I am done with Ikelite

I have had one Dual-Cable failure in 5 years. My original D70 housing had the flush (180 degree) cable mounting and inevitably the camera would be placed on it's back stressing the cord. They later changed the design to the 90 degree connector and the problem was solved for me. I argued that they changed the connector design due to its cable killing tendancies and Ikelite was kind enough to give me a free replacement. (With a little polite insistence on my part)

Since then I have had no problem at all with either of my housings, strobes, or cables. Compared with some of the other housing design flaws we see (floods cause by non-removal of EyeCups or Screen Protectors) I think this is not such a big deal.

And as with anything related to diving, always have a spare!

I agree with ATJ on this point. I have had two failures and recently on a komodo liveaboard, had another guy with a failure on his dual cord. Luckily he had a spare! He promptly used teflon tape and black electrical tape on the new one at all three ends to stiffen the area as thats where most failures seem to occur. He did not have the protectors. My latest dual cord has these cable protectors on the end where they go into the strobes BUT not at the end that goes into the camera. (Well probably part of their sales plan ) Anyway with the protectors in place, which is a great improvement, i am sure there will be minimal failures. Time will tell.

 

Cheers,

 

Diggy

I have been through more synch cords than some Indonesians have had hot dinners. Sadly, they seem to be the weak point and suffer poor handling when your camera is taken from you and placed in the rinse tank by helpful crew or other helpful passengers put their stuff on top. That includes cords by ALL the manufacturers. I carry spares but I rotate them. In fact I don't know which is the most recent one I bought but I sure know when they stop working!

Joe: First, I would recommend Inon Z240 strobes, small and so far (a couple of years) perfectly reliable for me.

Bill

I agree with reliability, and size, and I love mine...

... but: I sent Z220 for repair and it took nearly six months to return from Japan to the UK...

I used Sea&Sea cables until I switched to fibre-optics, but, curiously, whilst I have never had a cable fail, I have had to trim a fibre-optic after it kinked.

The Z240s are a little under-powered, and I have taken to warming the light with straw-coloured filters. I use 200ASA a bit more often than I would like in W/A photography.

On the plus side: I took a Z240 into a swimming pool without fitting any o-rings and it functioned perfectly for an hour, despite a wet battery!

Tim

It turns out there's a high current AA NiMH battery rated for 30+ amps, the Elite 1700AA. I've ordered some for my Z-240s. I expect these to work great. There's probably only about 220 cycles per charge but that's no different than Eneloops. Recycle times should be the best of any AA battery.

I have been using ikelite products since the mid 70's. The current design for cables looks to be much improved. More than once I had to wiggle an acute bend in a cable to get the strobes to fire. Finally put heat shrink electrical insulation on the cables to stiffen the connect points. I have also had performance problems with one of the A100 strobes. In all cases, ikelite service was very responsive.

I think Craig makes several good points. I now use Z240 strobes with fiber optic connections. Also, I have an S&S cable for back up. Except for the custom camera batteries, all my u/w camera gear runs on rechargeable AA batteries. Using a smallish Nexus housing, D80 camera, and Inon strobes, I have reduced the size and weight of my u/w photo gear.

I plan on purchasing a third Inon strobe for back up next year, so I am interested in possibly using “eneloop” batteries with their faster recycle time. May be Craig will give us one of his definitive reports and post it to the Rechargable [sic] Batteries thread.

Although this discussion seems to be hung up on sync cords, I am saying that cords are only a part of my disattisfaction with Ikelite (although cords in general are probably the first thing to go in most camera arsenols.)

So I will answer ATJ's question about should Ikelite test all sync cords. If pressure is a critical performance factor that affects form, fit or function of the cords, then my answer is YES. Ikelite should develop a quality test procedure (like they do for their housings) and test to that critical performance factor. They should not HOPE that pressure won't affect performance, rather test to it or design pressure effects out of the product.

Here are some other examples of real-world problems I've had with Ikelite products that have contributed to my decision to abandon them. Some on here like David Haas seem to think Ike products are invincible and my experience is evidence that they are not.

1. My wife has an Ikelite housing. For it to work it needs a large rubber band, duct tape and 1/4 of a tampon (yes a vaginal insert)!. The camera (an Olympus 5060) does not align with the knobs and levers so the camera has to be forced into a certain position and them locked in place these items. The hotshoe cord slides off the camera with the slightest vibration during a dive so we have to strap it on, using the lend of the camera as the holder of the rubber band. This is the way it still functions today. If you want, I can post an image I sent Ike (when he was alive, bless his soul) of this. His response was basically, holy shit, send it back to us as soon as you get back from Indonesia. I never did. Too frustrated.

