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Lights, Strobes, and Lighting Technique / Archived topic

Sea & Sea YS-120 Duo Strobe

Started by bmyates ·

  • 3Posts
  • 3Replies

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Sea & Sea YS-120 Duo Strobe

3 posts
  1. I just returned from the Wetpixel Bahamas trip, and realized that one of the shortcomings of my Inon Z220 strobes is their inability to fire repeatedly without pause. This was in glaring contrast to Jimmy's S&S 120's, which he fired in "machine gun" fashion to capture dozens of images of passing sharks, when I could only fire one shot every few seconds. :P

     

    I really love the small size of my Inons, and they do a great job in 95% of all shooting situations, but I occasionally want something with more power, both for "action" situations like shark diving, and for more power when shooting closeup WA reef scenes. I would also like to limit my choices to strobes that use AA batteries, since I strongly prefer to use AA lithiums rather than rechargeables (in part because I can get 10 or more dives out of one set without opening the strobes, and in part because they're lightweight -- a big plus with my behemoth Seacam housing -- and eliminate the need for a charger).

     

    The only major drawback of the S&S 120's seems to be that they only have two manual power settings (full and half power), but I can live with that because in most cases where I'd use them, those two settings would suffice. But does anyone know of a better AA-battery-using strobe out there, or a reason why I really shouldn't consider adding one or two S&S 120's to my arsenal? Any input would be greatly appreciated!

  2. Yeah, Bruce. S&S is coming out with the much-anticipated YS-110, which has the same power and coverage as the YS-120's, but uses 4AA and is smaller and has many more manual settings. $549 makes it a lot cheaper too. Available sometime, hopefully June 15th. there's a press release up in the news section somewhere.

     

    I've shot the YS-120 myself and I miss everything about it, except it's size, weight and having to deal with 8 batteries.

     

    I'm just jonesing, cause I leave for Manado April 25th. Wanna rent/sell me your 220's??

     

    Jack

    Edited by JackConnick
  3. Jack,

     

    I can see where the YS-110 will be an attractive option, and will compete well with Inon's strobes, but I don't see that it would solve my problem.

     

    A big reason I would consider the YS-120 is BECAUSE of its 8 AA batteries. If the YS-110 has the same power and output, but only 4 batteries, it is unlikely to have any faster recycle time than my Inons. I'm assuming that the reason the YS-120 is able to recycle faster (especially at half power) than the Inons is because it has twice the batteries at its disposal.

     

    Oh, and BTW, I have no intention of getting rid of my Inons; I'm just thinking that for certain dive trips, I might like to have at least one YS-120 along for rapid-fire shooting situations and/or to use in conjunction with one of my Inons for CU-WA work. (Although I wonder if the temperature difference -- 5500K for the Inons vs. 5100K for YS-120 -- would make mixing them a problem.)

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