Irbis

Website http://www.uwtechnics.com is under reconstruction now. I heard it will be available soon. You can connect directly to manufacturer by e-mail: uwtechnics@gmail.com.

Strobes give extremely short flash duration (about 0.001 s) and very high power in impulse. Such short impulse "freezes" a movement and we see a sharp object on the picture, independently of camera settings for exposure. We can change exposure parameters widely as we need, but our nearest object will be always sharp, only because it frozen by the flash. Difficult to reach the same picture quality using video lights.

Xenon tubes are rather sensitive for overheat. I think, combined system needs a thermally isolation for LEDs from xenon tube or very good cooling.

Round flashtubes in underwater strobes have the same normal life time as linear flashtubes. Both of them brokes fast when a small crack appears on the glass. Cracks happenes because of overheat or because of faulty tube glass. Many tubes have a defect in glass at the factory, but these are hidden defects. I repair underwater strobes for friends, few times changed cracked tubes. So, some tubes are in good condition after 5 000 dives, but some tubes i changed after 5 dives (factory faulty). The round tubes gives better light quality than linear tubes, because of the shape. The light spot repeats the tube shape. Round tubes better in that, but need much more energy to make the same light intensity as linear tubes. For example, Z-240 require 62 Dj energy for linear tubes to get GN=24, but DS161 requires 160 Dj of energy for the same GN=24. More energy requires more large size capacitor inside strobe body, large transformer and battery. So, you understand the big size of strobes with round tubes. But they give perfect lighting.

Hello Craig, I want to share my experience in similar case. My good friend has very old Sea&Sea housing with Nikon D50 and external electric TTL Converter (Sea&Sea). There were 2 pcs Nikonos bulkheads on the housing. External converter was broken a year ago. He asked me to make any conversion to optical synchronization. Last month I installed him new TTL device into the housing and optical bulkhead. Electronics supports Optical TTL and Electric Wire TTL. This TTL-Converter is electronics scheme with firmware (initial shape PCB is a serial product which "UW Technics" company suggests for Nauticam housings). But the concrete PCB for old Nikon D50 housing was custom made by manufacturer via our special order. Manufacturer gives possibility to order custom made PCBs, if you have dimensions or a sample PCB shape. Price is almost the same as for serial product, just a little bit more. So, it was a custom made Conversion Kit which included Electronics, Optical bulkhead with built-in LED, bulkhead adapter, and etc. If you need 2 optical bulkheads, it is also available. That was a set for easy installation by user. I installed it in 15 minutes. I changed 1 electric bulkhead to optical bulkhead, as you see on the picture. This device works with fresh battery - 5 years, or 75 000 flashes. Switch ON/OFF - automatics (by the camera command), no need external sealed switch. Compartible strobes - Z-240, D2000, YS-D1. Currently TTL works perfect with that Nikon D50. Camera recognize the device as nikon TTL flash (look to last picture "TTL flash" symbol on the display). Now my friend use mainly the Optical TTL with Z-240 strobes by fiber optic twin cable, sometimes Electric wire TTL by 5-pin cable, and sometimes mixed variant. Very wide possibilities. Such electronics is the 1-sf product on the market which support all types of TTL synchronization in one device.

Delay is another problem. Check you camera on the land listening shutter sound, - does the shutter everytime works instantly ? If you have any delays, check your camera menu settings and focusing mode switch. Trigger LEDs have to fire every time with the shutter sound. If there was shutter sound, but no LED flash, Ok, this is a problem of Trigger.

I use 500 lumen focusing light Fisheye NEO Mini 500 FS. It has Spot / Red light, and Auto Shut-off during the flash. Nice quality torch.

If optical cables are fine, try to change the battery in Trigger. CR type battery may be faulty. This is one of the reasons for weak firing.

Hello Simon, Many people use camera's built-in flash for TTL synchronization with Z-240. TTL works. Certainly not very accurate, by some technical reasons. User usually have to use corrector TTL+/- on the strobe. Synchronization from camera's flash has also some other lacks. But this is a most simple way. For accurate TTL i advice you to try "Optical & Wire TTL-Converter" (edition for Nauticam housings), made by "UW Technics". This is the 1-st product on the market which provides optical TTL, wire TTL, and mixed TTL in one device. You can use fiber optic cables, 5-pin synch cords, or both together. TTL works accurate with all types of synchronization. But I recommend you optical TTL, as progressive nowadays. I tested this device for Z-240 and YS-D1 strobes with my Nikon D610 in Nauticam housing. It was on the Red Sea in October. Automatics worked perfect, without any correction +/-TTL.

Have you sold it? I am searching for MDX-PRO D3 housing.