Is SeaSea YS-120TTL strobe possible connected to a digital camera ?

[Sumirange829]

Hi all,
I am a beginner of underwater photography.
I need guys help ! I have bought a second hand YS-120TTL strobe as I didn't know it is a old mode and just for Film camera. Does now have any fitting for the YS-120TTL connect to my canon digital camera ?

 

[Hoag]

I am not sure if you got a manual with it or not, but if you didn't, here is a link to a site with the manual as a .pdf file.
SEA AND SEA YS-120 TTL DUO USER MANUAL Pdf Download.

I did not read it in depth, but I did skim over it and it would appear to me that you need to hook the strobe up using a "sync cord" not by a fiber optic cable. A sync cord synchronizes you strobe to the camera electronically (usually via the hot shoe on the camera), It has nothing to do with whether the camera is film or digital. By contrast, many of today's housings especially for compact "point & shoot" cameras tend to use Fiber Optic cables to trigger the strobe.

Without knowing your specific gear, my guess is that your housing may not have the capability to support the strobe connection via sync cords.

 

[KeithG]

As you guessed the YS 120 is not "digital ready". But all is not lost. It will work as
a) a simple manual slave strobe (optical or wired, 1/2 or full power)
b) an expensive fully functional wired sync TTL strobe (you need wire cable and an expensive converter http://www.seaandsea.com/PDF_manuals/YSCONVERTER-C.pdf)

The main issues are that the strobe was designed
a) to support TTL using the Nikonos protocol via a wired sync cord (which your camera does not)
AND
b) is not capable of handling the digital pre-flash when operating as an optical slave (so you must put your camera in a manual flash mode, no optical TTL flash)

Let us know what type of camera and housing you have and we may be able to provide more constructive suggestions other than trash it and buy a more modern strobe.

 

[Ardy]

I used one for about 3 years as a slave with optical cable and it worked well.

 

[Sumirange829]

Thank you for guys's replying! As what you guess , my housing is not support the strobe connection via synchro cord.I am confused that how can my camera connect to the strobe via the synchro cord. My camera is Canon digital IXUS 980 IS and the housing is WP-DC27 which both are old model.

 

[Sumirange829]

I used one for about 3 years as a slave with optical cable and it worked well.

How can it worked with optical cable ? With a converter?

 

[KeithG]

Thank you for guys's replying! As what you guess , my housing is not support the strobe connection via synchro cord.I am confused that how can my camera connect to the strobe via the synchro cord. My camera is Canon digital IXUS 980 IS and the housing is WP-DC27 which both are old model.

A wired synch cable requires a wire connection. Normally this is provided via a hot shoe Hot shoe - Wikipedia on the camera. Your camera does not have a hot shoe so using a wire synch cord is not practical.

 

[KeithG]

How can it worked with optical cable ? With a converter?

Optical cables are intended to transfer the onboard camera flash signal(s) directly to the slave sensor on your strobe(s). No converter is required.

"Simply" attach the cable to the outside of your housing near the camera flash. There are kits available online to do this. You can google "sea & sea ss-50109 mask kit" for an example. I think I have a few lying around in a cupboard?

There are 2 kinds of "converters" - neither are useful for your world.
1) old style that connected to the camera hotshoe and converted the camera wire protocol to the Nikonos wire protocol
2) new style that connects to the camera hotshoe and runs some LEDs so that an optical cable can be used

 

[DSR-3]

Here is another option - HW Digital Adapter
http://heinrichsweikamp.com/accessories/flashaccessories/digital-adapter.html
It converts the flash optical output to S&S wired signal. I actually thought they stopped making them.
They are very helpful guys, and it's a great product. I've used one with single and double YS-110 strobes.