Upgrade to YS-D1 or Z240-Questions

[divengolf 17]

I am about to upgrade from my trusty DS-125s to either Z240 or YS-D1. I was pretty much set on the D1s, then I ran into a bunch of posts on problems with the D1s mostly with the TTL and poor service from USA office of Sea & Sea. Now I'm reconsidering the Z240s.

 

My attraction to the D1 was the GN 32 since I shoot a good bit of big guys in WA and FE. I understand that the beam is narrow relative to the Z240 and that at 100 degrees, the GNs are about the same. So the Z240 would probably be fine.

 

My Rig: D7000 in Aquatica housing with nikonos bulkheads. I've always shot with a sync cord. I shoot WA in Manual strobe and close-up and macro in both manual and TTL. I definitely want to be able to use TTL.

 

Any experience or opinions would be appreciated.

 

PS> I'm spoiled by the excellent service from Ikelite and Aquatica over the years and don't want to buy into a situation where US service is poor.

[okuma 64]

We have 5 - Z240 and are happy with them.

I flooded one, my fault, and got a big discount on a new unit.

[Interceptor121 766]

With the YS-D1 you need a TTL converter to shoot sync cords in TTL otherwise you will only be shooting manual

With the Z240 you can use the external auto mode for close range work with a sync cord without a TTL converter, the strobe has a light meter inside

[Karl 7]

Most of my mates have either the DS-01 or the Z240.

 

Those with the DS-1 and have no issues with them (I have the YS 110A) but they all use fibre optic cables and not the sync cord.

 

Also the ones using the Z240s have about the same experience with the Z240s.

 

All up I think both are excellent strobes.

 

I will be upgrading to the DS-01 in the near future as the YS 110A are slowly dying

 

Karl

[Alastair 2]

i have used the Z240s for years now and love them. Sea and Sea seem easier to setup though. My wife uses YS-110a and i also think that they are quality kit as wel;l but the Inon have the edge for me. i like the battery compartment and it seems that with eneloops the Z240s seem to recycle faster and they are easier to pack and travel with. and a bit wider? and switching between the two i seem to find them easier to position for CFWA. Size helps for Macro as well. I also use the warming filters as in some situations they can be a bit cold.. you couldn't go wrong with either..

 

good luck on that choice

[bvanant 190]

If you want to shoot TTL with sync cords (why is a good question) then you will need to stay with Ike strobes since the TTL converter in the housing is an IKE converter, it will not shoot TTL with either S&S or Inon as far as I understand. If you go to optical sync then you can get emulated TTL with either. Alternately you can get a different ttl converter but that is its own issue.

 

Bill

[divengolf 17]

Bill,

 

Thanks for the reply. Are you saying that there may be a TTL converter on the circuit board in my Aquatica housing?

 

Also I do have an optical BH for the housing that I removed and installed a second nikonos BH as a backup. I can just as easily go to optical. The only real downside that I see is the increased drain on the camera battery and the heat created in the housing. Am I missing anything?

 

I'm leaning toward the Z-240s as they seem to have a better reliability record than the D1s. I shoot about 75% manual, but like the flexibility to use TTL when conditions are changing rapidly and I do not have time to constantly adjust the strobes. I usually just change their direction to reduce the light on subject if needed.

 

Thanks for your opinions.

 

Harry

 

PS> Thanks to all who have responded. I appreciate your experience and opinions.

 

 

[Alvaro Velloso 0]

Hello Harry,

 

I'm doing the same movement from DS-125 to YS-D1s. I'm also moving from Aquatica D-300 to D-7100 (or anything more powerful before November 2014).

I've been shooting manually for long time and I would like to move to TTL in some macro conditions.

 

You said:

"The only real downside that I see is the increased drain on the camera battery"

 

I saw somewhere (sorry!) a circuit that goes on the camera's bulkhead that triggers 2 leds through the housing optical bulkhead. I'm not sure it is a TTL converter as well or just a standard optical trigger. It would save you battery life.

 

It works like S&S one, without TTL

http://www.backscatter.com/learn/article/article.php?ID=178

 

 

Best wishes !

Alvaro

[Alvaro Velloso 0]

Hi Again !

 

This is Carlos Villoch Microflash.

 

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=42901&page=4

 

Kind regards,

 

Alvaro

[divengolf 17]

It is my understanding that the S&S adapter only works with S&S housings. But, regardless, I have just bought 2 S&S YS-D1 strokes and have done extensive bench testing at home using the FO connection. I did over 50 shots using a fully charged camera battery and both strobes in various manual and TTL settings. The camera battery drain appears to be minimal. I started with a fully charged battery and after all of these shots, the camera still shows a fully charged.battery.

 

Note that all of the manual shots were at a camera flash setting on 1/128 which is the lowest available. Didn't make any difference since the strobes are totally controlled by their settings in manual. All they need is a flash signal from the camera to activate. The TTL probably took a little more power, but I don't shoot TTL much.

 

My guess is that I'll run out of strobe battery before I run out of camera battery. We'll see in a month at the Cocos Islands.

 

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions.

