G12 housing Ikeltie or WP-DC34

In the process of trying to trim weight (I'm backpacking) and size I moved from DSLR back to a G12 setup, currently in Ikelite housing with TTL strobe DS-51. While it works fine and lighting is great, I was wondering if I could trim even further and maintain the same quality. A WP-DC 34 Canon housing on a Sea and Sea strobe kit YS-01 with Sea Arm VII. How does the Optical slave YS-01 compare to Ikelites true TTL electric setup? I'm a bit concerned that #1 YS-01 relies on my pre-flash (lighting timing and exposure might be off?) #2 Depth rating of the WP-DC 34 vs the ikelite Any thoughts? Thanks

My experience is the wired strobe is a bit more reliable than the optical. How much is hard to say.

The strobes and optical triggers take care of following the preflash, so that is not a concern.

Still, I find maybe 15-20% of the time the strobe does not trigger or gives a bad exposure. And with wired it is more like 5-10%..??

I have a G11 in a Patima housing and a INON D-2000 strobe.

I can confirm that the G11 and the D2000 work perfectly togetherand i experience no missfires.

The Canon WP-DC housing is light and cheap, but a lot of people haveissues (leaking nd/or sticky buttons, especially below 45 ft) with it.

Have a look at the new RecSea or FIX G12 housings, expensive but worth it.

Chris

I have a G11 in a Patima housing and a INON D-2000 strobe.

I can confirm that the G11 and the D2000 work perfectly togetherand i experience no missfires.

The Canon WP-DC housing is light and cheap, but a lot of people have issues (leaking nd/or sticky buttons, especially below 45 ft) with it.The Ikelite housing is absolutly the better built housing and you may use it with a slave strobe.

Have a look at the new RecSea or FIX G12 housings, expensive but worth it.

Chris

I was on a recent trip to Grand Cayman and my friend used a Fisheye housing for G11 with Sea & Sea YS-01 optical connection. I was so impressed I am planning to cease use of my big Canon SLR Ikelite rig and move to this set up. My friend had a flip down macro lens which is far better than I expected. She was having some trouble with blow out with TTL. I switched her to manual with great results. She merely adjusts F stop and shutter to achieve the right exposure as shooting conditions change. She was shooting single strobe but I would elect to shoot dual YS-01s myself. The Fisheye housing has dual optical ports. The guide numbers on the YS-1 are not that much less than YS-110 so if you are looking for a compact system the Fisheye and dual YS-1 would be awesome. I recently attended a Sea & Sea workshop and the instructor Andy Salmon said he did not see any downside to optical. Actually the usual flood problems occur at the sync cable which is eliminated with a optical connection.

In the process of trying to trim weight (I'm backpacking) and size I moved from DSLR back to a G12 setup, currently in Ikelite housing with TTL strobe DS-51. While it works fine and lighting is great, I was wondering if I could trim even further and maintain the same quality. A WP-DC 34 Canon housing on a Sea and Sea strobe kit YS-01 with Sea Arm VII. How does the Optical slave YS-01 compare to Ikelites true TTL electric setup? I'm a bit concerned that #1 YS-01 relies on my pre-flash (lighting timing and exposure might be off?) #2 Depth rating of the WP-DC 34 vs the ikelite Any thoughts? Thanks

How much wieght do you want to save? - in the end I think it would come down to a 100g or so and is it really worth it?

Also once all packed up there wouldn't be much difference in the size / volume - so again I am not sure if there is any benefit?

I would be looking at other areas to trim wieght etc - i.e. clothing etc.

You have a decent set up that is working and you know it - why change (and the added costs) to something else just to save a bit of wieght.

Just my opinion though.

Karl