Aquatica Digital AD7000 Operating Manual Download Page 10

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MOUNTING AND ATTACHING FLASHES

Threaded holes are provided on top of the hand grips to accept the necessary shoes or bracket to accommodate your strobes arms. Additionally, three

1/4”-20 threaded holes on the bottom of the housing can also be used for various mounting applications and a 1/4”-20 threaded hole on top of the rear half

of the housing will accept an Aquatica bracket or Base Ball that can hold a focus/video light or a extra strobe arm.

Developed with the Aquatica housing in mind, the Aquatica TLC Strobe Arm System is highly recommended for its ruggedness, precision and the quality

of its craftsmanship.

USING WIRED CONNECTORS

If using an Aquatica AD7000 Digital housing with electrical strobe connectors (supplied with either one or two

Nikonos type connectors) these will be connected to a switch board circuit that will allow you to choose between

full manual exposure or iTTL (an external converter or single housed flash is required). Optional Ikelite bulkheads

connectors are also available.

When preparing the sync cord, be sure to lubricate the O-ring on the sync cord’s connector with a light coat of the recommended O-ring lubricant for your

strobe, Also advisable is to put a light coat of O-ring lubricant on the threads of this connector.

Nikon Digital camera have a flash circuitry that will not allow two flashes to be electrically connected directly to the camera, whether in a housing or on

dry land, the wireless approach used by them prevents the triggering of the additional flashes, when two flashes or strobes are connected directly to the

camera, iTTL will stop to function and a camera freeze is likely to happen.

On your housing you will find one (or two) bulkhead connectors, the main connector (right side) is wired through a switch board that will allow you to take

full advantage of iTTL exposure, the secondary (left side if installed) connector is always in full manual configuration and cannot be used for iTTL operation.

By default you housing is delivered with the switch board set to full manual, if the iTTL exposure is desired then it can be made in either of two methods:

1) By using a single flash from Nikon or other brand (that is iTTL compatible with your camera) in its dedicated underwater housing connected with a TTL

cord to the main connector of your Aquatica housing.

2) By using an external iTTL converter connected to the main connector of your Aquatica housing, one or two underwater strobes with TTL cords which are

then connected to this converter, (check strobe and converter manufacturer for compatibility).

Set up instruction for iTTL operation: Using the tip of a pen push all the switches to the ON (up) position, this will activate the connections on your main

bulkhead connector allowing TTL communication between the camera and the housed flash or iTTL converter.

Set up instruction for manual operation:

All switches must be in the OFF (lower) position, in this case all iTTL connection are disabled and only the

ground and sync are left active, this will allow two under water strobes or housed flashes to be connected directly via the main and secondary bulkhead.

FOR OPTICAL CONNECTORS

The housing with optical connectors are supplied with one dual adapter for typical straight cord used by INON and various

strobe manufacturers and two Sea & Sea angled type cords adapter, select the desired connection and install on the

optical port base, tighten the set screw into place with the supplied hexagonal wrench.

In order to use Optical triggering, the built-in flash of the camera need to be in the up position, this can be done at time

of installation or later by using the flash actuator lever (key # 23) and pressing it to release it.

If ambient light images need to be taken simply flip the flash actuator lever (key # 23) up to close the internal flash.

Note:

it is advisable to turn the camera and external strobe off when travelling to your dive site in order to avoid useless drain of the camera and strobes

the batteries.

Field testing shows that mixing brands of optically triggered strobes is likely to give unreliable result and should be

avoided.

Remember not to install the hot shoe if shooting optically triggered strobes (HYB version) as this hot shoe disengages

the internal built-in flash of the camera and prevent this later from working properly. Always do a few test exposures

once you finished setting up the strobes

Strobe exposure shooting tips:

Pressing the flash actuator lever down will only bring out the internal flash if no hot shoe is attached to the camera.

When used with optical connectors:

this lever will release the internal flash when pressed or close it when lifted.

Once the flash is up, this lever when pressed will engage both the exposure compensation so you can select value with

the sub command knob(key # 2) and the flash mode so you can select the mode with the main command knob