henryfd

Thanks for your replay, even if I still have the problem, at list now I know it is not a foulty housing or strobe. But still I have to find a way! What will happen if I try to use a ttl slave sensor whit my DS125? Will it work this way or I will get the same problem I have now? Will it be able to give me full output or not? And how good will be the control over exposure? Sorry if I ask, but what is FEC? Was it like this also whit Oly C 5060, and if not, do you think it will be possible to fix it, say with a software upgrade? Shall I contact Olympus about it? And still, how is possible that nobody is experimenting the same problem I had? Am I the only one who wants to shot pictures with a high F stop ? Thanks for answering again Henryfd

I've made some searching, read some post , got some info about TTL and made some more experimenting. Here what I found: Let's take again my previus example(out of water but I am sure it will be the same in water, apart from distances): manual mode, external strobe only, iso 80, shutter 1/160, strobe on TTL, subject say about 5 meters far from camera. In this situation I can use f-stop between 2.8 and 6.3 and TTL will take care of it, nice outcome; but if I step to f-stop 7.1 or above nothing comes out, all of a sudden pitch black and the sensation that strobe is giving a very short and weak flash. If I swich the strobe to manual( full power) and the camera strobe setting to slave, then I can shot pictures of the subject at the same distance until I reach f-stop 11 ( of course at the end it is a little underexposed, but still accettable), and the sensation is that the strobe is giving the same strong amount of light (of course it has to!). This example shows that in manual full power I get about at least two f-stop more of light than what I get if I go TTL! How come??!!Why TTL cannot give me the same amount of output that manual does? I thought that TTL was there only to reduce light when it was to much not to limit it like this! So the next thing I tried is to put the strobe a different distance from the subject than the camera ( for example: camera 2 meters, strobe 1 meter from subject). This experiment was with the original setting (TTL mode). What I found is that when I get to the borderline distance ( the one where even a very little amount of f-stop (0.3 ev) suddenly produces a black picture) if I keep the strobe there and move the camera far away(as far as the cable permits) I don't have the problem and I am able to step up on f-stop. If I try to keep the camera in place (at borderline) and push the strobe far away from the subject and past the border line I get only blackness( suddenly) or if I want to have a picture I must open up f-stops on the camera. If I am right, TTL works like this: when you shot, the strobe should produce a preflash wich the camera should use to calculate the right amount of light needed and then tell the strobe to flash just the right amount of light then stop when it is enough. So I guess that the problem with my gear is that this chain of communication somewhere is not always working correctly but still this seem to have a pattern. I don't think it is the strobe, since my friend's ds125 does more o less the same, so could it be the wiring in the housing? What do you think? I guess I should contact IKELITE , maybe they have some more understanding of what is going on. As it is now I have to use my TTL strobe in manual mode and I am not very happy with this since I bought it for TTL capabilities. Will see. Henryfd

I need advice! I am experimenting with a c-7070, ike housing, ds125 ttl cable connected, ike dome port plus wcon 0,7 oly. Settings: manual, external strobe only (ttl), iso 80, shutter 1/160, f: it depends and here lies the problem. Problems and weirdness: I try to keep a high f-number (say no less than 5.6 ) to minimize the orrible pheripheric blur made by the add wide angle (absolutely orrible expecially from very near!!!). So let say I shot at a subject at 2mt with F5.6, the strobe works real ttl and pictures are ok; if I try to close to f 6.3 (0,3 ev), it seems that the strobe gives a very weak flash ( like ttl not working) and the pictures comes pitch black! If I step back to f 5,6 then again the strobe works fine ( you can see a more bigger amount of light when it goes off) and the pictures again are quite ok. Obviously this is just an example; some times I can push up f-stop more than one time before this happens and I guess it depends on how far I am from the subject, but the point is that when it happens it is very sudden and complete ( you shuld expect pictures more and more underexposed variing 0,3 f-stop at a time, but I think it is weird that it suddenly blackens out like this). And when in water, sometimes (specially if I have to keep far from the subject) I found that I have to keep f-stop very low ( 2.8) and I cannot choose to underexpose as I would like and the blur at the edges speed up very badly. Another strange thing is that I tried a friend's ds125 and it does the same thing, but I found that it starts to blacken out an half F-stop after mine does. Why do they give a different output of light? Ok, half f-stop is not much, but still they are not the same and mine is brand new while my friend's is two years old! Will mine get better becoming older ( just like whisky does)?! !!!! So is there somebody who has found the same things that I noticed and can tell me if it has to be like this or if something is wrong? Sorry about my poor english and thanks for your answers. Henryfd

Thanks, : I checked and it was the connector! When you insert the back of the housing the inside cable can be pushed back and the connector slides 1 or 2 millimetres so that if you don't pay very close attentions you wan't notice. Only when you are in the water!! The camera goes crazy and all the settings go nuts! Even the in camera strobe starts to fire when you shot! But now , thanks to your advice , it will not appen again! Henryfd

Hallo, I am starting to use a oly7070 with a Ike ttl housing and ike ds125 strobe, and while some pictures come very well exposed others are very dark. I tought that may be I was to far from my subject, but it did not change much if I went very near.It appears as if the camera thinks that there is even to much light, so the strobe fires a very little amount of light. Even in macro mode some times pictures are very dark. Settings are : manual mode, 1/150 F 5.6 for wide angle( ike dome and wide converter olympus) ; 1/200 F 10 for macro ( no supermacro). What makes me nervous is that with the same settings sometimes everything is fine, while others, pictures are dark. I connected strobe and housing with a cable (ike ttl), and I have set the camera so that every shot the strobe should fire but I noticed that is not always as it should. If I set the strobe to manual then it always fires! How come? I would be disappointed if I should use it in manual afetr having chosen this piece of gear so that I can have ttl capabilities! Is there anybody that has experimented the same problems? Do you think is a problem of wrong settings? camera defect? strobe defect? thanks for your opinions Henryfd