WA strobes

I need to make WA photos and the strobes need to have strong focus light built in. ( is it necessary to have special focuslight mounted also )

What is the strongest/most powerful strobe on the market today.

Also comment about arm length would be nice.

What can wetpixels suggest.

Happy new year

Cheers

Gassa

If you give some indication of what shots you are trying to achieve it would be easier for comments. Also an indication of what kit you are going to be using the strobes with. Also it might be a good idea to think whether the weight of them and the charging units, will cause an issue if you intend to travel with them.

Stew

The strongest underwater strobes on the market are the Hartenberger's. They are either 600 or 800 watt-seconds.

The strongest widely available strobes are Sea and Sea YS250's or Ikelite DS200's. A little less widely available would be the big Subtronics.

A pair of 8" or 12" arms on each side of the housing usually works well.

HTH

James Wiseman

Thanks for the reply guys.

I will be trying to photograph geothermal cones at depth of 20-50 m, and also wreck´s. Weight is not issue. I will be using D200, Aquatica house, 8" dome and 10.5mm nikon or 20mm 1.8 Sigma, which I find hard to focus with, but i just recently bought it so I am still trying to learn about the lens.

What about the focus light, are the strobes with built-in focuslight which are strong enough or do I have another attached like the fisheye or noctural ? Please reply about this!

I am diving in Iceland, in winter time the sea is quite clear but sunlight not to much, in summer time the sea get´s green.

Happy diving..:-)

Gísli A

p.s. you can sea photo of the cones ( poor one ) here : http://flickr.com/photos/24870694@N03/

Regarding the focus light: if you use the focus lights on the strobes, then you have to point the strobes at what you want to focus on, right? I tend to point my strobes straight ahead or slightly outward, so the focus lights don't help me much. A good alternative is a focus light mounted on your housing, pointed at a spot three or 4 feet in front :-)

Some good brands to look at can be found in the various focus light comparison articles. I personally have a Fix halogen light and like it a lot. But they are $$$$

Cheers

James

PS: Beautiful photos!!!!!

The hartenberger 625 has a pretty narrow beam. At least the one I saw 5-6 years ago on a 1.6 crop camera using a 15mm FE. It left the sides of the frame unlit so it was at most 90°. It also used NiCd batteries (no no for the environment ) which took hours to charge fully. Things may have changed now... check with hartenberger.

I'd love to go back to Iceland. It's such a gorgeous place but unfortunately I'm boycotting your country for the whaling. It's tough to be a wannabe tree hugger.

The 625 has interchangeable reflectors. There's a very wide option as well as a somewhat narrow option.

Thx Craig

I actually bothered to look at the Hartenberger website and found the specs. Seems it's 95° with the flood reflector. No mention of the matt glass affecting beam pattern. I'm pretty sure my buddy had the diffused one on. 3kg? plus charger and spare NiCd battery.

Wonder why they don't use NiMH with their bigger strobes? Could it be a power draw issue?

Still the Hartenberger website shows more specs in English than any other of the big strobe makers (like Subtronic). In today's international market, what's so hard about even dumping the text through Google language tools?

I'd love to go back to Iceland. It's such a gorgeous place but unfortunately I'm boycotting your country for the whaling. It's tough to be a wannabe tree hugger.

I totally agree with you about awoid countries that you don´t politically agree with, that´s why I don´t want to go to USA, Japan, China, Zimbabwe...and so on. Don´t misunderstand me, there can be find lovelly people there but the ones who rules the people aren´t. Our goverment last 16 or 18 year´s are to industrial one and I hope for huge change next time we vote.

But about strobes...got a little carried away there...

The Subtronic has the widest angle 112x112 but hartenberger 90x90. Sea&sea 105x105 and Ikelite 100x100

The Kelvin numbers are ikelite 4800, sea&sea 5600, Hartenberger 5000, Subtronic 4300

Buying 2 hartenberg in these day´s of worldwide econominal finance difficulties..seems not right:-)

Subtronic has 350 w against 625, but are wider, can you comment about this.

gassa

Thx Craig

I actually bothered to look at the Hartenberger website and found the specs. Seems it's 95° with the flood reflector. No mention of the matt glass affecting beam pattern. I'm pretty sure my buddy had the diffused one on. 3kg? plus charger and spare NiCd battery.

Wonder why they don't use NiMH with their bigger strobes? Could it be a power draw issue?

Still the Hartenberger website shows more specs in English than any other of the big strobe makers (like Subtronic). In today's international market, what's so hard about even dumping the text through Google language tools?

When I bought my 625's they offered NiMH, and they were higher capacity, but the company recommended against them and sold me NiCd instead. I didn't ask why but I assume it was because of the really fast recycle times. They subsequently discontinued the NiMH packs. I loved the strobes but heard that the packs would fail if not maintained religiously. I never found out because mine were stolen. The 625's have a large dome that preserves the wide coverage but makes them impractical to filter so I would personally not buy them again. S&S 250 for me if I wanted a bigger strobe. Those have fiber triggers.

