TTL questions in regards to Ikelite circuitry/Strobe recommendations

Hello,

Had my old YS-110 strobe die and I am looking for potential replacements. I have the older clear polycarbonate Ikelite housing with the TTL circuitry in the housing. The YS-110 was used on TTL with a sync cord), but to be honest its been years since I used it, but it seemed to work reasonably well for exposing the image correctly. My question is, being that I do not need to purchase the ikelite TTL circuitry separately, will I see any improvement by replacing my strobe with an ikelite product to take advantage of this built in hardware. Im shooting a 50mm macro lens (canon 7D) so I don't need a super powerful strobe, however the DS51 recycle time is fairly slow. I would need to double my money to get something faster from Ikelite. Or, do I pick up a different brand and just use the TTL function as I was doing previously. I guess what I'm really asking is, is the ikelite circuitry a game changer in anyway for the folks who use it (Being able to quickly increase or decrease the output with the pushbuttons on the housing), or with the TTL metoring this doesn't really factor in? 

If anyone has any suggestions for strobes to look at that would be greatly appreciated also. 

Thank you

 I have used Ikelite, Sea&Sea and Inon strobes, and much prefer the Inon strobes for
long term reliability, reasonable weight, fiber optic trigger cables, and ease of use. 

Ikelites are good strobes, tough and long lasting, but expensive and heavy, plus they do not accept fiber optic cables, just electric sync cords.

Sea&Sea's seem to be the only strobes with consistently negative Wetpixel posts.

In contrast, the Inon Z240's were excellent in their day as are the D200 and Z330-2 strobes now. New Inons are said to be on the way.    

Ikelite just announced that it will support optical chords going forward. 

Back when I bought this rig in 2010, sync cord was the better option I thought. With the older clear housing, can I run a fiber cable? Is there a hotshoe ttl adapter for those housings? Or should I be looking to stick with the sync cord? The YS-110 was good for me, although Im guessing things may have been built better almost 20 years ago.

I appreciate the comments! 

The YS-110 looks like it has a photo-cell slave trigger in the lower front of the lens, so you can try flashing another strobe at it, to see if it will fire.  If it does, then you can try to flash it with a fiber optic cable.

1 hour ago, Kraken de Mabini said:

The YS-110 looks like it has a photo-cell slave trigger in the lower front of the lens, so you can try flashing another strobe at it, to see if it will fire.  If it does, then you can try to flash it with a fiber optic cable.

It definitely does, I first used this strobe with a point and shoot camera with a velcro mask to attach the fiber optic cable. This strobe is now dead. Im wondering about a new strobe to use with my housing for my DSLR (ikelite 200FL). 

This housing does not allow the built in camera flash to pop up (no room), and I can only use the hot shoe on the camera. I don't know how I would use any slave triggered strobe with this housing? Which makes me think I need to look for a new strobe that has a sync cable. Am I mistaken, and there is a way for this housing to work with a fiber optic cable? Also, isnt this going backwards in terms of flash control? By that I mean, manually having to set strobe output vs having the camera set strobe output (TTL)? Sorry for all the questions.

Thank you

Here is some Ikelite information on how to connect its 200FL housing to the strobes. 

https://docs.ikelite.com/instructions/71702-instructions.pdf

https://www.ikelite.com/blogs/faq/canon-r5-underwater-a-z-how-to-assemble-your-ikelite-200dl-or-50dl-housing-video

https://www.ikelite.com/collections/ttl-converters-1/products/dl5-ds-link-canon-ttl-converter-ikelite-ct1-hotshoe-kit

https://www.ikelite.com/blogs/faq/programming-a-dl5-or-dl6-ds-link-ttl-converter-for-canon-cameras

The ikelite TTL modules I thought were quite specific ikelite strobes and the TTL worked reasonably well, plus the inside housing TTL modules were quite reliable as were their strobes

If you go to other strobes like the INON, it will be manual only unless you use a fibre optic, but you need something to trigger the strobe, there won't be enough space probably to open the built in flash on board so you'd probably need a strobe trigger.  There may be some specialty options that connect to a Canon body with TTL.

The path of least resistance is probably an ikelite strobe, though they are quite big and bulky.  The DS-51 is an option though as you say is slow to recycle. 

I have had a number of Ike housings over the years. I have DS50, DS51 and DS125 strobes as well as a YS110a. As far as I know your 110 was not functioning in TTL mode. Ikelite TTL circuitry only works with Ikelite strobes. My guess is you were just getting, for lack of a better term, luck with your strobe set up. I have found the Ikelite TTL to work well with their strobes.  Yes they are a bit heavier and probably larger than other brands.  The larger strobes also use a proprietary rechargeable battery which is maybe not as convenient as the AAs that most use. But they do last a good amount of time. 

If you want to go with a fiber optic set up I would suggest talking to Ikelite about their item 44700 Manual fiber optic transmitter. But this is pretty expensive for just a manual flash trigger as it doesn't provide any TTL functionality. It also just lists DL or DLM housings but I don't see any reason it wouldn't work with your FL housing. 

https://www.ikelite.com/products/manual-fiber-optic-transmitter-for-dl-and-dlm-underwater-housings