The Perfect Strobe

I am sure there are some better ideas out there for features so lets hear them. This is what I wish a strobe manufacturer would come out with:

Power: Guide number UW of 30-40 - Good power to weight/size ratio

Color Temp: Daylight/5500k - With digital and RAW I think 5500K is a good starting point.

Power settings: full - 1/64th in 6 steps - More settings I think is unecessary.

Battery: AA user replaceable 2500mah NiMh - NO special NiCad batteries. I want to be able to replace my own batteries and fall back to AA akaline in an emergency.

Double o-ring seals on cords - Seems easy to do but few manufactures have this.

Manual control - NO TTL, really manual is simple and with dual strobes you can get more creative shooting manual. Besides, it seems to be nearly imposible for the strobe manufacturers to try and reverse engineer the TTL system that the Camera makers keep coming out with. Save the R and D money and lower the cost of an all manual strobe.

Built in modeling light - No laser beams, I just need enough light to help judge where the strobe is pointed and to aid in focusing.

Built in Slave sensor - Nice if I want a diver to hand hold a strobe for me or if I break a cord, I can still shoot with two strobes and one cord.

On/Off switch with 3 settings - On-No Model light, On-Modeling light ON, ON-Slave

Compact housing with a double sealed battery compartment. The only flood problems I have had have been with a strobes bad battery compartment cover design. I like the clear Inon screw cap battery compartment cover, you can see the O-ring and tell if it is seated propery at all times, plus the o-ring is hi vis yellow.

Hi

I would just like to have the Functionality of an Sb-800 with a nice GN so that i can choose

MANUAL

ITTL

APERTURE AUTO

But i'm totally considering getting myself a pair of Inon 2000-W when they arrive in the shops along with a matthias converter.

Regards

Craig

Easy one this.

The flash tube from my Subtronics in a Inon sized package (with removeable rechargeable battery packs).

With Subtronic switches (not the indecipherable Inon ones!) and with Subtronic synch cords (not the crappy SnS single O ring ones that Inon uses).

Alex

Easy one this.

 

The flash tube from my Subtronics in a Inon sized package (with removeable rechargeable battery packs).

With Subtronic switches (not the indecipherable Inon ones!) and with Subtronic synch cords (not the crappy SnS single O ring ones that Inon uses).

Alex you forgot... TTL

I have an old set of Isota K35's that I loved, I just can't get them serviced here in the US. Removable rechargeable battery pack is a good thing. That was the problem with my Isota's, no removable battery pack. You have to use compressed air to force the things apart to get to the insides for service. It is very easy to destroy the flash tube in the process...

Keith

The flash tube from my Subtronics in a Inon sized package (with removeable rechargeable battery packs).

With Subtronic switches (not the indecipherable Inon ones!) and with Subtronic synch cords (not the crappy SnS single O ring ones that Inon uses).

well it would be good to still have the option of ettl (or ittl)

(and s6 plugs)

/paul

This is an interesting topic. My perfect strobe:

Ring type flash tube for wide coverage and even lightning into the corners.

Coloured tube for low colour temperature. 4500 Kelvin and I wouldn’t mind even warmer. Colour temp can be corrected with white balance, but the ratio between strobe light and ambient light can’t be changed with white balance. So even with digital, I want a warm strobe.

Dome glass for maintaining the tube’s coverage underwater. No flat glass please.

~ 150 W/s.

Enough manual power settings. No small increments, but sufficient settings to cut down output for shallow DOF macro and stuff like that: for example full, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/32, 1/64.

Optical slave sensor (may be optical TTL).

Light but solid plastic body.

Quickly interchangeable battery system. No AA cells for powerful strobes please.

No TTL. I like Keith’s idea of investing all the TTL R&D money into a decent strobe.

Filter holder and according filters. Have to be curved ones to fit onto the strobe’s dome glass. Different colours available.

10 to 20 Watt modelling light, dimmable.

Concentrator front mount accessory to concentrate the beam and gain brightness for macro work. Can be an interchangeable front element or an opical plastic lens.

95% of the energy dumped in less than 1/250s.

Dual O-ring sealed plugs like Subtronic. Not the one O-Ring system like Sea&Sea, when removing the cord topside, at least one water drop wants to enter the bulkhead and starts corrosion. Better add a second O-Ring and the problem is solved.

S.O.S./Test flash feature.

Control wheels / knobs at the side of the strobe, not on the back. Allows bigger wheels. But yes, make them identical on both sides

I hope the industry is reading this carefully

Julian