YS110 vs YS110alpha. Differences?

I have the opportunity to get a second hand YS110 (older orange model) for Luisa to use while she waits (supposedly a long wait) for her drowned YS110alpha to come back from Japan... I would like to know what are the differences between the two models or at least for the older model specs (I have been looking for them at the discontinued products page at the S&S website but they are not there) before buying it...

Thank you very much in advance!

I have the opportunity to get a second hand YS110 (older orange model) for Luisa to use while she waits (supposedly a long wait) for her drowned YS110alpha to come back from Japan... I would like to know what are the differences between the two models or at least for the older model specs (I have been looking for them at the discontinued products page at the S&S website but they are not there) before buying it...

 

Thank you very much in advance!

The 110 recycles at full dump in 3 seconds while the 110a in 1.9 seconds at full power. The 110a also seems more responsive in slave mode. I love my 110a and they are a big improvement over the 110s. I am sure there are other differences but those were the ones I noticed. Hope that helps.

Tom

I have the opportunity to get a second hand YS110 (older orange model) for Luisa to use while she waits (supposedly a long wait) for her drowned YS110alpha to come back from Japan... I would like to know what are the differences between the two models or at least for the older model specs (I have been looking for them at the discontinued products page at the S&S website but they are not there) before buying it...

 

Thank you very much in advance!

In my hands at least the 110 version had very unreliable triggering with fiber optics and the TTL mode was mostly unusable with Canon and an external Heinrichs converter. On the other hand, in manual mode it was fine with sync cord triggering.

Bill

Take a look at the Ys-110 specs:

http://www.digifish.nl/en/equipment/strobe...odel=ys-110+ttl

Thank you! It says that it works in DSTTL mode but I have read some reports of not doing reliably...

I started with a 110a and then picked up a used 110 as well and it lasted for about 20 dives before I relegated it to a back up it was constantly taking too long to recycle as well as not going off at the exact same time as the alpha so I was getting half lighting for my photos. Not too bad if I was shooting w/a but for macro it was useless. best of luck.

I have read a few times that the 110 was problematic for a number of reasons and Sea & Sea brought out the 110a to correct known issues. What they were I don't know but my buddy bought two 110's when they were introduced and they were unreliable from the start. Sea & Sea's attitude and service levels were disgraceful. They were never reliable even after the supposed repairs.

The YS110 with optical TTL could not properly cope with the multiple pre-flashes that many cameras demploy prior to the main flash. IFAIK it only anticipates one pre-flash and hence it may fire on the second pre-flash or not at all - it would often do a full dump too. This made it un-reliable with many brands of camera - in my case Canon Compact and Olympus DSLR. The YS110a sorted this out and works flawlessly with both.

The UK suppliers were very helpful and in fact replaced my YS110 with the alpha version.

The YS110a is great for optical TTL on many cameras. The YS110 can be junk with optical TTL.

Simon

I bought a YS110 as a package with Sea &sea DX-1G. This combo only has a optical fiber trigger option and many people myself included experienced intermittent triggering.

I think most of that problem is too insensitive optical trigger. S&S were not very good in providing explanation an support for this. A little plastic piece that put the fibre straight in front of the flash was one solution that didn't quite solve the problem. In my case both TTL and manual actually worked fine, part from that the strobe obviously missed some flashes.

The YS110 works for some purposes, but i think in general the used price on these is too high based on the limitations.

Myself I have a working workaround, don't really need and use TTL so I have made a mini-strobe that fits the housing and that puts a very strong pulse straight into the fiber with successful trigger every time.

Cheers

/O

(I would not mind buying another used YS110 at the right price... ;-)

I have used a YS-110 for about 4 years with a Canon Powershot A620. It worked very reliable, in both manual and TTL mode. I'm now using it with a Nikon D7000 (also optically triggered), and I have no complaints either. After more than 5 years and 3-400 dives I absolutely don't regret buying the YS-110. I even bought another one second hand. I've never used a YS-110a, so I can't compare the two, but I wouldn't hesitate to buy another YS-110. Especially if the price is right (I paid only 150 euro for mine).