Sea and Sea YS03----help!!!!!

[KeithG]

i would suggest that before the OP does any knee jerk reaction, they should fully understand what went wrong and how best to correct it.

Very early in my professional life a sage told me: A change is just as good as an improvement. They were smiling at the time...

 

[Chris Ross]

Ordinarily I'd agree, but in this case there is:

• A fast approaching trip
• If the problem is a TTL issue due to being too far away it will get worse in water and the fix is go manual
• The existing strobe only does TTL and a manual capable strobe will fix many woes due to the issues with TTL underwater.
• The existing strobe only does TTL and that is a known problem for wide angle which the OP expressed an interest in - so seems like wrong choice of strobe to me

Better to return it now if its the wrong choice before the return period expires and a different strobe may just fix the issue. Oh and by the way I don't agree with your sage, being the victim of corporate change for the worse for the sake of change a few too many times:

 

[JackConnick]

Just trying to learn more here... I am totally confused by the observation that the strobes will not fire when the subject is to far away.

In this case, I can easily believe that "far away" subjects are poorly light by the strobes. The strobes fire properly, but are too far away to deliver enough light to properly expose the subject. The solution is to get closer. And then even more closer still.

What am I missing?

I think you had it right the second time, I never said they wouldn't fire if too far away, just that the light wouldn't show.

BTW; YS-02s have been discontinued, as are the s-2000 for some time. The YS-01 is an option.

He does not have both manual camera control and TTL on the older Canon cameras. So the strobe will not fire/or sync if the camera is set to manual. Canon has changed that on newer models. There's a possibility that his pre-flash is not compatible with the newer YS-03; but generally we've found that strobe to actually work better than say the YS-01 on compacts.

 

[Hoag]

I think you had it right the second time, I never said they wouldn't fire if too far away, just that the light wouldn't show.

BTW; YS-02s have been discontinued, as are the s-2000 for some time. The YS-01 is an option.

He does not have both manual camera control and TTL on the older Canon cameras. So the strobe will not fire/or sync if the camera is set to manual. Canon has changed that on newer models. There's a possibility that his pre-flash is not compatible with the newer YS-03; but generally we've found that strobe to actually work better than say the YS-01 on compacts.

@JackConnick, I know that the D2000 and the D2000s have been discontinued, but I thought that the S2000 was still a current model. When did it get discontinued?

 

[Chris Ross]

I think you had it right the second time, I never said they wouldn't fire if too far away, just that the light wouldn't show.

BTW; YS-02s have been discontinued, as are the s-2000 for some time. The YS-01 is an option.

He does not have both manual camera control and TTL on the older Canon cameras. So the strobe will not fire/or sync if the camera is set to manual. Canon has changed that on newer models. There's a possibility that his pre-flash is not compatible with the newer YS-03; but generally we've found that strobe to actually work better than say the YS-01 on compacts.

Yeah but the OP seemed to indicate his flash is not firing at greater than 3 feet which is what is throwing everyone. I asked them to confirm the flash is definitely not firing but have not had it confirmed. OK so it's the YS-01, I also thought the S2000 was still around. When you say the strobe won't fire/symc on manual assume you mean with the YS-03?

A further thought for the OP, maybe check the red eye reduction is not enabled and AF assist is off if the camera has that.

 

[JackConnick]

No, it's a Canon camera setting. On the older models if you choose Manual camera mode, the camera flash only works in manual. They changed that a year or so ago.
I just think he's got something on auto flash and it's getting too much ambient light.

Inon might still be making the s-2000, but we haven't seen them available. They are very funny about what the way they sell products here.

 

[kurtluker]

Hey everyone....we got it to work...here is how....please don't laugh if this is amateurish or stupid....

First we put a strip of metallic tape on the inside of the housing in front of the flash to reflect the camera flash back into the housing and fiber optic cable ports. Secondly we moved the fiber optic cables to the other port (there are two ports on the front side). Now it works every time with no shadows or anything. It works in auto or AV mode set with underwater settings.

I don't know which one "fixed" it..if it is indeed fixed....only time will tell when we get underwater. Not going to mess with it anymore....hopefully I will get great pictures with these flashes.

Thanks for all the input.......