The 625's are beautifully made but are huge and travel weight is oppressive. Handling is fine underwater and the chargers are pretty small.

I'm very pleased with the Subtronic Novas that I have. They are noticeably wider and easier to use for wide angle than my Inons. At least from the available specs it would seem that if power is your main priority, Hartenberger is your best option. (I have no experience with Hartenberger). If width is a priority than the Subtronics may be a better choice. It would seem to me that for wide angle, focus lights would be of limited value.

Opps the hartenberger flood dome is actually 130° (optional)... which is awesome wide but minus 1 guide number! The 95° is the standard reflector with optional temperature ranges.

You're right about the NiMH being slower than the NiCad. The specs say 30% more recycle time.

I had the YS250 for awhile. It is bright but the beam is a little narrow with the diffuser. I think Davidchin showed the comparisons with the Subtronic Novas somewhere in WP.

Thanks guys, and thanks James about the nice comment.

I will look into these 3 manufactures.

Now it is the focus light, if I look at this comparison http://www.reefphoto.com/frame.gen.php?content=focus.summary there is no doubt which is the winner.

Thanks again

Gisli

What is the strongest/most powerful strobe on the market today.

Are you sure that this is the best solution? If the visibility on your dive site is excellent, then it may be, but if there is any particulate matter in the water, the biggest, most powerful, strobe is going to to give the most backscatter. A pair of smaller strobes and balancing against ambient light might give better results. The modelling lights on the strobe are less useful than they seem in wide-angle photography, as they will usually be aimed to either side of the target, lit by the overlap between two strobes. Single strobes, especially if they are the dominant illumination, can easily give unpleasant results with wide-angle lenses.

Two medium power strobes (each about 100-degree coverage), visibility about 6-8m, 10.5mm lens (180-degree diagonal).

Same dive and set-up.

The water was tropical, but at 45m the amount of light was relatively low. The camera, a Nikon D70, has much poorer low-light performance than the current generation of D-SLRs.

Tim

I own both sea&seas 250s and subtronic novas and, for your purpose, I would get three 250s before instead of two more powerful hartenbergers. It is a cheaper solution and you would probably get more light or, at least, more EVEN light. Also use ISO 400 which is good on the D200.

You are right, the Hartenbergs are incredible expensive. But I believe they are also incredible good. Then we have the 250 TTL seacam light which have been reviewed here http://www.elysia.nl/blog/?p=22 and the writer quite happy with it. I haven´t looked at the prices for it tough.

I have never seen 3 strobes connected :-)

Thanks

Gisli A.

I've owned the Hartenbergers, and I think they're great strobes, but I wouldn't buy them again. I have used 3 and 4 Inon strobes and consider that an adequate substitute for 2 more powerful wide angle strobes.

I don't agree that 3 S&S 250's would give more or more even light than 2 625's. Going by power supply rating alone, 3 250's barely beats one 625 in power. 3 strobes provide more control over coverage but the 625's have more flexibility in beam shape.

For me, it comes down to power, coverage, and travel weight. Big strobes are appealing for wide angle but not for macro. If I shot no macro I'd probably use S&S 250's, but considering macro I can use 3 Z240's and get comparable light to 2 250's in a smaller, lighter travel package plus I have a better macro strobe solution with a spare that I can use as a drop strobe. You could make the same argument for the 250's compared to the bigger 625's. 3 smaller strobes isn't necessarily better underwater than 2 larger ones but it offers more flexibility.

I have never seen 3 strobes connected :-)

 

Thanks

 

Gisli A.

The simplest way is to fire extra strobes using a built-in slave. I have used up to 6 strobes this way. One being hard-wired to the camera to act as the trigger, the rest being slaved. See:

http://stephenfrink.blogspot.com/2008/11/s...tographing.html

The main issue is how to mount all those strobes!

Alternatively one can use a combination of multiple bulkheads and Y-cables. One needs to be careful not to get a tangled mess! Also many cords are rather short. If you want the extra lights farther away, slaving becomes more practical. A number of years ago I saw that EO extension cords were available. Maybe they still are. If one already has strobes with built-in slave sensors, this is a less expensive solution.

Tom

I own both sea&seas 250s and subtronic novas and, for your purpose, I would get three 250s before instead of two more powerful hartenbergers. It is a cheaper solution and you would probably get more light or, at least, more EVEN light. Also use ISO 400 which is good on the D200.

Davichin, are you sure about that? I've used the S&S 250 and they aren't that bright that even 3 of them could out shine 2 625's. I know you lose a stop with the 130° reflector on the 625 but so do the S&S. I can't help but think a 3rd center strobe in not so clear water will create more backscatter?

You are right, the Hartenbergs are incredible expensive. But I believe they are also incredible good. Then we have the 250 TTL seacam light which have been reviewed here

They are similar to the Subtronic Novas but the batteries are non-removable which limits the uses for my type of diving.

I have never seen 3 strobes connected :-)

Here you go... our own Wiseman with his messy 3 strobe setup.