18 replies to this topic

[PhotographingBlind]

Hello,

At this moment i have an inon strobe S-2000.
I'm wanting to buy another strobe or 2 strobes.
What strobe is the best at this moment ?
I have a tokina 10-17 and Nikon 60mm Macro.

For WA the inon s-2000 dont works...
I have a budget of 1200 euro.
Would i buy one strobe and stay using the s-2000 as slave strobe ?
Thinking about subtronic ?
I would like to use electrical connection.

Thanx

[bvanant]

The current hot strobe is the S&S D1. Good power, small, uses AA batteries. You could get two for a little more than your budget I think.
Bill

[Aussiebyron]

I think the Inon Z240s are still the most popular

[davichin]

I have the same camera and housing (D7000 and hugyfot) and a lot (too many...) of strobes. First advice is to strongly reconsider optical connection because it is more reliable and a lot cheaper (you can save around 100€ or more to your budget if you go optical).
I have subtronics, seacams, sea&sea 250 pros and YS d1s and, for your budget, I would choose either second hand YS 250 pros (there are people selling them because of weight at around 1000 - 1200 € for two) because they are very good for WA (but don´t have S-TTL ), or new D1s which you can buy two within your budget and are lighter, have S-TTL for macro and, although not as powerful, they can do the work for most of the WA situations... Inon Z240s are also a safe bet.

[rumblefish]

What I would do is buy a powerful strobe like the YS250 and keep the Inon S2000 as a fill flash.

[davichin]

For example: Nuno Gonçalves, Snookydiver in wetpixel, sells two like new YS250pros for 660 each:

http://www.forobuceo...p?f=42&t=109641

so you may get that into your budget. You could also sell your current strobe (I would if I bought two more)

[PhotographingBlind]

What do you think of a the seaflash 150 from seacam ?

I would buy one, would this be enough for a tokina on 13 mm to fill the frame ?

It has a coverage of 130 degrees.

Is it worth the money ?

Or should i be better of with two ys-d1 ?

[ChrigelKarrer]

i used 2 Inon Z-240 on my Hugyfot D7000 housing and it worked very well, the Z-240 are very sturdy and powerful strobes and they should fit in your budget.

I think that no strobe will illuminate the full frame at 13 mm and more than 2 meters or 7 ft distant.

One solution is to use 3 strobes, left - center (on the focus light ball) - right, that give you a nice wide spread like here for example.

 

Using 2 inon Z-240 with the Sigma 15mm FE gives a strange "snoot" effect like this one here: 

 

Chris

[maxman2402]

ikelite Ds-160 is also an option with a slightly warmer color temperature of 4600 vs the z-240 which has 5500 (I think)

[Aussiebyron]

For wide angle with the tokina 10-17mm I prefer the Ikelites either the DS125 or the DS160/161 as they have a warmer colour temp. The down side is that they are big and heavy compared to something like the Inon Z240's and the warmer colour temp needs to be adjusted post production for macro. The dedicated battery packs are expensive too.  The Inons Z240 are small compact and weight alot less than Ikelites colour filters are need to get the same warmer temp like the Ikelites. 

 

Here is an unedited, uncropped shot with the Tokina 10-17mm at 10mm with 2 Ikelite ds161 strobes at 3/4 power. The shark is about 2.5m long go give you an idea of the coverage of the two Ikelites:

 

f8, 1/320th, ISO100

 

Regards mark

[PhotographingBlind]

Thanks for the new great info !

But somebody has experience with the flashes from seacam ?

[Tom_Kline]

I have been using the Seacam 150D with diffuser as the sole strobe when shooting the 10.5mm Fisheye Nikkor with some success for several years now. However, it is more than your budget. Not quite as long I have been using the Seacam 250D with the 8-15mm Canon Fisheye on FF also as sole strobe. I use a thin semi-transparent white plastic bag (from a grocery store) tucked into the strobe's neoprene cover with the 250D as a diffuser since Seacam did not make one. The diffuser helps fill in the corners with a fisheye lens.

For both lenses I place the strobe over the center of the camera and forward just enough to light up a fish right in front of the port - positoning is critical. Most of shots taken with these set ups are of salmonids in streams, BTW.

I dug up two pix - one shows the set up and one a resultant pic, uncropped. Note the 150D strobe - it is hard to see the diffuser. The pole is 2.5 to 3 m long. I had ankle weights on it to hold things down in the current. Full post involves slicing a bit off the bottom and more off the the top to make this more of a panorammic shot. However I wanted you to see that the strobe lit the stream bottom foreground. This shot was taken when the day is about 20 hours long near the middle of the day - true noon is about 2 pm here with daylight savings time. It was overcast - I used ISO 400, 1/200 f/8 and the background is far from being too light

Tom

Thanks for the new great info !

But somebody has experience with the flashes from seacam ?

Attached Images

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Edited by Tom_Kline, 24 March 2013 - 02:58 PM.

[davichin]

The only problem with the seacam 150 strobe is its price (I just checked Seacam USA and it is 2766$). Besides this, it is a great strobe from what a couple of friends tell me. But I think you would be better suited for WA with 2 (even not so strong) strobes such as the D1s or YS250 etc... Coverage of one strobe in WA is very compromising as you cannot play with shadows  etc... Sometimes you can find cheap old (old ones are more reliable) subtronics at ebay Germany...

[PhotographingBlind]

Thanks for the info, its really helpful.

 

I have a problem ...

If i go to this review on wet pixel, i can only see the beginning. How do you get to the folowing pages ?

http://wetpixel.com/...-digital-review

 

Thanks !

[PhotographingBlind]

problem solved.

 

is there anybody who uses an nikon strobe in a housing ?

pictures ?

experience ?

[MikeVeitch]

I use YS 120s with mine, no optical and no TTL but the power is great, I picked up a like new reconditioned one for $90 last year! best purchase I have made in a long time!

[davichin]

I have an sb800 in a housing (home made). You can use nikon strobes with the advantage of perfect communication with the camera, iTTL etc... The problems are that they may not be as powerful, uneven coverage for WA, and slow recycle. But it is not a bad option, and you can connect them in a master/slave combination with optical fiber etc...

 

Here you have one for a SB900 for 350€:

 

http://www.forobuceo...p?f=42&t=101964

 

If you are going to use two, I would check with www.sagadive.com as they make strobe housings with optical ports to connect one to the other optically (two electronically connected nikon strobes to the camera will not work!)

[PhotographingBlind]

I would only use one, but i think this will be not good for WA. Then i'm better of with the sea cam.

The reason i would like to have one strobe for a compromise between macro and WA is the problem that it gets bulky, and i have not a lot of sight, so i have to be very care ful i dont bump to things with such a wide rig.

 

Any body who nows second hand ys 250 ?

I would need two, but from an trusty source, that i'm sure it works...

[Subfotosivan]

Hello. I'm a Davichin's friend. I'm sendind two strobes S&S YS 250. 1000 € both. Electrical or optical included. Only one 600€. Tell me if you need pictures or more information. They are in very well conditions... ( rarely used)