DSLR with Sea & Sea YS90s

As is well documented on this site - I have been having problems with my regular Subtronic strobes an have borrowed a pair of YS90s from a friend for my trip to Mabul/Sipadan/Kapalai.

I am now out on Mabul and am having problems getting the strobes to consistently fire on the same power with my DSLR.

They work most of the time (except while recycling!) but sometimes they only output a very low amount of light - causing underexposure.

At present I have both wired to the camera, with only earth and trigger attached. The problem persists in both shooting modes I have tried - AUTO 1 and AUTO 2. I also have tape over the two sensors on the front of each strobe.

I am going to try various things, like trying the TTL mode, trying having one as a slave. Trying just using one strobe etc etc. Try taking the tape off them. But these are all just ideas. I have no clue if they will work.

I am away shooting at the moment, so would appreciate any suggestions on how to fix them. Quick replies particularly appreciated! Especially from those familiar with Sea & Sea YS90s.

Alex

p.s. All I want is a flashgun that does what I tell it too. My subtronic went back to Germany because the manual powers stopped working properly. I didn't bring the Inons because I could get a decent amount of light out of them, and now this. Aaah. Most annoying.

-------

Attached is an example. Consecutive frames. The first one the flash was very low power the second, much more (the amount I was expecting). This was not a recycling issue as I had not taken an image for a minute or two before these.

It sounds like you might have YS90 Auto's Alex???? YS90DX does not have Auto1 and Auto2 settings.

If that's the case, it's the auto quench circuit that is surely messing you up. As for how to disable it, I do not know my friend.

James

Alex block the Auto Sensor and the strobes will function much like the YS-90 DX's. The Auto Sensor is the larger lower sensor below the flash tube. Set the power switch to Auto 1 and adjust the output level dial to contol exposure.

I'm leaving for Bonaire in a few minutes and won't have access to my email until tomorrow afternoon. Hope this works for you!

Thanks Dave - I am off to Sipadan now to try it. Fingers crossed! Alex

Hi Alex.

Hope you indeed had better luck after trying that method. I used to have a couple of YS90 Auto's , thinking they would function as you wish they would, with manual power settings.

Guess what, I never had any luck with them.. but i never did try and tape method. I ended up switching them back to standard YS90duo, the shop took them back.

Whats the weather like at the moment and are you using a 3mm suit...

happy days, and good luck

can't wait till i reach those shore's in approx .... 21 day !!!

regards

craig

p.s did you ditch the inon's then, or take as well ?

Alex

Can I suggest that you try the strobes independently as this sounds similar to a problem that a friend had on one of these units - it gave very inconsistent outputs regardless and finally went back for repair (which was needed). I can't remember all the details now, but can remember the total inconsistency which plagued the unit and I think that it was a circuit failure.

Blocking off the sensor SHOULD work to allow you to take trial exposures on land to find out if there is any inconsistency within the output of each unit. I do hope that this is not the case and that you can get them running viably, but at least you will know.

It does sound like you have YS-90 autos, which I have been using for 18 months or so now.

Make sure you use auto 1 - auto 2 is for use with digital compacts and the mode is there so the slave can ignore the preflashing and only fire on the main flash of the built-in flash on the camera.

Bear in mind they are not manual strobes and the power settings won't work independently of the light sensor.

The best practical way to use these strobes is connect them with a 5 pin standard Sea and Sea sync lead and use them in auto 1 mode - uncover the auto sensor and then set the correct aperture (adjusting for ISO if necessary - the dial assumes 100)

You can use a dual sync lead, or, if you only have a single, set one strobe to slave and the connected one to "on"

The strobe then takes into account what aperture is set and quenches when it detects what it thinks is enough light reflected from the subject.

Then simply review the histogram and adjust the power setting accordingly - the higher the f number you set, the more light it will give before quenching. (In practice, for most of the time I have found that setting it to one half stop less than the aperture, i.e 6.7 if the camera is set to ISO 100, f8, gives the correct exposure.)

Also, it goes without saying, check the sync leads and bulkheads for cleanliness and ditto the battery terminals.