Flash recommendations

[outofofficebrb]

Thank you all for all your help.

OK, after sitting on Amazon and other sites for half the night last night, I like the idea of the YS-01, especially since it looks like that's the exact device Olympus is rebranding as their own for use with the TG-6. My problem now is, what about the rest of it? In the photo in the post above this one, I like the tray, handle, and then the bendy part - which ones are the best ones? How do I select a cable? The cables say stuff like "Inon to Sea & Sea", but nobody mentions what sort of little port the Olympus housing has - is it compatible with the Inon plug or a Sea & Sea plug, etc?

There are various trays and handles you can purchase. You can start looking at the hardware here: Underwater Camera Strobe Arms / Tripods / Buoyancy Floats - Backscatter They will also vary slightly in ergonomics and styling, as well as price. It will be influenced by your preferences and budget.

For the arms, what you are looking for is called a "flex arm". They are easy to use because you can pretty much just move them in any direction you want. Some folks have mentioned that they get a bit stiff to use after a while but I have no personal experience with it. They are slightly cheaper compared to regular arms. The disadvantage to the flex arms is that they are not designed to have floats put on them so if your camera rig gets heavy or feels heavy underwater and you want to make it less negatively buoyant, it's more difficult. With a traditional arm with ball mounts and clamps, you get a bit more flexibility in that you can link them end to end in various lengths and move them in various angles while still being able to put floats on them as needed. Or, you can also get buoyancy arms which has flotation built into it but those are probably the most expensive option and the buoyancy on each arm is fixed so you can't change it short of using a completely different set of buoyancy arms depending on the changes on your camera like when you swap out your wide angle lens. With regular floats, you can add/remove as you please.

I am not 100% sure which Sea and Sea fiber optic cable runs to the Olympus housing, but when you do find out, please let me know as Mr. OOO (my partner and dive buddy) is looking to purchase a set of fiber optic cables to hook up his Sea & Sea with his Olympus housing as well. I was going to call Backscatter about it in the next couple of days but you might beat me to it. Your Olympus housing came with an adapter for the fiberoptic cables so don't lose it otherwise it's another $15 accessory to purchase.

 

[Aqua-Andy]

The Olympus housing uses a Sea and Sea style connection. If you do purchase a Sea and Sea strobe you need to use their branded fiber optic cables. I have tried many other off brand cables and none of them would reliably fire the strobe in TTL. $80 is ridiculous for a fibre optic cable but they do work.

 

[outofofficebrb]

The Olympus housing uses a Sea and Sea style connection. If you do purchase a Sea and Sea strobe you need to use their branded fiber optic cables. I have tried many other off brand cables and none of them would reliably fire the strobe in TTL. $80 is ridiculous for a fibre optic cable but they do work.

There are 3 options, a S/2, M/2, L/2. Is that just the length of the cord or are they different male ends on the side that connects to the housing? SEA&SEA| THE UNDERWATER IMAGING COMPANY..

 

[Aqua-Andy]

The only difference is the length of the cable. I use the medium length and it works good for a six and eight inch arm with three ball clamps.

 

[sunnyboy]

I got my TG-6 & PT-059 at the beginning of July. Tried using just the on-board flash but it only works for super-close macro.

I just received my Inon S2000 today. It's small, light and TTL optical. I wanted a very compact rig for scootering, and the TG-6 package is definitely the one for that. Adding the S2000 does not add much but will give me great light for photos. I have Z240 for my big camera and I love it, so I'm sure the S2000 will work as well.

 

[outofofficebrb]

@glashoppah In a twist of serendipity very relevant to this thread, I now have a brand new in box Sea and Sea YS-01 strobe that I am looking to sell. If you are interested in it, please let me know. The details are here: For Sale - Sea & Sea YS-01 strobe - new in box

 

[ThatDogDontHunt]

Thank you all for all your help.

OK, after sitting on Amazon and other sites for half the night last night, I like the idea of the YS-01, especially since it looks like that's the exact device Olympus is rebranding as their own for use with the TG-6. My problem now is, what about the rest of it? In the photo in the post above this one, I like the tray, handle, and then the bendy part - which ones are the best ones? How do I select a cable? The cables say stuff like "Inon to Sea & Sea", but nobody mentions what sort of little port the Olympus housing has - is it compatible with the Inon plug or a Sea & Sea plug, etc?

The Sea & Sea YS-01 is not the same device as the Olympus UFL-3.

They appear to share the same enclosure, but have different internals and features.

 

[Chris Ross]

For all intents and purposes they are the same except for the addition of Olympus TTL they call RC mode in the UFL-3 and a heftier price tag.

The differences between the Sea & Sea and INON are the INON has a more sensitive slave trigger so tends to be less fussy about quality of cables, you see more complaints about S&S reliability on line, this may or may not be real. The battery compartment closures are different, INON is a screw on cap and is transparent so you can inspect the o-ring for a good seal, the S&S is a press and turn thingy that also has the battery contacts attached, INON has a separate battery contact piece that does not turn, so you can install that and check batteries are installed correctly by turning on the strobe before moving onto the o-ring closure. I looked at both in a store and picked the INON based upon simplicity, others seem to like the S&S closure. As long as the o-ring is well lubed, the INON closure is good and easy to install. This is important as getting that o-ring installed properly without contaminants is essential to prevent a flood. I would suggest looking at both.

The small strobes - YS-01 and S-2000 are probably more suited to the little TG-6 as they balance better and are easier to position in close if required. Plus you can get two INON S-2000 for $30 more than one Z-330. On the subject of TTL, that should work well for macro, wide angle stuff will likely be more hit or miss.

 

[ThatDogDontHunt]

For all intents and purposes they are the same except for the addition of Olympus TTL they call RC mode in the UFL-3 and a heftier price tag.

The differences between the Sea & Sea and INON are the INON has a more sensitive slave trigger so tends to be less fussy about quality of cables, you see more complaints about S&S reliability on line, this may or may not be real. The battery compartment closures are different, INON is a screw on cap and is transparent so you can inspect the o-ring for a good seal, the S&S is a press and turn thingy that also has the battery contacts attached, INON has a separate battery contact piece that does not turn, so you can install that and check batteries are installed correctly by turning on the strobe before moving onto the o-ring closure. I looked at both in a store and picked the INON based upon simplicity, others seem to like the S&S closure. As long as the o-ring is well lubed, the INON closure is good and easy to install. This is important as getting that o-ring installed properly without contaminants is essential to prevent a flood. I would suggest looking at both.

The small strobes - YS-01 and S-2000 are probably more suited to the little TG-6 as they balance better and are easier to position in close if required. Plus you can get two INON S-2000 for $30 more than one Z-330. On the subject of TTL, that should work well for macro, wide angle stuff will likely be more hit or miss.

Are you sure? They have the same housing, but very different internal features. RTFM...

For all intents and purposes they have the same physical housing. Their internal guts are very different...

I claim this is physical Sea & Sea housing with Olympus guts.

 

[Chris Ross]

I've seen several places on the net that claim it's a rebranded YS-01 such as here. Best Strobe for Underwater - The Ultimate Strobe Guide | Mozaik UW It would seem odd for Olympus to develop a whole flash module and only use the outer bits of the YS-01. They do claim a slightly different guide number but they have a different diffuser up front and those numbers are generally very rubbery in any case. The TTL module is certainly different as it does Olympus TTL including high speed sync, but the control layout is essentially identical.