YS27DX strobe with E-500, E410, SP-350

Help!!

How it should work - The YS27DX is a manual strobe. When I use it with my SP-350 it will output whatever light I dial in on the back. If I set if for full power and I'm too close it will promptly wash out the subject.

How its working with the E-410 and E-500 DSLRs - The strobe fires fine but it makes no impact on the photo whatsoever. I can increase power to full or simply to minimum and it doesn't change the photo at all. It has two settings, 1 slave and 1 pre-flash ignore setting. I've tried it on both but its suppose to be on the preflash ignore.

My guess is that the E-XXX series of cameras have more than one preflash and the camera isn't syncing with the YS27DX because the strobe can only ignore 1 preflash. Does anyone know how you adjust that within the camera? I've tried every setting the camera has and it appears the only one that works correctly is the manual mode. So without a major upgrade in strobes, I've lost the TTL I've grown accustomed to having with the SP-350. Furthermore, the housed FL-20 strobe will only produce a full dump in manual mode. Making the strobe pretty much useless to me.

Any suggestions appreciated...thanks,

Help!!

 

How it should work - The YS27DX is a manual strobe. When I use it with my SP-350 it will output whatever light I dial in on the back. If I set if for full power and I'm too close it will promptly wash out the subject.

 

How its working with the E-410 and E-500 DSLRs - The strobe fires fine but it makes no impact on the photo whatsoever. I can increase power to full or simply to minimum and it doesn't change the photo at all. It has two settings, 1 slave and 1 pre-flash ignore setting. I've tried it on both but its suppose to be on the preflash ignore.

 

My guess is that the E-XXX series of cameras have more than one preflash and the camera isn't syncing with the YS27DX because the strobe can only ignore 1 preflash. Does anyone know how you adjust that within the camera? I've tried every setting the camera has and it appears the only one that works correctly is the manual mode. So without a major upgrade in strobes, I've lost the TTL I've grown accustomed to having with the SP-350. Furthermore, the housed FL-20 strobe will only produce a full dump in manual mode. Making the strobe pretty much useless to me.

 

Any suggestions appreciated...thanks,

Just an update. Spoke with both Sea&Sea and Olympus. Olympus simply confirmed my finding about the FL-20 output being unadjustable from inside the E-410 and E-500. There are 10 levels of adjustment inside the SP-350....go figure. No plans to change that or fixes. They also said that the FL20 will work fine in tandem with the UFL-01 strobe from Olympus. The only issue I see here is that it is half the power of the YS27DX.

Sea&Sea said "maybe Olympus changed something"

I'm left with a few options:

1. Buy the UFL-01 strobe and partner it with my FL-20 which has olympus TTL.

a. Drawback 1 is the guide number of 12.

b. Drawback 2 is I'll again be stuck with the flat ported FL-20 and

the wierd fiber topic setup I put together.

c. One nice thing is the price...roughly $200

2. Buy another YS27DX, ditch ttl altogether, and go completely manual by driving the manual signal from the internal E-410 strobe.

a. Drawback 1 is I've never gone completely manual and hate

fidgetting with stuff under the water. However, I can see how

once set, you should have to adjust much while underwater.

3. Fork over the cash and buy an expensive Inon Z-240.

a. Drawback 1 is price.

b. Drawback 2 is will this strobe work okay with either the FL-20

ttl strobe or the YS27DX. I'm completely unsure. Buying 2 of

the Z240s wouldn't be possible.

Any other options? ideas? Anyone used the UFL-01 strobe from Oly?

Hi,

This is an issue which has come up with the Sea & Sea YS-110 as well. It appears that none of the new YS strobes are working in TTL with the housed E-410. Pre-flash seems to be part of the issue. I would go into the E-410 menu and TURN OFF the FLASH ASSIST, this creates additional per-flash and confuses the situation even more. The flash assist fires most offen in macro and is useless in a housing. If you have a housing that will allow for the use of fiber optics your best choice of strobes at this time for TTL is the Olympus UWF-1, Inon D-2000 and Inon Z-240 in order of cost. All work in TTL and my results with the D-2000 and Z-240 have been outstanding.

I don't know if the YS-27 can be made to slave in TTL with the above strobes but it may work in manual with its nine power settings.

The FL-20 would be the least attractive solution for me.

The E-system cameras were designed to allow for retro use of the FL-20 strobe, but the TTL systems are not the same as the digicams. This is a design flaw with Sea & Sea not Olympus if they claimed the strobe would work with the E-systems cameras.

Phil Rudin