Sea & Sea YS-D1 and Canon 6D compatibility

[Kenneth To]

Hi all! I recently got a Sea & Sea housing set for my Canon 6D but I find a problem when using the YS-D1 strobe in TTL mode with it.
The photos taken are all dark and under-exposed and almost can see nothing. The photos taken using manual mode are absolutely fine.

The set I have:
Sea &sea MDX-6D housing with the YS converter/C
original 5-pin Dual Sync Cord/N

SEA&SEA YS-D1 strobe

I already set the camera according to the guideline but I suspect that it cannot recognize the strobe as e-TTL. The Strobe is suppose to have a 2 second green light on when switched to TTL mode but I never had that.

Does anybody have similar issue or know how I could solve the problem?

Thanks!

 

[KeithG]

The YS converters seem to be a bunch of voodoo with very little public information available.

#1)
Your reference to a "second green light" is strange. S&S strobes have traditionally attempted to indicate "correct exposure - you are a winner!" via a green LED. In practice, the green LED is turned on anytime the strobe did not perform a full dump. The strobe attempts to claim correct exposure (which only the camera can know) if it did not use all of its power and blow its brains out.The strobe has no ability to determine if correct exposure was actually achieved. It implies correct exposure could have been achieved due to the strobe not needing to use all of its available power. So the correctness of the green led is somewhat suspect.

this happy place scenario can happen under 2 different situations:
a) you use a wired sync and a quench signal is received by the strobe before the strobe has totally discharged
b) you use a optical sync and the optical signal stops before the strobe has totally discharged
In reality it is not a direct indicator of correct exposure. It just means the strobe did not provide all of the light it could have. The strobe claims victory and turns the green led on.

#2)
The Canon ettl protocol is proprietary and un-documented. It is well known that it is a digital protocol and seems to vary by camera and strobe combination. This digital protocol allows Canon to screw with other strobe manufacturers. An example is my brand new Canon G16 that fully supports a generic external strobe (S&S YS50) via the X hotshoe signal when the camera is in single shot mode. Flip the camera into continuous mode and the external strobe fails to fire. In continuous mode the camera abandons the analog X signal and resorts to a fully digital protocol to control the external "canon compatible" strobe. My G16 is fully compatible with a Canon 430Ex-II strobe. The lower end Canon strobe does not support continuous mode with the G16.

 

[Kenneth To]

I was looking for a green light as the YS-D1 manual said 'the TTL lamp would illuminate in green for 2 seconds after shooting with TTL mode'.
I don't know... as the Sea&sea YS Convertor/C is specially designed for 5Dm2 and 6D (as it described in its manual) so I believe it should work?

 

[KeithG]

I was looking for a green light as the YS-D1 manual said 'the TTL lamp would illuminate in green for 2 seconds after shooting with TTL mode'.
I don't know... as the Sea&sea YS Convertor/C is specially designed for 5Dm2 and 6D (as it described in its manual) so I believe it should work?

i assume you are using wired sync cables (and it does not really matter, the same applies for optical sync cables)
- only the camera knows if correct exposure has been achieved (ISO, aperature, shutter, none of which are known by the strobe)
- there is no mechanism for the camera to instruct the strobe to tell you that correct exposure has been achieved.

so the strobe can only be left to guess about exposure. S&S has chosen to provide a green LED as a proxy for correct exposure (maybe)

get over it. ignore abscence or presence of the green LED and get on with your life.

 

[Kenneth To]

Thanks for your reply giffenk. Green light or not doesnt really matter. the problem for me is that when using TTL mode the photos taken are under exposed and all black, even though the strobe fired a flash. Photos taken using manual mode has no problem. So are you suggesting that it's canon problem that it cannot communicate with the YS-D1 in TTL mode and I should just use manual mode?

 

[JackConnick]

Are you using the external TTL controller?

There is an internal controller that either comes with the MDX-6D or can be installed. Those work well and you can dial the ev up/down from the housing.

You have some sort of timing issue it sounds like. Are you shooting within the sync speed of the camera?
It also sounds like you are shooting in optical D-TTL if you are seeing the green light. Read your instructions, but you need to set the strobe to manual slave and let the TTL controller do the work.

The external controller has always been problematic, IMHO.

Jack