39 replies to this topic

[CADiver]

I am sure this is probably not a new subject, so please feel free to redirect me to any old threads.

I am new to the Inon Z240 strobe (type 4). Started diving w/ it and looking for tips.
I set my Nikon to Flash TTL. On a few dives I connected it with optical (& pop up the Nikon flash) and on a few others I connected it with S&S electronic sync cord. Regardless what connection method, I found every switch on the Inon, I can fire. Sttl, stttl-low, Auto, Manual, Full, everyone, it fire. On every switch (may be not Full), I can dial the EV and get fine adjustment. So while that sounds good, it looks like I have no 'sure exposure' in ttl, isn't it ? If I am shooting TTL-low on macro and I can adjust the EV from max to lowest to get the right exposure, then to me it's not TTL anymore ?!
In the last trip, I was shooting 60mm w/ both Z240 situated to the left & right of the port about 6 inches away from the port, connected electornically, I set the Inon on ttl-low with the fine EV dial down to 11. That seems to generate the least amount of output if I set it at TTL, I got over expose result.

Am I mis-using the product ? How do you typically use yours ?

Thanks!
Dominic

Edited by CADiver, 22 September 2009 - 03:57 PM.

[TimG]

Hi Dominic

Which housing are you using? With many housings there is no TTL between Nikon and strobes without some form of TTL converter. Sea and Sea do one; Heinrich Weikamp (HW) is the other. I use a HW with my Nikon D300 and Subal housing and find it excellent with my Inon 240s. Prior to buying the HW I just dialed in the strobe setting using the Inon's EV dial. And you are right, this is not TTL metering.

[CADiver]

Hi Dominic

Which housing are you using? With many housings there is no TTL between Nikon and strobes without some form of TTL converter. Sea and Sea do one; Heinrich Weikamp (HW) is the other. I use a HW with my Nikon D300 and Subal housing and find it excellent with my Inon 240s. Prior to buying the HW I just dialed in the strobe setting using the Inon's EV dial. And you are right, this is not TTL metering.

I use the Nexus housing, in their description, it said if you fire w/ the Nikon flash and optical trigger/connection, you get sttl. That's fine but it seem I have to dial the EV to get it right, so that's strange ....

With HW ttl convertor, how/what do you set the D300 to ? & the Inon ?

Tx!

Edited by CADiver, 22 September 2009 - 09:04 PM.

[Nige Wade]

Hey Dominic

Try this link to Reef Photo it's the only info I could find online http://www.reefphoto...i...b&article=7
Hope it helps

Nige Wade

[Deep6]

Hey Dominic

Try this link to Reef Photo it's the only info I could find online http://www.reefphoto...i...b&article=7
Hope it helps

Nige Wade

Nigel has pointed you to the best online documentation. The dealer who sold you the Inons should help you. This is the best reason to deal with a first line u/w photo dealer. You don't say which Nikon you are using. You can get sTTL (slave TTL) only by using the optical connection. Put you Nikon flash in the command mode and follow the reef photo set up. Pay heed to the info about the little black ring that covers part of the sensor.
Bob

[CADiver]

The dealer who sold you the Inons should help you.

Discourage buying pre-own underwater photo equipments from private party ?

Anyway, this is not an issue of whether dealer helping or not, they help, I just want to learn more from other sources.

I am shooting D90. Thanks for all the tips.

[CADiver]

Discourage buying pre-own underwater photo equipments from private party ?

Anyway, this is not an issue of whether dealer helping or not, they help, I just want to learn more from other sources.

I am shooting D90. Thanks for all the tips.

I re-read the Reef Photo page, basically, it's extracting some part of the User Manual to the page. Didn't say much about how you may want to set the camera.

Over 10,000 members & No one wants to share your technique & how you set your Nikon / Z240 ?? Did Dr. Alex wrote anything about this. I bought his DVD but it's about the red filter ... Or is this a trade secret, not going to tell anybody ... Or I must try everything to figure it out, it will take hundereds of dives ....

Cheers !
:-)

[Christian K]

I am sure this is probably not a new subject, so please feel free to redirect me to any old threads.

