Inon has announced the successor of the Z-330: the Z-360.

No big announcement from them, but you can find the Z-360 using google.

Some shops already have it listed as pre-order.

Strobe seems to use the old houising with new technique.

Available july or august. Should be GN36.

Somebody has more news on this?

It's been a long time coming interesting to see if it was worth the wait, so far I can only find pre-order with some basic pics on the two sites mentioned.

Of course they did because I just bought Retra Maxi strobes. I knew it! Darn, well, it was past due a couple of years. And I wanted power but I would have been okay with this 🫤, maybe.

Edited yesterday at 02:16 PM1 day by Nemrod

Inon still has not shown more than a mock up of this strobe and zero specifications. It is highly likely that it still uses 4 AA batteries, which imposses a ton of limits that will yield a non-competitive product in today's market.

I loved my 330s and keep them for backup, but they are not a good choice today.

Not sure AA batteries are a handicap. What with all the evolving regs. The case and battery chamber are as always so it is surely four AA batteries. So is the Retra Pro Max with a booster for eight. I am kind of burned on Inon due to the lack of support and warranty in North America. I have tried to get repairs, no go, sent off in desperation to a popular repair place and he has had my strobe for over three years now.

Photo from Bluewater Photo site:

10 minutes ago, Nemrod said:

Not sure AA batteries are a handicap.

Personally, I am very sure about this. I predict that within a year or two there will be few to zero UW strobes powered by AA cells still being manufactured.

5 hours ago, Dave_Hicks said:

Personally, I am very sure about this. I predict that within a year or two there will be few to zero UW strobes powered by AA cells still being manufactured.

I am an owner of 4 x z330…

Recently on of my little kids turned on both of my strobes. Both empty... I realized at the dive spot when I wanted to take my test photo… I was able to buy in a tiny tiny shop (doesn’t deserve the name) in front of an amazing dive side 8 double AA batteries… that safed my day and made even a dive mag article with nice photos possible!

Another story: once in Australia I was super stressed before a dive and forgot both my o-rings in both strobes… all batteries broken. Cleaned with WD40 and replaced accus fast and able to continue working for the Whole trip.

I can trigger with optic cables and electrical… that safed me many trips with issues with broken cables/triggers/connectors…

I am a big fan of Inon (even while owning several Ikelite strobes) and for traveling and in remote places it’s a good choice because so reliable, compact, lightweight and flexible wit AAs…

I am now about to buy The Marelux Apollo because of its recycling time and speed but have no plans to sell my Inons…

I think each strobe has its pros and cons…

Edited 18 hours ago18 hr by Michi

4 minutes ago, Michi said:

I am an owner of 4 x z330…

Recently on of my little kids turned on both of my strobes. Both empty... I realized at the dive spot when I wanted to take my test photo… I was able to buy in a tiny tiny shop (doesn’t deserve the name) in front of an amazing dive side 8 double AA batteries… that safed my day and made even a dive mag article with nice photos possible!

Another story: once in Australia I was super stressed before a dive and forgot both my o-rings in both strobes… all batteries broken. Cleaned with WD40 and replaced accus fast and able to continue working for the Whole trip.

I can trigger with optic cables and electrical… that safed me many trips with issues with broken cables/triggers/connectors…

I am a big fan of Inon (even while owning several Ikelite strobes) and for traveling and in remote places it’s a good choice because so reliable, compact, lightweight and flexible wit AAs…

I am now about to buy The Marelux Apollo because of its recycling time and speed but have no plans to sell my Inons…

I think each strobe has its pros and cons…

• I'm not sure what the lesson is for buying extra batteries. It's not hard to carry extras, which I usually do on a trip.

• I can't imagine how you could forget the orings. They really should never be off the caps except for once in a very long while if you need to clean the cap. I probably took off my Inon orings like 2 or 3 times in over 500 dives with them.

• As for flooding and cleaning the battery compartment, sealed battery chambers is standard on most strobes. This is not unique to Inon.

• Always carry an extra strobe cable in spares. I often have a spare trigger and soldering iron on long trips too. I've fixed several solder joints on other divers triggers and hotshoes in the last few years!

Regarding the forgotten O-rings, here's the anecdote: I was in a camper van at a perfect spot for unloading my camera and diving gear (without carrying for miles), but not exactly a perfect spot for the police. Consequently, there was maximum pressure to assemble all the equipment, including the sweltering heat of around 45° Celsius inside the camper. In Addition, there were the police, my wife, and kid, who were asking every two minutes when I'd finally be finished, when the car could be moved, and when the family could finally get to the sea… Yes, in that situation, something like that happened, something that hadn't happened in about 1500 dives before and about 700 dives since.

