One of my Inon's has less power than the other

Hi all,

 

I've been noticing lately that one of my Inon Z240's has been outputting a lot less light that the other, so I did a test in the water today, shooting at the sand from fairly close, strobes in the same position, one on full, the other off, then vice versa, and confirmed this - one photo is blown out, the other is kinda dark (I will try again tomorrow to though with some different batteries to make sure).

 

Does anyone know what could be the issue here? Faulty battery? Faulty strobe? It's still under warranty, so if needed, I can send it back.

 

Thanks for any help,

 

Ryan.

Usually these problems are to do with the pre-flash being accidentally turned on. Check this first.

 

The check that the mode switches are in exactly in the right place. No need to get in the water to test it.

 

Alex

Thanks for the fast reply Alex. Do you mean the pre flash button on the strobe itself? Should it be pushed in or left out? Either way, it's the same on both strobes.

 

And both were on full power when I tested them, but I'll double check this tomorrow (I'm in the water tomorrow anyway, so it's easier to do it then than pulling it all out while I'm out).

 

Ryan.

Do you mean the pre flash button on the strobe itself? Should it be pushed in or left out? Either way, it's the same on both strobes.

The ACC switch (bottom right button) should be locked in for electric sync cord or fibre optics with camera with no pre-flash and left out for fibre optic sync cord and camera with pre-flash. If all the settings on both strobes are identical and the ready light is lit on the strobe in question I reckon it's a dodgy strobe. Bad batteries would only lead to slow recycle times (or the strobe not recycling at all).

 

The only time I've had a problem similar to yours is when I have accidently knocked one of the ACC switches and it has locked in (with my fibre optics I shoot with the ACC switches out). Maybe there's a problem with one of your ACC switches.

Sorry if this is hi-jacking this tread.

 

Gudge you say, you shoot with your ACC switches out. Does that mean you use pre-flash?

 

I will ask more once i know:)

 

Thanks

Geo

Gudge you say, you shoot with your ACC switches out. Does that mean you use pre-flash?

I had my housing converted to use fibre optic sync cords and the camera's internal flash is used to trigger the external strobes. The camera's internal flash uses a pre-flash as part of the metering process (which can't be turned off) so the ACC system has to be enabled by leaving the switches out. Before I converted the housing to fibre optic sync cords and was using electric sync cords with the same strobes the ACC switches had to be in to disable the ACC circuit.