[diverdoug1 56]

I moved from DS161 strobes to YSD1's. If you wish to have TTL cpability, the cheapest way is to put an optical bulkhead on your camera an use fiber optic cables. The D1's and 240's have a slightly cooler temperature than the 161's(I shoot in RAW and fine tune the temperature in my RAW editor as part of my usual wwork flow, but it is worth mentioning the differencs). It seems the initial glitches the D1's had have been worked out. All 3 of mine have been fine and I know a number of otheres who have had no problems with them.. I find the controls much more intuitive and easier to manipulate than the INON's. With the diffusers on, I find the powerre comperable between the D1's and the 240's. I noticed the bottom of some of my images were a bit dark when I tried the TTL feature. Since I always use manual, I am not sure if this is a frequent problem.

Edited June 2, 2014 by diverdoug1

[Interceptor121 766]

The D1's and 240's have a slightly cooler temperature than the 161's(I shoot in RAW and fine tune the temperature in my RAW editor as part of my usual wwork flow, but it is worth mentioning the differencs).

You can get 4900K and 4600K diffusers for the Z240. Having said that they are more useful in greenish water than they are in normal conditions so that when you correct the white balance (if you do) the water look a deeper blue. I have both and have not used them yet might try in a few weeks

[nortoda1 13]

Interceptor121, the z240s colour temp of 5500k are preferred for green water photography. The 4900 and 4600k give more accurate blue water in blue water

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Interceptor121 766]

Interceptor121, the z240s colour temp of 5500k are preferred for green water photography. The 4900 and 4600k give more accurate blue water in blue water

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

By greenish I don't mean green water I mean blue water that is murky and not very blue as per the inon examples on their website.

[nortoda1 13]

Interceptor121 your hilarious as always. Have a read on Alex's homepage, he deceives it well

http://www.amustard.com/?page=pro&ext=strobecolour&subpage=news&size=s

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Interceptor121 766]

Don't need explanations thanks I have read that piece already. Just wanted to say of you are not happy with the color temperature you can change it however I haven't felt that need as of yet. Besides you can saturate blue hues without using a diffuser anyway in post

 

This was the inon post that I mentioned

 

http://www.inon.jp/pdf-dl/_userdata/ColorTemFilter_technic-en.pdf

 

When blue water looks green use this filters to restore back the deeper blue it goes on a bit about how and why is done etc etc

 

If water is green naturally it needs to stay that way still you may want your strobe to be warmer than 5500K it is down to personal preference not a recipe book

Edited June 2, 2014 by Interceptor121

[divengolf 17]

diverdoug1:

 

I agree on the cost of going FO with the D1s for TTL. Has worked out fine. Plus I always shoot in RAW, so that issue goes away.

 

However, in assembling the FO connection to the strobe, the connection doesn't seem as tight and secure as I would like. I'm sure that I have the connector fully seated in the strobe body. I'm thinking of fabricating a small device that would attach to one of the screws holding the ball to the strobe and have a set screw that would seat against the top of the FO connector to prevent it from coming out.

 

Since I have yet to get these strobes wet, I may be overreacting to the possibility of the FO cable coming loose. I just don't want to discover it on a dive trip.

 

What's your experience with this connection?

 

On your images with a dark bottom: You may have too fast shutter speed and be catching the rear curtain as it starts to move. If it only happens in TTL and not manual with the same shutter speed, then that's not it. Just a thought.

[diverdoug1 56]

divenngolf:

I actually use the Inon double connection supplied by Aquatica. I just cut the Sea & Sea end off of one side of each of my F/O cables, so I have 2 strobes triggered by one bulkhead. I sometimes use a third strobe for fish eye shots, which I trigger of my second F/O bulkhead (although I could also slave off one of the other strobes). I find these connections very secure and reliable.

[BOYDY 0]

Hi just been having problems with my setup,I use an Olympus om-d e-m1 camera with 2 sea&sea ys-d1 strobes now before I get bombarded with ttl won't work sea&sea says compatibility it will work however if you put the camera on 1/320 shutter speed and f22 set the strobe to ttl and have the EV dial on zero all is ok for macro shots but this is where it all goes bad.if you then take a photo slightly further away and adjust the EV dial +1.0 then it catches the shutter half way down in the frame so you then reduce shutter speed it eventually goes away at 1/160 anybody got same setup and want to try firmware on camera 1.4

[divengolf 17]

I started this thread a couple months ago. Just completed a trip to Cocos Is. with my new YS-D1s and am quite pleased with the result. No problem with the FO cable coming loose from the strobe-concern was obviously unwarranted.

 

Minor problem with the FO cable coming loose from the bulkhead. This occurred mostly when handling in the zodiac. Simply reinserted it into the bulkhead connection. I plan to engineer a small clip to hold the FO cable at the bulkhead in place before my next trip.

 

The one nit that I experienced was that the rotary switches were too easy to rotate. They frequently got knocked out of position while being handled by the boat crew. The detent positions just are not strong enough for the intended use. I had to check and reset the switches when entering the water on every dive once I figured out why the strobes were not firing.

 

Batteries were changed every two dives with no sign of reduced capacity. Camera battery lasted the entire day.

 

These are powerful strobes, more than my old DS-125s or at least it appeared so to me. Plus they are somewhat lighter. Made my rig a bit easier to handle above water.

 

And using AA batteries rather than a proprietary battery pack makes things a bit easier. One less charger to carry since I carry a AA charger anyway.

 

Shot with manual strobes the entire trip. Lots of flexibility with 11 power settings. No problem with syncing up with my D7000.

 

Very happy with this strobe.

 

Thanks to all who posted to this thread.

Edited July 24, 2014 by divengolf