Sea and Sea YS110 or YS120

I am looking to buy a pair of strobes. I can get a pair of YS120 strobes used for about the same price as a pair of YS110. I have used the 120's before with my D200 in S&S DX200 housing and had good results, but wished it had more manual adjustments. I was attracted to the YS110's benefits (12 step manual mode, spotter light, smaller, only 4 batteries, etc), but I am concerned that the 110's won't have enough power and for wide angle and after I buy them will eventually have to go with something larger like a 120 or if I save up enough money, the 250PRO.

My buddy said that the 110's 110’s simply don’t have the penetration power behind them to do true wide angle photography without creating a lot of shadows and color drop offs. Please let me know your opinion on the 110's and which pair of strobes you would buy if cost is essentially equal.

Thanks.

Hi Ron,

Welcome to Wetpixel! I'm sure somebody will jump in and tell you about their 110's. There is a very good article by Berkley White on the Backscatter web site concerning strobes. Actual measured guide numbers, etc. I just had to make the same call for my Sea & Sea Canon setup and I went with the 250's. For me the recycle time was a big deal. These guys are impressive in that regard. At half power I can hit the shutter as fast as I can and the ready light never goes out. Fun stuff! The Inon's get a lot of talking up here too so you might want to check them out. Not to dissuade you from the 110's, I just bought one for my son's macro setup. No experience yet though.

Nice website by the way.

Steve (Go Cats)

Hi Ron,

In my very humble opinion, you can't go past the old 120's...

If you use TTL then the big boys are great,

Pilot light, what pilot light...never used one and never will...bloody useless...

If you want a strobe for wide angle work, then these blokes will 'light your campfires'...

BUT...

Then you ask for manual adjustment...woops, we dropped the ball on that one...

Then they are 'big boys', they take up a lot of room and are heavy...

I use and love my YS120's, but then I'm biased...

HTH,

Bruce...

the strobe finder shows the 110's and 120's having the same guide number and angle of coverage

http://www.digitaldiver.net/strobes.php

only the size, weights, color temp, and recycle times seem to be different.

I haven't compared both myself however, and can't vouch for the numbers.

I'm not sure why you are talking about color drop-off, that should be a function of distance the light travels through the water, not strobe strength, I would think.

scott

My buddy and I tested the 120s and 110s rather informally, shoot full power at a blank wall, check the histogram of the camera. Pretty much identical histograms....110's were as wide as the 120s, even a brighter off center...guess the 3 flash tubes helped.

Didn't test out the recycle times though. On my last dive trip, on half power, my 120s using Ansmann 2700's kept up with my 5D shooting 3fps for the 5-6 shot sequences when capturing mating mandarin fish. Not fast enough though for the 40D if accidentally left at 6.5fps!

Stu

The YS-110 isn't great for wide angle? Here are some samples here and this is just using a single strobe.

Other then that, I'm very happy with the strobe I got especially at a cheap price. I was planning on getting the YS-90DX but due to complication, that never fell through. Otherwise, I'm using manual setting since my camera doesn't have TTL.

Cheers

Thanks Everyone. I think the 110s are best suited for macro and will end up getting the 120s for now. I am getting 2 120s and a 90 for less than 2 110s would cost me. I think this setup will serve me well and when I decide to upgrade, I will look at the 250.

BW: I am an Alumni of UofA and a cats fan as well. Bear down!

Ron