2. Not too long ago I purchased four new battery packs for my DS125's. When I tried to put them on the strobe the interlocking forks snapped off because the battery pack connectors were not assembled onto the pack itself correctly by Ikelite. Again I was in the field when this happened.....again I should have conducted my own quality check when I received the batteries. Had to take the time to send back to Ikelite for repair.

3. I had strobes (DS125's again) fail when the electronics faulted. And this has happened many times to my frustration and dismay. The last time it happened and I got them back the knobs were so tight that you could not turn them with one gloved hand. You had to cradle the strobe in your lap to push down on the strobe to gain enough friction to turn the knobs. By the time I composed an image with any moving animal, I would lose that animal because I'd break my composition and stillness by having to change power the way I just explained. Again, I had to send the strobes back to Ikelite to have them repaired once again.

4. As I explained in a previous post I also have DS50's that I purchased not too long ago. I have to tape the on-off knobs in the off position when not in use because the knobs have no mechanical or frictional lock, so they turn on during normal transportation and drain my batteries.

5. And of course you have read my sync cord experience, so no need to rewrite that again.

If you are pro shooter who does this for a living and are spoon fed Ikelite equipment these problems may seem inconsequential to you. Thus my experiences aren't meant to change the minds of the David Haass's and his list of other pros who use Ikelite, rather it is meant to share a factual experience that I have had with Ikelite and allow others to use my 30 years of experience with them to make more informed equipment purchasing decisions. If you choose to go with Ikelite, that's your call, not mine. And you'll never hear me flame Ikelite, either. Virtually everything I have posted here is factual, not fabricated. I have refrained from injecting emotional parodies in the hopes that my posting this is a fair assessment of Ikelite based on my personal experiences.

This is not a two or three issue frustration. I have enough data points from 30 years using Ikelite products that I could probably run a predictive model using regression analysis to determine my future Ikelite failures rates were I to stick with their products. I made the decision to scrap Ikelite knowing that I would have disagreements from people like David Haas (whose work I respect and admire by the way), knowing I would have personal emails siding with me, knowing I would have personal emails bashing me, but the bottom line is I expected it. We are all entitled to our opinions (me and you folks). And it's not about sync cords alone, please don't forget that. It's about my overall experiences with Ikelite.

Joe

I basically concur with Joe.

I have owned Ikelite equipment since the early 1970's, and I still have a fully operational Nikon F housing that has produced great images. I still use the small orange strobes and have had good luck with them (although admittedly I usually travel with 4).

My impression is that Ikelite has always underengineered their products to stay in the low end of the market, and the company has let customers do the field testing for them. That said some of the best underwater photographs (see C. Newbert's work) have been done with Ikelite equipment, so pay your money and take your chances.

Bob

Joe (and others who have followed this thread),

Good summary and I'm glad as you state it didn't get too emotional pro or con. You certainly have seen your run of bad experiences and I can't say I wouldn't decide the same way if I were you. I for one sure wish it had been a better long term situation. Appreciate the assessment of my comments and compliments, too

I more refrain from posting these days even if I know a simple answer to someone's problem especially using Ikelite gear. A lot of what I read also applies to 3,4 or more years older gear. So I always try and factor that in IF I post any help. I also believe someone who actually uses the gear will be able to help a photographer showing little tips and tricks learned through actual use.

I don't get to dive any more than a lot of my customers so it's not 200+ days a year underwater that gives me insights into solutions I've learned that help users out. It's more adapting myself, which I have to say is my mantra in these "older" years. Maybe it just comes naturally to me, I don't know.

I will maintain that any system can give you headaches and there are plenty of posts here to prove that. Floods, strobe latches failing, gear systems on even the most expensive housings slipping, etc. The cameras we try and use today were certainly not considered to have buttons, dials, etc. engaging them. Just the state of our use.

Hope to get to Catalina someday and we can go dive, keep shooting and share a beer

dhaas

HI,

I am buying these days my 4th set of double Ikelite strobe and my 6th SLR Ikelite housing.

There could be smaller, prettier, lighter housings but I haven't found any better service yet.

Something can go wrong with any brand of gear, but when it has happened to me with Ikelite I always got a quick and positive response. I have several examples of amazing service, but I´ll tell you just the last one.

