Canon G11 + Sea & Sea YS-02?

[Hydros]

Hi guys,

I'm a recent addict to underwater photography, and am looking to add an underwater strobe to my set up. I have the G11 with the Canon Housing (WP-DC34), and have been looking at the Sea & Sea YS-02 strobe as a possibility. Does anyone have any experience with this strobe, or advice as to its suitability for the camera and housing?

As far as I can see the difference between the YS-02 and the more expensive YS-01 is the lack of a target light and DS-TTL mode. A lot of the advice I've read is that people often end up using their strobes manually in the long run anyway. I'm a student (so not exactly flush with money!), and although I appreciate that it's important not to skimp on a strobe, I do want to save money wherever possible. I'd be using it for diving in the UK as well as the occasional trip to the Red Sea. Mostly shooting macro, but it would be nice to try the odd wide angle shot.

I'm also slightly unsure about arms, mounts, trays etc. Is the general consensus that you're better off buying it all as a package with the strobe (e.g. Sea & Sea YS-01 & YS-02), or the strobe head and other bits and pieces separately?

Thanks in advance for any help! I appreciate this is hardly the most novel thread, but I did have a good look through the forun and couldn't find much mention of the YS-02, just the YS-01.

 

[Gilligan]

The Ys-01 0r YS-02 will be fine with your G11. I would suggest you go with the YS-01 as the target light is an invaluable feature for night dives and dark places on day dives. It will help the lens to focus. I currently use a G10 and G12, both in Canon housings with a Sea & Sea YS-27DX which is a manual strobe without a focus light.

As for the tray/arm setup it is a matter of preference. You can go with a flex type arm or a ball joint type arm the latter of which has more field of motion but also requires loosening and tightening. Below are a couple of samples:

Be very aware of trays with left hand grips only, which are in the majority. You often hold the setup by the camera in your right hand and it puts a lot of stress on the tripod mount which is a metal plate secured by four screws to polycarbonate threaded posts. My G10 tripod mount broke and I improvised a support system for my G12 for the tripod which you can see HERE.

 

[Interceptor121]

The package that cuw suggest for the ys-02 is perfect as a first strobe
for macro that set up will work very well for uk diving the issue is always the low visibility but there won't be much of a difference with or without a target light, the best is to use manual focus that you will learn
TTL is a useful feature to reduce task loading at the beginning and avoid you suck a lot of hair playing with camera and strobe finding the right setting it is less useful once you are experienced

 

[Hydros]

Many thanks for the replies guys! A useful point about the left-hand grips on trays Gilligan, almost all the ones I've been looking at have this.

 

[Interceptor121]

I would not be too bothered about the right hand grip. The housing you have is positive in water and so is the strobe (-5-10 g) with the tray and the locline most likely it will be neutral in water without a wet lens. So outside water you can carry it from the arm and in water it is neutral so there is no torque anyway. NEVER carry the rig from the camera that is a very bad idea.
If you ever add an M67 adapter with a heavy wide angle lens you can buy a float belt to make the lens neutral and again there is no torque and again you should never get in the water with the lens already on the camera anyway

So don't worry too much the set up from CUW is fine. By the way I have a spare epoque universal tray that is brand new been in water only once still with the original box send me a PM if you are interested I will sell it for £20 plus postage

 

[Jun Lao]

Ys02 is a very good strobe, on target light, maybe secure a separate one, a cheap fantasea focus light,
Strobe positioning is as equally important alongside proper manual settings. The drawback of using in-strobe target light is you'll be directing strobe light directly to subject, which produces harsh whites and strong shadows, may be acceptable to some but personally prefer softly well lit subjects, where strobes are positioned a bit away from subject, for macro, I direct my strobe a bit upward, behind the port and try to light subject with strobes edge of light

Since your using manual if ever you get the ys02, consider this as starting point settings
-for macro- iso80, 1/125 shutter, f8 aperture, I'd adjust shutter to compensate for pic, higher shutter no to make darker, minimum 1/60 if make shot lighter, plus strobe at 1/2 power

A friend uses iso160, shutter 1/160 and f8, he just finds it convenient and easy to remember, and adjusts shutter and strobe power accordingly to shot,

-wide, try starting point at iso160, shutter 1/160 and f5.6, strobe should be positioned on top and way behind port, don't expect we'll lit scenes though, can compensate by lowering shutter and bumping iso, but leave iso at max 400, beyond iso 400 shots will suffer from much noise

Good luck on your choice and happy shooting

 

[bjgove1]

I have that exact combo plus a Fantasea focus light on a right hand flex arm. I love it. In fact, I plan on getting a 2nd YS-02 in the near future. It took me about 2 dives to figure out how to work the strobe and camera together to get a proper exposure.

 

[Interceptor121]

I am an advocate of low ISO.
Macro (that is the best with the G series)
F8 for maximum depth of field
Shutter speed 1/500 for black background or 1/60 for blue background assuming you can point up and see some water otherwise don't waste time and shoot 1/500
ISO 80
Strobe set pointing downwards right on top of subject to create semi-natural shadows at Gn depending on the distance to the subject (1 feet max)

Target light is nice but you can use manual focus if you don't have one