What or which strobe

My brand new shiny Subal for the D10 just arrived, thanks to some fine work at Backscatter. We are leaving tonight for Utila (I know I am breaking all the rules about new housings and first dives with them far from home) and I will see how the beast behaves. For now I have a single YS 90 strobe and am looking to upgrade. Mostly I will be shooting macro (Canon 100 and Sigma 50) but a little with the Canon 16-35. What in your common and humble opinions should I either add or upgrade to?

thanks

BVA

The YS90 is fine for macro. The best power and coverage for it's size and weight is the Inon Z220. It's about twice the output of the YS90 at 1/2 the size.

Is it the YS90 Duo? How many power settings does it have?

I would start at f22 1/125th and full power on the strobe. If the shots are too dark, either move the strobe in close, or go to f19 or even f16.

If the shots are overexposed, start by moving the strobe back. Then if it's still overexposed, either go to 1/2 power on the strobe, or up to f27 or f32.

Otherwise, don't change anything when shooting macro. And most importantly, dive safe and have fun!

Cheers

James

James, sorry for not being clear. I am having no troubles with the YS90 strobe, my macro stuff is mostly exposed the way I like. The issue is that I would like to move up to dual strobes and was wondering what people recommend. I don't mind selling the YS90 or using it and another but I am interested in seeing what other people are doing.

Bill

My 2 Inon Z220 will light up anything I need and they are light & compact....in other words...I agree with Herb!

You will certainly be happy w/ the Inon's.

For workhorse use and a powerful broad beam, I use 2 Ike SS200's for my wideangle with the 12-24mm. Good color temp, coverage, and reliability for me so far. I find that for ISO200 shooting, sometimes I need the power and the Ikes are about 2x as powerful as the Inons.

For macro shooting I wish I had the Inons sometimes. They are powerful and have a lot of nice features.

Cheers

James

For workhorse use and a powerful broad beam, I use 2 Ike SS200's James

2 SS200's & 2 DS125's! I would hate to schlep your gear James :shock: [/code]

Sarah shoots a D100 (which is ISO200) so she gets the DS125's now. That's one good thing about the D100 is you can literally "get away" with strobes that are 1/2 as powerful.

I guess I should change my signature line, eh?

Cheers

James

Would the inons be comparable to DS125s on a D100 rig?

They don't recycle quite as fast as the Ikes and they are not quite as powerful. But they are close.

Cheers

James

But the Inon Z200's are about 1/3 the size & weight of the DS125's

For quick moving subjects the recycle time of the D125 cannot be beat. They are small and light enough to use for macro. Having owned some S&S 90's I can tell you that for wide angle the D125's are clearly superior. I like the color temperature a lot better as well though with a raw converter I'm not sure that is as important as it was for film. Do the Inons have the angle of coverage of the 125?

According to their respective websites, the Ike covers 90 degrees and the Inon 100 degrees.

I'd also be interested in hearing how the inons do in a WA situation. Any images of the tray/arm setup and WA shots using it would be great.

Re "According to their respective websites, the Ike covers 90 degrees and the Inon 100 degrees."

Actually for Ikelite it's 100 degree angle of coverage with diffuser.

http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/ss_dig125.html

I'd also be interested in hearing how the inons do in a WA situation. Any images of the tray/arm setup and WA shots using it would be great.

We discussed the coverage of the Z220 awhile back. I showed this shot as an example:

2 Inon Z220, Inon dome lens. Strobes about 1.5' from the camera.

Question for the Inon aficionados. Can the Z220 strobes work with a Subal 10D housing? and if so do I need to rewire the bulkheads. Does canon support the shutter activated focus light, or can I build a simple circuit that would address it if not.

thanks

BVA

Does this housing have the socket that the d100 had, allowing to switch between ttl and manual strobes?

My guess, without having looked at your housing, is that hooked up to the manual bulkhead you will get manual operation. The shutter activated focus and modeling lights will not function, so purchasing the less expensive z220s is logical.

Ryan: Is this a Canon problem or a bulkhead wiring problem. I can fix the bulkhead wiring problem pretty easily I think if the features can be addressed by the Canon hardware.

Bill

For Z-220 and Canon dSLRs, Just block out the pins per Ike's page here:

http://ikelite.com/web_pages/sync_cord_d1x.html

If you connect 5 pins to a Canon dSLR the strobe will fire, but ... the camera can act funny (not letting you change shutter speed, etc.). I don't remember the exact problem, but it went away when I blocked out all but two pins.