I've even seen supposedly waterproof battery compartments that were clearly broken when they turned out not to be. With Sea & Sea and inon, I can say from my own experience (also with other people's equipment) that after water flooding and cleaning all was fine... the point is that you can buy double AA batteries anywhere and anytime (and there have also been cases here in the forum where too many batteries were taken at the airport and it wasn't possible to buy replacements at the arrival point)!

I am Open with Brands and not a Fan boy.

More power and faster recycling time is always nice but comes with a price…

but keep also in mind: with bigger strobes for example carrying and cfwa can be more challenging…

Edited 16 hours ago16 hr by Michi

28 minutes ago, Michi said:

Regarding the forgotten O-rings, here's the anecdote: I was in a camper van at a perfect spot for unloading my camera and diving gear (without carrying for miles), but not exactly a perfect spot for the police. Consequently, there was maximum pressure to assemble all the equipment, including the sweltering heat of around 45° Celsius inside the camper. In Addition, there were the police, my wife, and kid, who were asking every two minutes when I'd finally be finished, when the car could be moved, and when the family could finally get to the sea… Yes, in that situation, something like that happened, something that hadn't happened in about 1500 dives before and about 700 dives since.

I've even seen supposedly waterproof battery compartments that were clearly broken when they turned out not to be. With Sea & Sea and inon, I can say from my own experience (also with other people's equipment) that after water flooding and cleaning all was fine... the point is that you can buy double AA batteries anywhere and anytime (and there have also been cases here in the forum where too many batteries were taken at the airport and it wasn't possible to buy replacements at the arrival point)!

I am Open with Brands and not a Fan boy.

More power and faster recycling time is always nice but comes with a price…

but keep also in mind: with bigger strobes for example carrying and cfwa can be more challenging…

You can't buy a smaller flash than the Backscatter Miniflash. Single 18650 or 21700 lithium ion battery.

9 hours ago, Dave_Hicks said:

Inon still has not shown more than a mock up of this strobe and zero specifications. It is highly likely that it still uses 4 AA batteries, which imposses a ton of limits that will yield a non-competitive product in today's market.

I loved my 330s and keep them for backup, but they are not a good choice today.

You probably are right and It is okay with me. As long as they use over the shelf batteries that I can at least order and not some sort of $ proprietary pack that will be discontinued next year. But, regardless, the Inon Z360 is AA batteries :(.

46 minutes ago, Nemrod said:

You probably are right and It is okay with me. As long as they use over the shelf batteries that I can at least order and not some sort of $ proprietary pack that will be discontinued next year. But, regardless, the Inon Z360 is AA batteries :(.

Proprietary batteries are the worst! I dumped by Kraken spotting light for that reason.

Just feels its "too little, too late" upgrade from the 330's.

6 hours ago, Sokrates said:

Just feels its "too little, too late" upgrade from the 330's.

That is exactly how I feel, and I have been a dedicated Inon user for more years than I am willing to admit.

I always had a great experience with all the various Inon models I used and never a complaint regarding performance or durability. With that said, I, like many of us, have moved on to something else due to their lack of product introductions over the past few years. Newer models from Backscatter, Retra, and others have a feel of advancement rather than recycling previous models and technology.

It's a big ocean and I am sure they will have happy buyers of their new 360s. From a product and manufacturer stand point, Inon disappeared and allowed others to take their sales with newer successful products. Rarely do manafacturers recover.

Edited 7 hours ago7 hr by ChipBPhoto

If it is GN36 then it will be in the same power class as the Atom and Marelux Apollo and unlike the Marelux it has pre-flash cancel and unlike the Atom it has standard TTL capability.

Yes, it feels like a very basic refresh of the 330s. I prefer the trend towards simpler UIs in strobes, and I’ll probably choose one with more modern batteries whenever I upgrade. Not to mention, they just about shut down the company for the last few years which doesn’t fill me with confidence for future service.

In the past having everything powered by sets of 4xAA batteries was useful for all the reasons given by others. The universal AA has saved me on multiple occasions. But cameras now have manufacturers' dedicated batteries, most decent dive lights have dedicated batteries. The benefit of commonality has been broken, so strobes also having dedicated batteries would not deter me.

As an old school Inon user, I have 4 x Z240s. About 20 years ago I replaced some woefully unreliable S&S strobes with a new pair of Z240s, then more recently obtained a second pair used 'just in case'. None of my Z240s has ever failed. The most I have needed to do is clean up battery contacts. The UI is awful. I still don't have my phd in Inon. But reliability trumps everything.

Inon strobes are terribly simple. No Phd needed. The new Retra Maxi is even more so except for the user assignment to the U mode for either the video or pre-flash cancel!

What is UI? User Instruction? Y'all read instructions!