Anyone use a YS-25 Auto?

[TruckDiver]

I must have been a fairly good boy last year, santa brought me a strobe!
But, I guess since it's fairly new to the market, I can't seem to find much info on it anywhere. Anybody used one? Any advice?
I'm considering adding a focus light, probably a Princeton Tec rage I have on hand. Any suggestions on how to mount it?

 

[Dee]

I don't know that much about the YS-25. I don't think it's very strong, that's why it's not used much for UW, but I could be very wrong. It's got a very low GN of 15, most UW strobes start around 22.

Hopefully someone who knows what they're talking about will jump in here!

 

[SimonJ]

I bought a YS25 last year and dived with it in Grenada in the sept/oct. For the first 10 days I was struggling to find it adding much value, but then I started to play with the positioning and finally struck upon the right position for most of the shots I was taking. As Dee says, the strobe is not very strong, so you really do need to maximise the light that it does produce. The one advantage is that you rarely need to turn the power down

Most of the time I don't dive with a focus light, as my experience with them is that they tend to leave a hot-spot in the photo, even when diffused. The only time I did was on the night dives, but I did not have the strobe position setup well, so the shots are poor anyway.

Hope this helps.

 

[TedJ]

TruckDiver,
Do you already have a tray and arms? If so that will help determine how to mount/use the strobe and the light. Let us know and we can try to help you.
TEdJ

Edit: Oh and BTW what camera are you using?

 

[TruckDiver]

Guess that would help huh?
Shooting Oly 3040 and/or 4040 in a PT-10, Fisheye tray
And yea I know it's kinda low powered, but it was a gift, ya know?

 

[TedJ]

It should work for you with macro shots, but I don't think it has enough power to help out wide angle shots.
TEdJ