Advice on which strobe for Ikelite housing: YS-01 or DS-51

[lezlea]

Well I've spent 5 hours looking up different strobes, which are good and why, and where I can get them cheaper...and I thought maybe my time would be better spent asking for advice!

I've got an Ikelite Ultra compact digital housing for my cannon camera (6243.31). It has Two 12-24 threaded mounts on the bottom of the housing and I've figured out that I can use other strobes than the Ikelite ones!?

Ideally I'd like to spend under £500 but if someone was to say I may as well spend more for something better then I could.

I'm not photographically savvy...I have my camera settings adjusted in the manual mode to suit underwater photography but I don't play with them under water. Ideally the strobe would just flash when my camera did, which I believe most do.

Ideally I'd get the Ikelite SubStobe DS-161 video lite as I'd love to get some light into my videos as well but it's just too expensive.

The Sea and Sea YS-01 strobe seems to get good reviews...and I like the fact it takes AA batteries

and the other option I'd go for is the Ikelite DS-51

What do you guys think?

Thanks,

Lezlea

 

[mjh]

The YS-01 is the better choice in this situation. If you could afford the YS-D1 even better. Not familiar with your camera but depending on it's pre-flash you may be able to shoot in TTL, with the Sea & Sea strobes. The video light in the Ike 161 is marginal and we suggest just buying a stand alone focus/video/night dive light.

Ike is great if you have a housing with an Electronic Sync Cord feature for those who want to shoot in TTL.

 

[irolga]

The YS-01 is not compatible with the Ikelite housing for TTL. You'd have to use the DS-51. I found out the hard way and now I'm stuck with the YS-01 and shooting slave.

 

[Dannybot]

While I can't tell you what kind of strobe to get, you don't have to get an Ikelite hard wired strobe. In fact, if you do get an Ikelite, you'll need to get a slave for that housing, as it lacks the hot shoe.