substrobe YS 110/120/90

[niaewn]

I need an advice for sea and sea substrobe, which one its better YS 110 or YS 120 or YS 90?
Is it true that the only substrobe have TTL mode is YS 110?
can I used different substrobe (ex. Ys 110 + 90?)? and If I can use both,TTL mode can be used?

last question, according to the diveshop here, YS 110 will be release in august,because sea and sea have problem with this new product ( problem ?? not even released??..hmmm....)

thank you for all,

dive safe,
nia

 

[Mariozi]

What is your camera/housing niaewn?
I have both YS120 and 90, maybe I can help...

 

[niaewn]

hi again mariozi, i have same housing as you, DX 50..
at last thread title "about DX50" , I already open your web, but like you said its still on progress, so i can't find about substrobe and dome ( for dome, you already answer,thanks!), and i have nikon fish eye lens 10.55 and 18-55m (kit from D50), which subtrobe i had to buy for this kind of lenses?

thanks,
nia

 

[Mariozi]

Unfortunatelly no S&S strobe, even the new YS-110 (most probably) will perform i-TTL on a DX+D50, this is the bad news...
The good news (and I know that because I come from a TTLable NX80 housing) is that the DX-D50 housing connector (the wires) comes with the 5 wires installed, but 2 of them are not connected. Wierd?
Yeah, but look at it like this: Since you still cannot do i-TTL, S&S isolated the wires for flash identification and sync speed (I am not completely sure these are the right names of the wires... lazy to check:11doh. This makes the following changes:
- The flash is fired manually whenever they are connected and on;
- The camera don't know the flash is there... this allows for the following changes, since the camera does not know the flash is there, Auto Exposure in P, S and A modes are a bit different, brighter.
Ohh I forgot to tell you the real good stuff between all that technical data!
This way you can fire your strobe in speeds up to the maximum speed of the camera!!!
You "sync" it up to 1/4000s!!! So at M mode you have now total control of the background brightness/darkness.

So in M mode wide angle shooting I am doing the following:
- First I lock the aperture buttom down, and ajust strobes for the composition I want (strobe distance and/or strobe power and/or aperture - most probably all of them).
- Once this is set, based on what I see of foreground illumination, I unlock the aperture buttom and adjust the background brightness.
The catch: Maybe, when you set high speeds, you will need a bit more punch of strobe power, so you will probably (again) have to move your strobes a bit closer to the object. So when first adjusting the strobes remember to make room for that.

I am not sure but I think this is possible because even when you shoot at, say 1/500, the maximum actual speeds of the blades are 1/90s. Beyond that speeds are controlled eletronically on the sensor, this is done to further the shutter life (they did that because we shoot much more on digital that we did on film!).

In macro mode it doesn't make much difference shooting high-speed... lets say you buy one 105mm... you will probably shoot it at 1/250@f/22, this is way dark for uwphoto, and in fact, you will freeze the subject by the flash duration, that last much less than 1/1000 got it?

 

[Mariozi]

I have one YS-120 and one YS-90 TTL Duo.
I really like the 120, it has a good coverage.
YS-110 has a good coverage also and is very compact, looks nice but one must know the price. I really want to know more about it...
The YS-90 comes in 3 models:

YS-90 TTL Duo: simpler model, allows for wireless TTL (not so reliable in wa as in macro) even uw in the case that your first (connected) strobe is performing TTL.

YS-90 DX & YS-90 Auto: both have preflash modes, so they can TTL with compact cameras via an optical cable. The Auto one has an Auto mode (duh) with aperture settings, the DX one has Manual mode with aperture settings... I think the DX will do fine for you.
difference is that in Manual Mode, the settings are basically power settings, and in Auto Mode they are a crippled form of the old Auto Flash modes.

Auto flash modes are the parents of modern TTL. You had a flash that you would input ISO and apperture, the strobe had a sensor and based on reflection from the scene would "cut" the flash when he felt it to be enough for the exposure. Sea&Sea forgot (or locked) the ISO setting at a fixed point for these strobes, so you will have to compensate in aperture setting (on the strobe) if you change ISO.

One wise guy, some time ago just put this flash sensor inside the camera, thus TTL was born. All light sensors were photoelectric cell that powers transitors... strobes also discharge their capacitors through transitors... the guy just connected these transistors so that when their charges were the same, they would cut signal and stop flash (if you need flash exp compensation you just alter this relationship). Thus was TTL first named: "Transistor-Transistor Logic" a.k.a. the more friendly nickname of Through-The-Lens.

 

[Mariozi]

Oh. BTW, whenever they release an i-TTL strobe, all you need to do is to send your housing to SubAquatic Camera, or other service center and have those wires connected!
If you REALLY need TTL, you might want one SB800 inside a housing.

 

[niaewn]

Oh. BTW, whenever they release an i-TTL strobe, all you need to do is to send your housing to SubAquatic Camera, or other service center and have those wires connected!
If you REALLY need TTL, you might want one SB800 inside a housing.

thanks a lotttt mariozi !!!

according to your explanation i think i dont need i-TTl strobe ( i can have 1/4000s speed so no need i-TTL), and according to ssra30 ,with digital camera i-ttl not excatly essential, better learn manually.

so when do you think we ,as an u/w photographer need i -TTL?

as far as i know , ikelite its the only subtrobe offer this i-TTL mode, do you think sea and sea housing compatible with this substrobe?

( i read again post from ssra30, so think the only way i can have this i-ttl i have to used ikelite housing, so this question already answer)

and i decided to buy YS 120..yu said its good coverage,and ssra said that he will not change his ikelite substrobe 125 to ys 90,so YS 120 its a good choices

thanks guys,

nia

 

[Mariozi]

so when do you think we ,as an u/w photographer need i -TTL?
Maybe I am not the one to answer this... I have just started in UWPhoto in 1999/2000...
and my first SLR was an Nikon N80, a "modern" film camera with very reliable TTL. Before that I used Nikonos and Motormarines, relying strongly on TTL. And I have very little experience shooting with a DSLR, I got my first one (D50) this year.
But from the pictures I see from a great number of equally great UWPhotographers that NEVER did use TTL shooting on film... I tend to think it really doesn't matter that much, and ssra30 is probably right.

Just one thing... 1/4000s does not assure you a good exposure... flash exposure is controled by: Aperture, Distance and Flash Power Setting... ONLY. This happens because the flash lasts for less than 1/1000s sometimes even less (and this depends on power setting, full - longer; half power - shorter), approaching 1/10000s!
So setting your speed to 1/60 or 1/500 will have no effect on flash exposure right?
The "difference" you might see is caused by ambient light on the subject, with higher speeds you will have mostly flash light on them, with slower speeds you will have both.

 

[Mariozi]

Is this another thread to be moved to "Flash Dance"?

 

[V_kids]

Hi Nia!
i'm using DX-D50 too and i'm from Indonesia.
i placed an order of YS-110 at dive master Indonesia already. I should received it on early august.
Currently, i'm using YS-90 Auto
I always use manual mode, when i'm shooting underwater.
The TTL doest work!
however, i just place an order of Sea and Sea TTL converter for Nikon Dx-D50.
it's around $400.
with this item, u should be able to perform TTL with YS-90 auto or YS-110

Andree
digitalxd1@yahoo.com