I've finally gotten around to testing the INON S-220, and the results really surprised me. Despite its size, it's a really capable wide angle strobe that can (almost) keep up with the likes of the Sea & Sea YS-D3 and even best (coming close to the Marelux Apollo 3) it when it comes to continuous shooting.

 

Color Temperature: 6400k (no diffuser); 6100k (soft diffuser);  5350k (4600k filter)

Flash Duration: 1/350s full power; 1/640s at half power; 1/1000s at quarter power

 

Flash Power (measured in air)

 

 

and compared to the Marelux Apollo 3 and Sea & Sea YS-D3

 

 

 

So as you can see, it's only about 2/3 stop less bright than the YS-D3 with no diffuser, and similar in power with its soft diffuser as the YS-D3 with the dome diffuser.

 

Flash recycling is also impressive -- it can shoot continuous action at higher power outputs than the YS-D3, and almost as well as the Marelux Apollo 3. The interesting thing is that the flash seems to fire before the capacitor fully recharges, so when shooting in continuous mode, you get 2-3 shots near full power, then the power gradually tapers down 2/3 of a stop or so and stabilizes, which means the pictures are still usable. I measured the power output at the end of a series of 20 shots in the table below. Had I used the first shot in the series, it would be even higher.

 

 

Finally, the beam pattern. Here it is, first with no diffuser, then soft diffuser, and then with the 4600k filter. The 4600k filter doesn't really diffuse the light at all, so it's not, IMO, a good option for wide angle shooting.

 

 

 

And here is the YS-D3 without diffuser and with flat diffuser for comparison. 

 

 

To me, there's not a lot of difference between the Inon S-220 with soft diffuser and the YS-D3 with flat diffuser.

 

And this is why I hope Inon will make the Z240/Z330 successor one day....they do know how to make those light things alright 🙂

I"ll only say this......I follow for informational fun new strobes and realize there's lots of choices these days.

 

RETRA, Sea and Sea D3, the new Backscatter HF-1, Ikelite DS230, SEACAM and many more.....

 

But for long term reliability and simplicity I agree with DreiFish the Inon S220 is way underrated (and undervalued.) 

 

Small size and Envelop AAs batteries make them an easy traveling and diving unit. The simple clear battery door and YELLOW o-ring you can see is sealed are other advantages too.

 

Just one old guy's opinion 🙂

 

DH

 

 

 

Edited June 16, 20241 yr by dhaas

14 hours ago, DreiFish said:

I've finally gotten around to testing the INON S-220, and the results really surprised me. Despite its size, it's a really capable wide angle strobe that can (almost) keep up with the likes of the Sea & Sea YS-D3 and even best (coming close to the Marelux Apollo 3) it when it comes to continuous shooting.

 

Color Temperature: 6400k (no diffuser); 6100k (soft diffuser);  5350k (4600k filter)

Flash Duration: 1/350s full power; 1/640s at half power; 1/1000s at quarter power

@DreiFish Good stuff. Thanks!

On 6/16/2024 at 2:56 PM, dhaas said:

But for long term reliability and simplicity I agree with DreiFish the Inon S220 is way underrated (and undervalued.) 

Exactly my impression after 4 weeks in the water with two S220 in Indonesia. I think I previously wrote almost the same as Dhaas somewhere here in the forum a few days/weeks ago.

 

It’s the most underrated, attractively priced and underestimated underwater strobe in 2024 ! 
 

Cursed by the look a like S-2000’s legacy because many noobs will mistake the purpose of the previous Modell with the potential of the new S-220.

 

Also the often mentioned wait for a Z330 successor is totally pointless. Just my personal opinion.

After being a user of the S-2000 and now the Z-330 Type 2, I wouldn't mind going back to the size of the S220, the truth is that I was delighted with them.

I’m in the same camp.  I shoot mostly macro and so regretted selling my S-2000 almost immediately, although I do like the Z-240 that replaced them. I’m thinking seriously about going back to the smaller form factor. They’d be excellent for CFWA which is my near term project. My only hesitation is about shooting true wide angle reef scenics.  I could keep both sets but don’t think I’d want to travel with four strobes. Thoughts?  

Edited June 18, 20241 yr by Troporobo
Typo

Traveling with 4 flashes.... I don't see, besides the price. Traveling light is the best thing and with the 2x Z330 I have lost that advantage. The bad thing is that selling the Z330 you lose a lot of money.

 

Obviously the Z330 with its greater power, will illuminate the reef better, but I think the S220 can be perfectly valid for it.

The S220 has significant improvements over the S2000, such as the standard dome, is equipped with a bayonet mount to use various dome filters or improved button size or pre-flash button placement, operates on four AA batteries and double o-rings that significantly reduce flooding risk.

 

It has the best of both worlds S-2000 and Z330 Type 2.