I am new to the Inon Z240 strobe (type 4). Started diving w/ it and looking for tips.
I set my Nikon to Flash TTL. On a few dives I connected it with optical (& pop up the Nikon flash) and on a few others I connected it with S&S electronic sync cord. Regardless what connection method, I found every switch on the Inon, I can fire. Sttl, stttl-low, Auto, Manual, Full, everyone, it fire. On every switch (may be not Full), I can dial the EV and get fine adjustment. So while that sounds good, it looks like I have no 'sure exposure' in ttl, isn't it ? If I am shooting TTL-low on macro and I can adjust the EV from max to lowest to get the right exposure, then to me it's not TTL anymore ?!
In the last trip, I was shooting 60mm w/ both Z240 situated to the left & right of the port about 6 inches away from the port, connected electornically, I set the Inon on ttl-low with the fine EV dial down to 11. That seems to generate the least amount of output if I set it at TTL, I got over expose result.

Am I mis-using the product ? How do you typically use yours ?

Thanks!
Dominic

Can't help you with the optical solution (have never owned a housing that allows that).
When you connect with a sync cord, do you use a TTL-converter? Because you will need one if you want TTL (a fake one that is, but it works), otherwise you can only trigger the strobe and have to adjust its output manually, either via the cameras flash control or on the dial on the strobe. I use a Heinrich Weikamp unit to emulate TTL-flash and have the camera set on internal flash TTL. I set the strobe on either full or manual. Full will give me 'traditional' TTL and with manual I can adjust the output and underexpose the flash, but TTL kicks in if I should dial in a too high value on the strobe.

Good luck

[PIG004]

I gave up messing with the TTL converter after 3 or 4 dives and just started shooting manually.

[CADiver]

I gave up messing with the TTL converter after 3 or 4 dives and just started shooting manually.

Thanks you for the input, so do you simply set the Inon to M or Full and then use the EV dial and never set to sttl or sttl-low ?
What do you set your camera flash setting to ?

Thanks again !

[Deep6]

Thanks you for the input, so do you simply set the Inon to M or Full and then use the EV dial and never set to sttl or sttl-low ?
What do you set your camera flash setting to ?

Thanks again !

For sTTL on Inon strobes, I set my D80:
internal fash to the command mode
ISO 100 or 200
M for manual
shutter from 1/125 to 1/160
single Auto or manual focus
spot or center metering

That's all I recall for now and oh yes, brain to enjoy!
Bob

[Deep6]

For sTTL on Inon strobes, I set my D80:
internal fash to the command mode
ISO 100 or 200
M for manual
shutter from 1/125 to 1/160
single Auto or manual focus
spot or center metering

That's all I recall for now and oh yes, brain to enjoy!
Bob

!Mas!

contrast to miminum
expose histograms to right w/o clipping highlights
play back to blinkies and thumb down for histograms if needed
ev +/- rarely needed for macro to sl. wide angle
Bob

Edited by Deep6, 25 September 2009 - 02:08 PM.

[CADiver]

For sTTL on Inon strobes, I set my D80:
internal fash to the command mode
ISO 100 or 200
M for manual
shutter from 1/125 to 1/160
single Auto or manual focus
spot or center metering

That's all I recall for now and oh yes, brain to enjoy!
Bob

Thank you Bob.

[Christian K]

Thanks you for the input, so do you simply set the Inon to M or Full and then use the EV dial and never set to sttl or sttl-low ?
What do you set your camera flash setting to ?

Thanks again !

sTTL is for optical operation. The flash will still trigger, but you won't get TTL if it's connected with a regular sync cord.

/christian

Edited by Christian K, 25 September 2009 - 10:46 PM.

[tdpriest]

Nexus housings will allow Nikon cameras to control INON strobes in sTTL with fibre-optic connection; the other options are manual control with a fibre-optic connection, electrical connection with manual control (with, I seem to remember, the right-hand button on the strobe locked down) and strobe control using the built-in sensor. The INON manual is notoriously difficult to work through, but probably necessary.

