Safe to buy YS-D1 now?

[NozBzh]

Thanks for the replies. I just bought my OMD yesterday, now I need to get my housing/ports/strobes...

I'll go with the D1 then

I checked Yuzo's website, prices are VERY attractive, but I cant order from them. unfortunately import duties in Indonesia are too high to make it a good deal.

 

[Diver Dave1]

Probably this connection

UWdigitalcamera.com

 

[NozBzh]

I finally got my strobes and housing. Today I took the whole system for a test run in the pool at 4m (without the camera and without batteries in the strobes). No leaks, all went well.

Then I installed the camera and batteries and did a few test shots in my room. TTL works fine (I already tested the whole system in the shop where I bought it). After about 15 shots in maybe 20 minutes, one my strobes had a flashing red and green light. I turned it off, waited for maybe 5 minutes and tried to turn it on again. It wouldn't even turn on anymore ! I had a brand new set of fully charged of Eneloops 2500mah inside.

I took the batteries out and put them back in, then it turned on. I took another couple of shots (maybe 5 or so) and turned it off (I didn't want to play too much with it on land). It worked fine.

I don't want to be too negative but I have to say I'd be surprised if it works fine during a whole dive...

I'm not sure when I can have a real dive with my new system, maybe in 2 days. I'll let you know what happens when I know more.

 

[Hetland]

I finally got my strobes and housing. Today I took the whole system for a test run in the pool at 4m (without the camera and without batteries in the strobes). No leaks, all went well.

Then I installed the camera and batteries and did a few test shots in my room. TTL works fine (I already tested the whole system in the shop where I bought it). After about 15 shots in maybe 20 minutes, one my strobes had a flashing red and green light. I turned it off, waited for maybe 5 minutes and tried to turn it on again. It wouldn't even turn on anymore ! I had a brand new set of fully charged of Eneloops 2500mah inside.

I took the batteries out and put them back in, then it turned on. I took another couple of shots (maybe 5 or so) and turned it off (I didn't want to play too much with it on land). It worked fine.

I don't want to be too negative but I have to say I'd be surprised if it works fine during a whole dive...

I'm not sure when I can have a real dive with my new system, maybe in 2 days. I'll let you know what happens when I know more.

Test the individual batteries. Sometimes you'll have a bad cell. Rechargeable batteries can go bad on you if they're dropped.

 

[NozBzh]

Update:
I just came back from a dive, I didnt shoot much as the conditions were not good, strong surge, bad visibility and not much to see. I took maximum 30 shots.

I didnt have a flashing red/green light this time. However, one of my strobes (the one that DID work fine during my tests on land) decided to stop firing at the end of the dive. It didnt stop completely (I could see a burst of light coming from it), but this amounted to nothing in my photo (I was shooting at 1/250 f10, so pretty dark). And I noticed that the light on both strobes was going from red to off to red (no green indicating ttl). I just retested in the rinse tank and the green ttl light is on now.
I'm 99% positive both strobes were on ttl mode, which means the light should have flashed green.

I need to go to a dive site more suited to photography and spend a lot of time investigating this. Just want to work out whether I have one (or even 2) of the bad units and have it fixed before I get back to Komodo, because when I'm there, there is absolutely nothing I can do to have my strobes fixed. I'd hate to stay stuck in Komodo for 6 months with brand new strobes I cant even use

Anyone had this experience before? Strobe on ttl but no green light and very low power.

---------- Post added May 26th, 2013 at 12:42 PM ----------

Hetland, I tested my batteries, they are fine. Thanks for the tip

---------- Post added May 26th, 2013 at 04:52 PM ----------

Ok, just came out of the pool, tried all kinds of different settings, ttl (no problem, green light on), pre flash, no preflash. I could never get the red light on/red light off that I had on my dive this morning. If I set it to slave (no pre-flash) the red light stays on all the time, even when I shoot. Same thing for pre-flash.

One weird thing, when the power of the strobe is left to medium (the middle position or 0 for ttl) and using the pre flash mode (which isnt the mode that should be used as the OMD does NOT pre-flash), the exposure is good. When setting the power to maximum, the strobes fire but all I get is a black screen. This is not a problem as if I want to use slave mode I'll just use the no preflash mode, but I find it strange that it works at medium power and black screen at full power.

Back to my real problem. I'm now 100% sure that I was in TTL and the green light didnt turn on this morning (just red light/red light off/red light on again). On both units. But only one fired at ultra low power, the other one was (as far as I can tell) performing correctly.

I'm guessing I'll have to return them, but I dont understand why it worked fine in the pool (maybe 30-40 shots).

What would you guys say? I'll try to go diving again before I leave Bali.