YS90-Auto with Tetra

I have an Olympus C3040Zoom inside Light & Motion's Tetra housing. I have two strobes attached, a Sea & Sea YS90-Duo and a YS-30. Neither is used as a slave, they both have independant sync cords attached to the housing. I also have the wetmate lens option with the underwater swappable macro and wide angle lenses.

This setup has worked pretty well for me for a few years now and I have gotten some decent pictures with it. My biggest problem is with strobe control. The two strobes I have been using do not have fine tuning options (the YS30 is either off or on and the YS90Duo is either off, on or 1/2 power). I freqently get situations with flash whiteout followed by shots with too little flash. If I spend a few minutes monkeying around with the strobe aim and the camera aperture settings, I can sometimes correct the problems, but I really would like to get to the point where I could just point and shoot and the strobe would work properly the first time. Underwater critters have a bad habit of moving away while I mess around with strobe settings, so I frequently don't get a second chance to get it right.

Here are my questions -

1) Is the new Sea & Sea YS90-Auto the solution to my problem? According to my local dive shop, it's the best thing since sliced bread, but I would like a more independant opinion. Has anyone used it?

2) Should I instead look to some sort of external strobe controller?

3) Do I just have to accept that there is no perfect automatically set option, so I should get a strobe with more manual settings?

4) I just did some price calculations and it looks like buying 2 YS90-Autos would be roughly $1300, which is pretty similar to the price of trading in for a new C5050 housing from Light & Motion with the built in ROC TTL controller. I think that would let me keep my existing strobes, but gain an automatic strobe controller, plus a 12 step manual control. Would you recommend that option?

5) I have noticed that many people on this message board have used Ikelite housings, and there are few mentions of Light & Motion. Are Ikelite housings superior to the Light & Motion? I have no experience with the Ikelite housings, but I thought that the Tetra was the only one with the ability to change lenses underwater. I have found the ability to change from wide angle to macro to be very useful.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Steve

Hi Steve,

I currently have the Tetra5050 housing with two YS90Dx strobes. Previous to that I used the Tetra4040.

The strobes themselves have a 10 step knob for dump duration control and would help with your current set up. The ROC control on the new housing is very cool. Saves a lot of time being able to push a button for increasing or decreasing the flash duration. You can also use the TTL mode for closeup shots. There is a meter that lights up to show the level chosen by the camera giving you the opportunity to bracket around the setting. After having the ROC, I wouldn't want to go back to the manual adjustments. So to me, it was worth the extra $.

Rand

You do have some options, as you are correctly considering.

I did not think YS-90AUTOs were the best thing since sliced bread in my limited use, so I wouldn't personally go that route, but they will be the closest thing to automation you'll get.

With the Tetra 5050, you can setup ROC for either the YS-90 or the YS-30, but not for both, so one side will have a skewed dump, and probably negatively affect the preflash ttl system of the Tetra 5050.

Personally, I'd upgrade to the Tetra 5050 for the convenience of ROC, the better camera, and the TTL system, and add a second strobe (YS-90dx) to complement the system.

Ikelite housings are much more cost effective, but are bulkier. Presently, you can have ttl with an Ike housing and strobe, or full manual control, but not both.