It's funny how this comes up time and time again, when a little practice in a swimming pool, or even the bath, will confirm what works for you.

This link leads to some useful comments on this issue:

http://wetpixel.com/...showtopic=29116

Tim

Edited by tdpriest, 26 September 2009 - 04:51 PM.

[bvanant]

[quote name='CADiver' date='Sep 22 2009, 04:54 PM' post='225882']
I am sure this is probably not a new subject, so please feel free to redirect me to any old threads.

I am new to the Inon Z240 strobe (type 4). Started diving w/ it and looking for tips.
I set my Nikon to Flash TTL. On a few dives I connected it with optical (& pop up the Nikon flash) and on a few others I connected it with S&S electronic sync cord. Regardless what connection method, I found every switch on the Inon, I can fire. Sttl, stttl-low, Auto, Manual, Full, everyone, it fire. On every switch (may be not Full), I can dial the EV and get fine adjustment. So while that sounds good, it looks like I have no 'sure exposure' in ttl, isn't it ? If I am shooting TTL-low on macro and I can adjust the EV from max to lowest to get the right exposure, then to me it's not TTL anymore ?!
In the last trip, I was shooting 60mm w/ both Z240 situated to the left & right of the port about 6 inches away from the port, connected electornically, I set the Inon on ttl-low with the fine EV dial down to 11. That seems to generate the least amount of output if I set it at TTL, I got over expose result.

For optical triggering, set the camera to TTL (command mode).
Set the z240 to STTL
Set the SuperSTTL knob to B (straight up)
Set the lower right push button so the button is out
Camera to manual
Should give you good TTL control.
Check to make sure that when the strobe fires, the ready light should go from red to green and the green slowly goes away
BVA

[Christian K]

If you want TTL with a regular sync cord, you must haver some sort of TTL-emulator/converter.
It is only full and manual that will 'work' with a hard wired connection and a TTL-converter, like the HW-unit or S&S.
sTTL, and variations of it, will only work properly with optical connections. You might be able to fire the strobe with a electrical cable in sTTL-mode, but the results should be unpredictable.
I use the type II z240:s. Not sure if anything has changed for the type 4, but when using a converter and electric cables I need the advanced circuit-button (aka 'the magnet') pushed in and locked. Dialing in 'Manual' on the strobe will not be a true manual mode when the converter is on, it is 'Manual+TTL' as I described earlier. For a true manual mode, I release the Adv. circuit-button and dial in manual on the strobe, (also possible by changing the synch in camera to rear curtain).

cheers

[bvanant]

With the camera flash on and optical triggering, you should get TTL if the strobe is in STTL mode AFAIK
With the electrical connections, all bets are off unless you have a converter as everyone else has said.
Bill

[CADiver]

Thank you for those who response, it really helps.

the D90 Nexus that I bought has both electronic sync and optical sync. so I can play with both. It was because I was playing with both and every type of connection fires on every settings, that had be started this thread. When I was using optical connection with camera flash set to default TTL and strobe sttl or sttl-low, I can still adjust the dial on the right +/- to see exposure differences, that had me real confuse w/ what TTL that is. I am not sure my question was solve but I have good info from you all to play w/ optical some more. Eventually I will go back to manual and electronic sync but I want to enjoy some time with opticall ttl a bit for now.

Cheers !
Dominic

[bvanant]

Thank you for those who response, it really helps.

the D90 Nexus that I bought has both electronic sync and optical sync. so I can play with both. It was because I was playing with both and every type of connection fires on every settings, that had be started this thread. When I was using optical connection with camera flash set to default TTL and strobe sttl or sttl-low, I can still adjust the dial on the right +/- to see exposure differences, that had me real confuse w/ what TTL that is. I am not sure my question was solve but I have good info from you all to play w/ optical some more. Eventually I will go back to manual and electronic sync but I want to enjoy some time with opticall ttl a bit for now.

Cheers !
Dominic

The part that had me confused was why were you trying to change the exposures. A properly working TTL system with the optical sync should show pretty much the same exposure at all reasonable f stops.
Bill