YS-D1 for full frame wide-angle?

Hi!

I've stumbled upon an ad with some used gear of interest to me - a Sea & Sea setup for Nikon Z. Not exactly what I had in mind but it just might be worth it to improvise in this case. 

Part of the gear for sale is a pair of Sea & Sea YS-D1. I'm not very familiar with the strobe models, but it seems to be the predecessor to the YS-D2 (to noone's surprise, given the names). As such I suppose there's nothing intrinsically wrong with using YS-D1 for a wide-angle setup. But are there any gotchas with the YS-D1 I should be aware of?

If you search on WP, hovrendile, you'll find a lot of comments about the YS strobes and "issues".....

Hi, the Sea&Sea YS (for Yellow Submarine) line of strobes has an honorable family history, going back to film camera days.
The YS-D1 was one of the first strobes designed for digital uw cameras.  It is now an ancient mariner, long ago superseded by the YS-D2 and as of about two years ago by the YS-D2J.   The problem with the YS-D1 strobes is their old age, and that they may have been flashed thousands of times and are now, after a long life of faithful service, on the used market.  If and when the tubes burn out or the electronics malfunction, that is it, as there are no repair parts or service available.  

Currently the YS-D2J and the Inon Z330 are the choice, with new but expensive strobes about to materialize on the market.  Some dealers may be offering nice prices on these two models, worth looking for. 

Brent Durand speaks of four new strobes, not yet available: Underwated Strobe Comparison 2020.https://tutorials.brentdurand.com/underwater-strobe-comparison/

Yeah, I see the YS-D1 as temporary solutions to get me started, provided I get them for a reasonable price. I understand they can die on me at any time, being used extensively. Thing is, I probably can't afford buying new ones right now, hence the interest for something to hold me over.

4 hours ago, Kraken de Mabini said:

Hi, the Sea&Sea YS (for Yellow Submarine) line of strobes has an honorable family history, going back to film camera days.
The YS-D1 was one of the first strobes designed for digital uw cameras.  It is now an ancient mariner, long ago superseded by the YS-D2 and as of about two years ago by the YS-D2J.   The problem with the YS-D1 strobes is their old age, and that they may have been flashed thousands of times and are now, after a long life of faithful service, on the used market.  If and when the tubes burn out or the electronics malfunction, that is it, as there are no repair parts or service available.  

Currently the YS-D2J and the Inon Z330 are the choice, with new but expensive strobes about to materialize on the market.  Some dealers may be offering nice prices on these two models, worth looking for. 

Brent Durand speaks of four new strobes, not yet available: Underwated Strobe Comparison 2020.https://tutorials.brentdurand.com/underwater-strobe-comparison/

 

 

 

 

Historical note: YS-D1 was several generations into S&S support for digital cameras. YS90DX suppported preflash. As did the later  YS110 and YS110a. There were a bunch of other strobes such as YS55, YS27DX, YS25DX and YS15Auto that all supported digital camera preflash. I am unsure of the release order of these, but the YS-D1 is the most recent of the models I mention. I believe YS-D1 was released around 2012 while YS110 was 2006ish.

I've been shooting a pair of YS-D1's since late 2015.  A couple of hundred dives.   Last year one of them failed, and I bought a pair of used YS-D1's as a replacement + spare.    That's all I can say about reliability issues.   When the YS-D2 was announced, the one new feature that I really like is the battery separation in the battery compartment.  Makes it easier to swap batteries on a moving boat without having them go in crooked and get jammed up.   Not a lot of differences overall, though the new controls look handy enough.

The YS-D1's are very powerful as underwater strobes go, but they are never going to light as much scene as a wide angle FX lens can take in.   But it will light a foreground object nicely.  Other strobes are going to have less power, save perhaps the new Retras, and they won't have enough power either.

Also, if you want to light as wide an area as possible, you'll have to use the 100mm or 120mm diffusers that come with the strobes, at cost of some strobe power.

The YS-D1's will work in TTL mode if you have the right kind of trigger, or pop-up flash.