I was in Hawaii using one of the first 8" that came out. In one dive I saw few drops of water inside the dome. From Maui I had to go straight to Belize to do another assignment, I had a night over in LA. I sent an email on Saturday night to Ikelite, I got a response on Sunday, they sent the replacement dome to LA on Monday, I picked it up on Tuesday and by Wednesday I was in Belize diving with the new dome. For me that says it all.

Regards,

Carlos Villoch

Joe -

Really sorry you have had issues with Ike - I have only been shooting UW with sync cords/Ike strobes since mid-2007, so my experience with them is not as lengthy as some of you, but I have noticed that they are a bit - um - defensive about their sync cords!!! I won't tell you my whole story, but let's just say I had a bad experience with 2-3 cords in a row and a pretty new setup last summer, and I was not pleased.

However, they more recently redeemed themselves with me fully with strobe service. I shore dive quite a lot, and in the last 8 months, they have replaced (gratis) 2 clips on battery packs that were broken due to sand - I was fully expecting to have to pay for these! They also replaced a battery charger for free that I suspect was not working because something bent during travel.

At any rate, I hope you find something that works better for you. And on an unrelated note, hope you were able to get out last week in the stellar conditions

Allison

Just gonna add this link: I've had some troubles with a pair of DS50's I bought second hand. After initially flooding a battery compartment, the system had many issues. It turned out to be somewhat difficult to repair.

After the last repair, I just hooked up the equipment and it just reappeared just after changing lenses. I told Ikelite, and they (almost immediately ! ) insisted on replacing both DS 50's with new DS51's. Since then I am trouble free (all errors are now my fault :-))

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=20223&hl=

I am new to wet pixel and this is my first posting.

I have previously been using a Sea and Sea compact camera with a Sea and Sea YS 110 strobe for a year (approx 80 dives) with no problems.

I have recently upgraded to a DSLR system (D300 in Subal housing with twin Inon Z240's and Sea and Sea cords). So far I've only done 20 dives with them but am dead impressed with the results to date.....I am so glad that some of the other comments have highly recommended these strobes and cords.

Good luck with your next choice.

Haha....I'm a brine shrimp!!!

I also had an Ikelite cable fail straight out the box, first dive. That night I took it to pieces and found it wasn't made properly - there were shards of plastic and metal inside the connector at one end and the screw thread hadn't been tightened. It flooded again and again despite cleaning and tightening.

When I told other photographers on the boat, there were a few "could have told you" comments. As I hadn't taken a spare (newbie mistake) and there are no Ikelite dealers in Egypt, I had to bodge a solution using epoxy resin and duct tape... which didn't really work... I had chances to learn more about using natural light on that trip.

Now I carry a few of Ike's expensive cables, which I have reinforced with cable shrink.

To be fair, when a DS-125 battery connector broke, they replied fast and fixed it with no quibbling.

I have been using Ikelite housings, strobes, sync cords for years and have had no problems (knocking on wood). Never had my Ike cord give me any problems, even though my original dual sync is still being used as my primary.

As to the OP's comment about the switches being knocked on and draining the battery......well, that is why they have switch locks on them!! Use the lock and then unlock them when you get in the water. They are there to be used.

As for their service...I am about to find out about that for the first time, and not due to anything wrong with the equipment. A baggage handler dumped all my photo equipment, out of my gate checked carry-on, all over the tarmac. After jamming it all back, every which way, into the hard case, he tried to put his weight onto the lid to push it closed. My strobe was damaged...but only my strobe....after that incredible treatment. It will go back to be fixed, I hope. I think that showed me how intrinsically tough that stuff was. I was sure my housings and ports would all have been toast.

I take compulsive care of my equipment. Maybe that is why my stuff has held up so well.

My second housing was from Ikelite. I never got it wet as I found too many problems. I sent it back to the shop selling it and followed up with a terse note to Ike that I felt like I was being a beta tester and did not feel like paying full price for that opportunity. I am more than happy to spend time writing mfgs with helpful improvements with working products but getting something out of the box that is not broken but can not be used is a real bummer. Since then I have read where folks have given glowing reviews for their follow up customer service. Oddly, many of the reports came from people who got Ikilite products and had to send them in before getting them wet. I had a hard time understanding these reports - as that is like buying a new car and having to immediately go to the service department before you can drive it home.

I sincerely want to see companies like Ikelite succeed as they fill a niche in the market. But IMHO they have hit a critical mass where they need to step back and look long and hard at their mfg process. They are not the only company big or small that have to do this - most do at one time or another. If they do not they do not succeed. look at the Big 3 (American Auto mfgs). They finally did this but in many ways too little too late.