Some more Info on the Sea&Sea YSD1

[mjh]

If you have not seen it here is the Sea&Sea promo video on the YSD1
YS-D1 promotional movie - YouTube

Here is an interesting comparison of strobes, done in Spanish(?) but you will get the gist of the post.
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[terson]

Hi Martin,
Surely by now you guys are receiving reports from clients that you've sold strobes to?
There are peolpe out here waiting to see how they perform and there is approximately 'zilch' coming out from the industry on their performance.
Bruce

 

[alien]

Inon S2000 cheaper and very nice

 

[mjh]

I think most of the 1st buyers are "vacation divers" and are currently somewhere sun soaked and enjoying themselves or on their way, lol. While the Inon S2000 is an excellent strobe it has a Guide Number of 20 compared to 32 of the D1, no contest. The YS01 has the same punch as the S2000 and is roughly $100 less.

 

[Steve P]

Yes. I'm one of those vacation divers who needs to make a decision whether to spend the extra $ on the D1 very soon. I'm leaning in this direction but. Would love to get some more feedback on it.

 

[ozzydamo]

Yes. I'm one of those vacation divers who needs to make a decision whether to spend the extra $ on the D1 very soon. I'm leaning in this direction but. Would love to get some more feedback on it.

It's a great looking design, the optical connection is perfect, will slave off a second strobe.
If you have an optical fibre capable camera/housing get the ys-d1.
I have used this strobe, the sync is perfect with a d7000 in an aquatica ad7000 optical ports- I have used it once underwater, but the viz was disgraceful- all I got is big bright shots of backscatter- still not over exposed albeit! so their new dsII-TLL did work as it stated(in manual mode with forced flash on a ttl pop up strobe camera).
It is the same GN as the inon z240 if you use the 100* diffuser, but remember a diffuser makes the light softer edged/warmer looking so it's an advantage. with wide angle shots I think the D1 has a real advantage.
Hangin to get a crack at it in good viz, but the weather here is playing games.

cheers,
Damo
ps- the inon only advantage is the focus light being 180 lumen. with the d1 you will need a dedicated focus light......more money! I got one of these it's brighter then my night dive torch and has rechargeable lith-ion batteries and it's tiny! http://www.laluzoptics.com/L800.html

 

[Steve P]

Thanks, Damo. I'm pairing strobe with a new Olympus Pen camera & housing which has an optical connection. Was also considering focus light as well. I didn't realize the Inon strobe came with one.

 

[ozzydamo]

Thanks, Damo. I'm pairing strobe with a new Olympus Pen camera & housing which has an optical connection. Was also considering focus light as well. I didn't realize the Inon strobe came with one.

Its probably not a super focus light, on memory its 250 lumen and it'll sap your charge quickly and could be cause of failure in the unit heat wise.

also if I had the Olympus camera I would look at a Olympus UFL-2 Strobe Review | Wex Photographic
The strobe has the standard Olympus 5 pin connector and is optical fiber capable.

Problem with this strobe is it only has 2AA battery capacity- would do a hour long say over 200 shots. but the zoom feature is something the others don't have.

 

[mjh]

Not to be a contrarian but a couple of thoughts. IMHO focus lights on strobes can be useful for Macro and getting you back to the boat on a night dive if all else fails, lol. But for medium to wide angle work they are counter productive. In general they force you to point the strobe directly at the subject which will result in backscatter. So a focus light of some kind is preferred in many cases.

The Oly UFL-2 is an ok strobe, but as a Oly dealer we do not stock it. The Zoom feature is cool but it is outweighed by other issues. Slow recycle time, limited life due to just two double AAs, size and frankly the Guide Number is overstated, more like 20-22. S&S and Inon have better options, humble opinion.

 

[terson]

The Oly UFL-2 is an ok strobe, but as a Oly dealer we do not stock it. The Zoom feature is cool but it is outweighed by other issues. Slow recycle time, limited life due to just two double AAs, size and frankly the Guide Number is overstated, more like 20-22. S&S and Inon have better options, humble opinion.

Hi Martin,
I'm seriously considering this strobe at the moment solely for its RC capability which includes shutter speed syncs right up to 1/4000 if necessary.
I'm never going to need that sort of shutter sync, but I use an EPL-2 and it would be nice to be able to get shutter speeds of 1/250 and 1/320, etc. . .
Neither Inon or S&S can give me that feature and I'm lead to believe that when used for macro work, the recycle time is a 'lot' quicker?
I don't intend on using this strobe for any wide work what-so-ever. . . .your thoughts???
Bruce