Sea & Sea YS-D3 Accessories Review

July 21st, 2020

The innovation behind the Sea & Sea YS-D3 is what makes the strobe so compelling. Sea & Sea has done something unprecedented by offering a series of accessories native to the brand as a direct response to trends in underwater photography. Many of these accessories are set at very affordable price points - more affordable than if you purchase the items from another brand, not specific to any strobe. Thus, it makes sense as a consumer to consider accessories as a major factor for choosing the YS-D3. Once you have the strobe, accessories like the YS-D3 snoot and YS-D3 dome diffuser are no-brainer additions to your kit.

Sea & Sea YS-D3 Snoot

ys-d3 snoot

Snoots are popular devices in underwater photography that condense or redirect light into a smaller surface area than the output of a traditional strobe. Often this results in a ring of light about two inches in diameter. Such a small concentration of light allows for underwater photographers to produce creative lighting effects, especially with small macro critters. Snoot photos are popular and feature high contrast situations often with black backgrounds.

The Sea & Sea YS-D3 snoot is special for a few reasons. First, it's probably the most affordable snoot on the market at $74.95. What a price for snooting!

Second, the snoot has an internal prism that aligns the strobe's target light so that you can aim the snoot at your subject. Wherever the target light lands, the subject will be illuminated. This solves one of the most frustrating aspects of snoot photography - alignment. Without a target light design, a new snooter might only get one properly lit shot in 20 or maybe even 100! With the target light and prism, it's easy to move the target light over the subject and get the right shot every time.

Finally, the snoot has a built-in, internal diffuser that makes the light nice and soft. Snoot photos can often have harsh lighting due to the nature the snoot beam. With the YS-D3 snoot, light is nice and even, regardless of the background color. This creates a different, lighter look to photos.

We took this snoot diving in one of the best macro sites in the Pacific with lots and lots of nudibranchs. Overall, we loved it! The targeting light funnelled through the snoot's prism worked very well, in most conditions. However, it's not very bright so it's most useful in darker lighting situations and shooting into crevices. That being said, we were able to use it on a sunny day at 25 feet underwater below the kelp. The beam quality from the snoot is very nice due to the built in diffuser in front of the opening. Combined with the YS-D3's slightly cooler and softer beam, it makes for nice, natural photos. The light quality doesn't have quite so much contrast and harshness as you might see from other snoots. Because the opening on the YS-D3 snoot is slightly larger than other snoots, it also doesn't have as much of a spotlight effect. This means your subjects will have black backgrounds but they won't have a discernable ring around them like you might see in other snoot photos. We personally like this look better. Plus, it makes the snoot a great option for portraits of larger animals and even wide angle photos!

Availability: Available NOW at Bluewater Photo!

U.S. MSRP: $74.95

Before and After Images with the Sea & Sea YS-D3 Snoot

NO SNOOT

Nudibranch and NO SNOOT

NO SNOOT

Nudibranch Photographed with Sea & Sea YS-D3 Snoot

Sample Images with the Sea & Sea YS-D3 Snoot

ysd3 snoot

White lined dirona nudibranch Photographed with Sea & Sea YS-D3 Snoot

ys- d3 SNOOT

Sculpin Photographed with Sea & Sea YS-D3 Snoot

ys-d3 snoot

Mosshead Warbonnet Photographed with Sea & Sea YS-D3 Snoot

ys-d3 snoot

Nudibranch Photographed with Sea & Sea YS-D3 Snoot

Sea & Sea YS-D3 Dome Diffuser

ys-d3 dome diffuser

Dome diffusers are popular with underwater photographers who want to have soft, even light covering as much of their frame as possible. They are particularly popular with wide angle photographers that want to illuminate reefscapes evenly. However, dome diffusers have been absent in the Sea & Sea strobe line up....until now! The Sea & Sea YS-D3 is compatible with a new dome diffuser that extends the beam angle from 105 X 80 degrees to an amazing 170 X 150 degrees!

Dome diffusers can be beneficial for multiple reasons. First, they increase the beam angle of your strobe so that the beam can cover more surface area in the image. If you are shooting wide angle photography with one strobe, it is an essential tool to light your scene. The diffuser also softens the quality of the light and reduces the guide number slightly. Therefore, the light will cause less contrast in your image but it will also not be as bright as without the diffuser at maximum power. Softer light can be essential when shooting reflective subjects like schools of fish. Finally, dome diffusers can reduce backscatter which is very beneficial to photographers shooting in limited visibilty. We took the photo below with a single YS-D3 strobe and dome diffuser in very ugly diving conditions - about 5 ft visibility. But due ot the soft, even light, the visibility looks great! We also noticed a significant reduction in backscatter. No backscatter removal was done to this photo!

sea & sea ys-d3 dome diffuser