 

 

6 hours ago, Adventurer said:

Cursed by the look a like S-2000’s legacy because many noobs will mistake the purpose of the previous Modell with the potential of the new S-220.

 

I don't think I'm a noob, and even I thought they were the next generation of S2000 strobes. 

I know this thread is a bit old so forgive me. I'm wondering what your opinions would be on taking the S-220 to Socorro to photography the manta rays and hopefully whale sharks? I shoot an Olympus E-M1 Mk III, in an AOI housing, using a 14-42mm EZ lens with the Nauticam WWL-1B, or the Olympus 8mm Fisheye with a 4" dome.

3 hours ago, JS1221 said:

I know this thread is a bit old so forgive me. I'm wondering what your opinions would be on taking the S-220 to Socorro to photography the manta rays and hopefully whale sharks? I shoot an Olympus E-M1 Mk III, in an AOI housing, using a 14-42mm EZ lens with the Nauticam WWL-1B, or the Olympus 8mm Fisheye with a 4" dome.

It is true the S220 is much stronger than the S2000 series strobes. Maybe even encroaching on the old Z240. But I think you might be asking too much of them. Can you make do, well, maybe. Not ideal, I have used mine for wide angle and CFWA, but whale sharks in shallow, brightly lit ambient conditions will be over powering for them is my bet.

Edited Monday at 10:14 PM1 day by Nemrod

3 hours ago, JS1221 said:

I know this thread is a bit old so forgive me. I'm wondering what your opinions would be on taking the S-220 to Socorro to photography the manta rays and hopefully whale sharks? I shoot an Olympus E-M1 Mk III, in an AOI housing, using a 14-42mm EZ lens with the Nauticam WWL-1B, or the Olympus 8mm Fisheye with a 4" dome.

Particularly with the WWL, at the wide end you could open up to f5.6 for a full stop more flash in your photos if you needed it and I would think shooting in the blue that the the Olympus fisheye would also work well at f5.6. The only problem you might run into is the max flash sync speed if you are in shallow water and pointing up where you might want to stop down some more to get the water darker.

If the S220 is near as powerful as the YS-D3 you should have no problem, the S220 at 19.6GN vs the YS-D3 at 25 with diffusers is about 0.7 stops difference in power. It seems that the S220 is at least as powerful as the old INON Z240 and some years back people wouldn't have hesitated to use the Z240 for wide angle pelagics, same with the YS-D3, no one would hesitate to use it for wide angle work on a full frame camera at f11-13 range I don't think.

Remember these are measured GN by @DreiFish he also measured the HF-1 at GN 31 with diffuser. that is 1.3 stops more power than the S-220 as measured under constant conditions, which is equivalent to opening up from f13 to f8. The thing to remember is the S22- is quite powerful - to get 1 stop more power you need to double the output and that only allows you to stop down one stop.

On the m43 camera you don't need to stop down to F11-16 and in practice f8 works just fine even for CFWA. By shooting at f8 you have already recovered the one stop lost by using the S-220 instead of the YS-D3 and if you need faster recycle and you can open up a little with the lenses you propose to use. The last point is that lighting up a whole whale shark is very challenging due to distance it is away, the best you hope for is give it a kiss of light as you are going to be 2-3m away probably at best.

If people are on a limited budget or have limited luggage the INON S-220 is the goto strobe !

If you can crank up the ISO of your camera a little you can compensate, not bringing a large gun such as the HF-1 or Apollo III 2.0.

23 hours ago, Adventurer said:

If people are on a limited budget or have limited luggage the INON S-220 is the goto strobe !

If you can crank up the ISO of your camera a little you can compensate, not bringing a large gun such as the HF-1 or Apollo III 2.0.

I love my two S220 strobes. I had been using D2000 strobes until they went TU. The S220 is much stronger and nearly as strong as a pair of Z240s I had borrowed and they do throw a wide beam. The thing I run into is flash fill against a sun lit background (sun balls, shallow water, bright sand) is that I run out of sync speed on my Sony (1/160 though I can get it to 1/200 with the UWT trigger). Thus needing to use the aperture/ISO to help control the background exposure and the little S220 (D2000, Z240 et al) quickly run out of power. Yes, going to a lower ISO and aperture works until I run out of strobe power.

Just playing in the pool, what needs f5.6 with the S220 (GN22) I can do at f8 with the Marelux Apollo (GN33) and just a wild guess maybe with something like the HF-1 (GN40) at f11? I am not putting this photo up as an example of great photography ;), but here two S220 strobes did allow me to get a decent exposure of the turtle at the Salt Pier against a bright background, WWL-1, S220 strobes with warming diffusers, NA-6400, f8, 1/200, ISO 200.

Edited 3 hours ago3 hr by Nemrod