Advice Re Strobe

[WS007]

Hi Doctorfish,

I recommend not to buy any more Sea&Sea strobes: in 2017 my wife and me purchased four YS-D2 strobes. One was replaced within warranty, another one I let repair for approx. 2/3 the cost of a new one. Now, december 2022, we are left with one (!) that is functional, another one is at a dealer for checking whether repair is economical. All other are gone...

In the meantime we have three Z330 in action and so far not any problem - we will buy more of them, at least one to replace the YS that is now at the dealer. Regarding O-ring of the battery compartment it is essential that you use the right grease (the one supplied with the flash or the one from Nauticam): I once borrowed one Z330 to a friend for two weeks and he used normal silicone grease every day- The yellow O-ring was swollen and needed to be replaced (if not, it could lead to leakage)...

Also the Retra may be worth a look. Backscatter miniflash only in case you are not interested in WA - this is a nice flash (+snoot), exclusively for macro...

Wolfgang

 

[Ardy]

Hi Doctorfish,

I recommend not to buy any more Sea&Sea strobes: in 2017 my wife and me purchased four YS-D2 strobes. One was replaced within warranty, another one I let repair for approx. 2/3 the cost of a new one. Now, december 2022, we are left with one (!) that is functional, another one is at a dealer for checking whether repair is economical. All other are gone...

In the meantime we have three Z330 in action and so far not any problem - we will buy more of them, at least one to replace the YS that is now at the dealer. Regarding O-ring of the battery compartment it is essential that you use the right grease (the one supplied with the flash or the one from Nauticam): I once borrowed one Z330 to a friend for two weeks and he used normal silicone grease every day- The yellow O-ring was swollen and needed to be replaced (if not, it could lead to leakage)...

Also the Retra may be worth a look. Backscatter miniflash only in case you are not interested in WA - this is a nice flash (+snoot), exclusively for macro...

Wolfgang

I have been using SnS flashes for nearly 20 years and the only problem I had was when I did a poor repair to one myself but that was in 2003. Diving in the Maldives I didn't turn the cap to the 'click' and as I got to 3m the cap came off and flooded the battery compartment, replaced batteries and dried the compartment and used it for several years as a slave. I've had 110a's and I now have a D1 and D2J with zero issues.
About 5 years ago I bought the Z240? based on bad reports regarding the D2 and strong reports, inc that you could flood the battery compartment and the strobe would be fine, it leaked and destroyed.
All underwater gear has issues it is not a great environment dealing with pressure and sea water. Until the perfect flash turns up that will never leak or overheat, fail, then we choose what we prefer and hope for the best.

 

[Hoag]

@Doctorfish if you are still looking for a strobe, I might have what you need. DM me. I see you are listing your location as "Canada". If you are in or near the GTHA, maybe we could do a face to face if you are interested in what I have.

 

[Barmaglot]

Until the perfect flash turns up that will never leak or overheat, fail, then we choose what we prefer and hope for the best.

Retras are pretty good on both counts, although this engineering comes at a cost. I recall a post from Oskar@Retra claiming that they haven't had a single incident of their flash flooding, but I can't find it now. However, while looking, I came across this story: RETRA Strobe Thread

 

[Ardy]

They sound good but a couple of posts down on the link you provided was this:

There is no point, depending on your location it'll be quite expensive to get them updated... And they have some issues like the pilot light on max causes them to shut down. This was with the original firmware, I inquired what was the procedure while they were in warranty and it was somewhere around 40€ per flash without the shipping. So with shipping included it was pointless to bother, rather not use the pilot light at max than pay 100 and more €.

So we live with what we like.

 

[Barmaglot]

There is no point, depending on your location it'll be quite expensive to get them updated... And they have some issues like the pilot light on max causes them to shut down.

That refers to the original-generation Retra strobes, the ones with the straight bulb. They went out of production in late 2018, and the new generation (Retra Flash Prime/Pro, using a circular bulb) were released in early 2020. Those in turn were given a slight update in the form of Retra Flash Prime X/Pro X in the beginning of 2022. The Prime/Pro strobes are user-updateable via a smartphone app over Bluetooth.

 

[Ardy]

I was expecting more than a 22% increase in price over a D3 at 899 and retra 1099. If they are really as good as you say there are many out there who will spend the extra to get some of these, found it odd that there was no guide number shown. Do you know what it is? I found the light distribution chart interesting and my D2J seems to perform quite well with the diffuser. The Z330 lighting was fairly poor without a diffuser and that was a surprise. The Ikelite was good but they always have had good lights just the extra bits needed that put me off, it might have changed.

 

[Barmaglot]

Guide numbers are a misleading statistic because they tell you nothing about the distribution of light. For example, Inon Z330 is rated at GN33, but this is only available in a very small spot in the middle of the beam. Watt-seconds, which is the metric that Retra uses, is a little bit better, as it measures the total amount of energy that the strobe dumps into a flash, but it still doesn't necessarily tell you the whole picture - for example, see this comparison between a Retra Pro (rated at 150 w-s) and a Scubalamp D-MAX (rated at 250 w-s) - despite having the lower specs, Retra Pro is noticeably brighter despite having lower specs.

 

[Ardy]

I managed to find a SnS 110a for my dive buddy. Good solution.

 

[Gdog]

Dave, I have owned several S&S strobes. Great success until the first edition YSD2, made in China. The YSD2 original strobes had an issue with burning out, even without hard use. I went thru 2 of them, very frustrating. The YSD2J, made in Japan, resolved those issues. Zero issues from the J version over the last several years. Nothing against Inon at all. I know you like them, and clearly you get great results, I love your shots.