hole drilled in the top of the housing. After getting new o rings it is watertight down to 210 feet. I now have manual strobe control on my P&S.

Pictures to follow maybe....

I am still chasing the dual bulkhead setup using a different kind of glue. Not holding my breath....