Strobe for Canon Rebel XTi??

[jenniferscuba]

Hello!
My current set-up is a Canon Rebel XTi in a SeaTool 400XTi housing. I have tried using a Sea&Sea YS-90DX strobe a number of time for years, but have never had consistent luck with it firing. We've done a number of "modifications" to the fiberoptic cable, as well as the area within the housing near the flash and have had no luck and it is worthless!

I'm looking for advice on what strobe I should purchase. I also want to confirm that having a reliable strobe on a muck diving trip is the way I need to go.

Thanks!
Jennifer

 

[Deep Water Dan]

Does the strobe fire with other setups? Are you sure the fiber optic cable is good? I had one go bad on me a couple of years ago; it still passed light but not enough to fire the strobe. No obvious damage to the cable or connectors.

 

[KeithG]

What combination of "settings" have you tried? And what where the results? This info may help others to provide input.

With the large feature variation in cameras and strobes there is not 1 universal setting that will work with every setup. Sometimes it's the camera setting, sometimes its the strobe. Sometime they will just not work together.

Top of the list is to be aware that your strobe settings will/may need to be changed if you flip your camera from an auto mode to manual mode. Does it work fine in manual and not in auto? (or the other way round).


Yes: Having a reliable strobe is the way to go!

---------- Post added January 18th, 2015 at 05:19 PM ----------

Does the strobe fire with other setups? Are you sure the fiber optic cable is good? I had one go bad on me a couple of years ago; it still passed light but not enough to fire the strobe. No obvious damage to the cable or connectors.

A suggestion: take the whole fibre optic cable out of the equation: remove the camera from the housing and take pictures of the strobe on your living-room table.

 

[jenniferscuba]

I don't have any other setups to try it on, but after some more experimenting, here are the results.

1. With the camera out of the housing, with the slave on, and no fiber optic cable, the strobe fires 100% of the time in "Pre" - "On" - "TTL".
2. Doing all of the above with slave off, it never fires.
3. Mode of the camera does not matter. I got the same results above on both manual and program.
4. With the camera out of the housing and holding the fiber optic cable directly against the flash of the camera, if fires 100% of the time.
5. I can get the cable out to at least 9 inches and as long as the cable is pointed directly at flash, it fires. As soon as I turn it just slightly, it no longer fires.
6. When I put the cable into my housing it NEVER fires.

So even though it's firing out of the housing, could there still be some type of damage to the cable? And/or do different cables have different levels of sensitivity?

 

[KeithG]

congratulations, not a strobe issue!

still some learning and work todo. there is firing versus firing at the right time (pre, on, ttl setting) you can figure that out later, but it may lead to poor / inconsistent pictures.

the strobe will always have to be in slave mode in order for the "slave" sensor to detect light and trigger the strobe to fire. the slave switch basically selects the slave sensor (ala fibe cable) OR the wired sync trigger. if you are not using wired sync cables, then you always need slave to be on (as per your #2 above).

cable works without housing and never works with housing can be several different issues all causing the cable to not pick up enough light from the onboard flash.

a) cable is damaged
b) cable socket in housing is externally blocked by some crap - salt or silt buildup?
c) cable socket is internally blocked by something
d) onboard flash is not pointing directly enough at the cable socket (housing design or assembly flaw?)

cheapest problem is b) or c) above. next is a). try borrowing a cable from someone as a test.of you are happy you can make your own from a TOS cable for $4 and an hours sweat.

d) is unlikely but does happen. or maybe the camera flash has some wiggle room and you are now wigging it in the wrong direction. i saw this last trip with another persons gear. high end rig, flash fired outside of housing, it never fired inside housing. conjecture was the flash was not opening up high enough and the camera refused to run it since it thought the flash was closed.
does the onboard flash fire in the housing?

 

[wmiller]

Hi Jennifer,
I use the same setup as you except I ditched my Sea&Sea YS-90DX and bought an Inon D2000 and never looked back. I had the same issues as you and finally got fed up. I talked to the guys at Reef Photo, they recommend this one and I bought. This is an awesome strobe and I love the s-ttl and ttl and the other plus is the built in focus light!! If you can I would try one to see how easy it is to use. Definitely worth the investment.

Wendy