Epoque ES 150 DS vs YS 90 DX Strobe

[jwlast]

Currently diving the Epoque ES-150DS strobe (Olympus 5050/PT-015 housing), a vast improvement as far as adjustablity goes over the previous Sealife DC250 Reefmaster non-adjustable camera/strobe I use to dive with. Question I've got is is there any reason to upgrade the strobe to the Sea & Sea YS-90X from the ES-150DS? Not overly impressed with the Epoque stobe, but putting down close to $500 for the Sea & Sea strobe seems like a big gamble. Epoque strobe has mutliple flash intensities , but seems to be either real light or real strong (and stronger).

Anyway, just looking to see if anybody has any experience to compare the two. Watching another diver today with the YS-90DX spraked my interest.

JT

 

[clive francis]

i was warned off the epoque by the camera shop (he said it was up to me, but they wouldn't recomend it).

the only thing they said it had going for it was it was cheap.

i went for the Ike DS-50 which copied the TTL of my olympus (3040 at the time, but now have the 5050).

I have seen one flood (the "o" ring slipped off the grove, and have heard of others flooding (one was new and it was a manufacturing fault)

just be careful with the seals!!!

the dx90 will be much better or the ike

 

[plsdiver4377]

jwlast once bubbled...
Currently diving the Epoque ES-150DS strobe (Olympus 5050/PT-015 housing), a vast improvement as far as adjustablity goes over the previous Sealife DC250 Reefmaster non-adjustable camera/strobe I use to dive with. Question I've got is is there any reason to upgrade the strobe to the Sea & Sea YS-90X from the ES-150DS? Not overly impressed with the Epoque stobe, but putting down close to $500 for the Sea & Sea strobe seems like a big gamble. Epoque strobe has mutliple flash intensities , but seems to be either real light or real strong (and stronger).

Anyway, just looking to see if anybody has any experience to compare the two. Watching another diver today with the YS-90DX spraked my interest.

JT

What settings are you using? Are you using any TTL link? I've just got this camera (same housing with the ES150) for my wife and am having problems dealing with the program settings versus the flash (it going off with the pre-flash).

I personally just use it in the manual mode which is similar to my manual Contax 159mm. She however wants it to be a little easier to use than in the manual settings. I haven't found any way to disable the pre-flash without going to manual (maybe I'm just dense).

Any info would help.

 

[clive francis]

there is no way you can dissable the pre flash, without it the camera would not work.

is there not a setting something like 1 or 2 which makes it fire on first or second flash?

there is a company that hard wires these, but like i said they are prone to flood more than the others (sea & sea or ikelite)

 

[plsdiver4377]

clive francis once bubbled...

is there not a setting something like 1 or 2 which makes it fire on first or second flash?

Are you talking about on the flash itself? If so, then no, all it has is auto and manual.

I was hoping that there was some type of setting in the camera which would elimate the pre-flash (if I chose) which I actually had to activate on my original C4000 (it was used for red-eye reduction)(also it was hardwired and the housing flooded, that is the reason for the new camera, but am still using the original slave epoque strobe).

Could you give me some details on how the Ike DS-50 deals with the pre-flash? Do you use TTL sync cord, does it ignore the lower power pre-flash, or ?

Thanks

 

[clive francis]

pre flash is totally different to red eye.

on normal flash mode, it actually flashes twice but they are so close together it sometimes appears as one long flash.

the ds-50 and the ds-125 use a opto sensor that monitors the camera flash and the ike gives the pre and normal flash as per the camera. the ike follows the camera a gnats cock (very small if you have seen one), after it quenches the strobe when the camera quenches its flash.

some people like them and others hate them.

Dee can tell you about the DX-90 which is manual, but as you are digital you have the added bonus of seeing the results and adjusting.


one thing i will say though is get a small aiming light, i got the ike mini c and bracket which clips to the strobe, this helps in low light so you know where your strobe is pointing, it is also supposed to help the camera (and if i remember right increase depth of field), dont get a super bright one though or you will end up with hot spots on every photo until it dims.

 

[plsdiver4377]

Thanks for the info.

This is driving me crazy since my wife seems to automatically think I know what I'm doing with this thing., since I am used to working with 35mm and medium format for studio and weddings (I did it for a living for few years). But I'm finding this to be a juuust a bit harder.:mean: I don't have my flash and spot meters available to me underwater.

BTW you're right the more light you can get the better your depth of field due to the increase in f-stops.

 

[ReyeR]

there is no way you can dissable the pre flash, without it the camera would not work.

Clive, you CAN disable the pre-flash of the C5050s flash in Aperture Priority and Manual shooting modes. If you disable pre-flash then you can't shoot in TTL because the C5050 uses the pre-flash to determin how long it needs to fire the main flash in the sequence. With the pre-flash disabled the C5050s flash simply serves as a 'trigger' to fire an external slave strobe in sync. You will then need to switch your strobe to manual and select an output setting on it according to its guide number.