Hello! I've been shooting with a single Inon s2000 strobe on a LX10 compact rig. Recently I was given a practically new ys-d2 and want to know what the pros and cons are to mixing strobes? I know they differ a lot in power, but I really want the ability to start shooting with dual strobes to get better lighting. I'm on a tighter budget, so would prefer to wait a year before trading up. However, I don't want my photos ruined, what are the cons of this? Should I start saving now for a second ysd2 instead of a possible wet lens?
Danger of Mixing Strobes?
- Thread starter SRWOwl
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You won't ruin your photos.
I have D2's but cannot comment on any specifics of your S2000. I'll just say that matched strobes are nice because its easy to balance the output - similar power, similar adjustments, similar coverage, etc. It's also nice to have similar cycle times so that you aren't waiting on one, or prematurely shooting and only getting one that fires. Possibly, there could be some small variation in color temperature, but nothing that I would expect to truly mess up a photo. I've shot with a D2 and a YS-03 and it worked fine. Just have to wait on the slowest strobe and be mindful of the output differences and either back one down or position strobes a little different. But, it works fine. Not as a good as a matched set, but way better than a single strobe.
Give it a try, but I think you'll find that you don't have to postpone the wet lens just to get another D2.
p.s. There are good deals on used D1 and D2s all the time.
I have D2's but cannot comment on any specifics of your S2000. I'll just say that matched strobes are nice because its easy to balance the output - similar power, similar adjustments, similar coverage, etc. It's also nice to have similar cycle times so that you aren't waiting on one, or prematurely shooting and only getting one that fires. Possibly, there could be some small variation in color temperature, but nothing that I would expect to truly mess up a photo. I've shot with a D2 and a YS-03 and it worked fine. Just have to wait on the slowest strobe and be mindful of the output differences and either back one down or position strobes a little different. But, it works fine. Not as a good as a matched set, but way better than a single strobe.
Give it a try, but I think you'll find that you don't have to postpone the wet lens just to get another D2.
p.s. There are good deals on used D1 and D2s all the time.
Chris Ross
Contributor
You probably could go to dual strobes now by trading the YS-D2 for another S-2000. Compacts are less demanding of strobes as you can shoot with lower f ratios; f4 on a 1" compact gives equivalent depth of field to a full frame at f11, so you need less strobe power. The other consideration is it a D2 or a D2J? The D2J are made in Japan, Sea & Sea switched back to making their strobes in Japan after the D2s from China had a lot of reliability problems. Of course if you are dreaming of getting to a DSLR eventually that may influence your decision. D2J's are black and D2s are yellow.
There's nothing to stop you giving it a try though and balancing the outputs on land to see how many stops apart they need to be when you get them wet.
There's nothing to stop you giving it a try though and balancing the outputs on land to see how many stops apart they need to be when you get them wet.
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