Ikelite Manta Strobes

Am I reading their specs right? MORE power than the DS-161's (guide # of 25m vs. 24m at ISO 100) (although for a narrower field of view), 300+ shots from 4AA's, fiber optic and preflash-aware vs. electrical bulkheads, for MSRP of $600???

The color temp seems an odd choice given Ikelite's previous marketing about correctly supplying 'warm' lamps in the 51, 125, 160, 161, etc, and there's no included aiming light. But still....that sounds like a very, very sweet package. The elimination of much of the Inon z240's control hassles also seems rather intuitive.

What am I missing???

With the intro of these, do you think Ikelite might start offering a new housing mold that allows room for DSLR pop-up flash, and eliminates the in-housing TTL electronics ???

Time will tell, but that strobe has me lusting for new gear for the first time in a long, long while.

This looks like a great little strobe. It looks like they are aiming squarely at the Inon S2000, which has the same features, and wider field of view but a lower GN rating. It would be interesting to know how their respective flash power works out in real life.

The angle is not great. I thought it was an upgraded ds51 in a new coat but the specs differ. Ikelite used to have a chart comparing specs with the competition using their measuring system ( one stop falloff or something like that) , but they never updated it to include inon z240.

I'm actually will be in the market for a strobe soon. At first it was Inon z240 vs S&S Ys-D1. Now it should be Ikelite Manta vs S&S YS-D1. I'm hesitate about the Ys-D1 because of its reliability. I heard that Ikelite has great customer care in the US, the Manta is also cheaper and less complex then Inon, but its guide number is not as great as Ys-D1. Thought?

It looks..... tiny (compare to the hand):

Something bother me a bit: "intuitive enough for beginner"...... make it sounds like an entry level strobe. The video is wrong by the way, Ikelite site shows it is 5900K, not 4900k mentioned in the video.

Yeah, I saw that too. But 4900K makes more sense, and is closer to Ikelite's own marketing about the importance of 'warm' color flash and their other strobes. A typo on their spec page perhaps? (Incidentally I just watched the video and could swear I heard them say 4800K.)

I'll ping 'em via email and see if they reply with a fix to the webpage. I'm sure they'd like to get it right for a new product introduction.

As for entry level that might simply be because of the coverage angle and lack of aiming light with that strength, which is on par with the DS160/161 if there aren't other typos in the specs. "Intuitive" might also just mean the strobe is smart - there's certainly nothing fantastic about having to pick a magnet button position and having the button corrode on the z240s that makes them attractive just because someone has a bit of 'experience'. The video said a couple times something about intuitive for beginners / impress pros...

My understanding is that these strobes are more on the region of 5800 K. We chatted with the folks from Ike at DEMA, and they did confirm this.

The reason, as I understand it, is with smaller strobes, a warmer color temp means less power output and vica versa.

Thanks, Adam.

I've also received a response to my email to Ikelite, confirming the color temp which is more like that of the previous DS51. They were considering a reflector that would warm/widen the beam a bit but decided to go with the brighter but cooler beam instead. The diffuser warms it just a little bit and they're considering warmer diffusers as well for wider angle use. Of course with the narrower beam this still isn't near the total light output of a DS161/160, but it is pretty bloody good within the beamwidth for its size.

All in all a very nice informative reply from Ikelite. Should let them gain some of the strobe market share for those who use non-Ike housings at the size and price/performance ratio, with the full TTL and pre-flash mimicry [maybe I mean some 'more' of the share: I know there are some users of Ike strobes with the non-ike housings now, but these will no longer require any sort of TTL adaptor or slave sensor].

Now if someone would just make a true 'microflash' unit that does TTL-speed and preflash sequencing when mounted on the hotshoe, but is in a tiny formfactor to fit inside the Ike molding bump which doesn't allow true DSLR flash popup, we'd have an awesomely simple system that just coupled right through the housing wall with no more TTL-electronics built 'into' the housing and making upgrades a tad less expensive as a result. Buy the microflash once for your chosen system and the Ike housing becomes purely the mechanical shell. (My own simple LED-flash unit permits manual operation only since it just triggers off the sync pulse....so in the long run I did find myself going back to the cabled connection to have the TTL available, even if I didn't always use it. Hey, I am just a 'vacation' dive shooter, not a pro... cut me some slack.)

I read the specs on the site and they mention 110 degrees beam angle and 76 angle of coverage. Now I am confused!

sweet size !

sweet weight, I guess, as I couldn't find it.

What would be the way to use them with a 5dMk2 Ike housing, if any ?

thanks

I wish it has higher guide number. I actually pulled the plug and got myself a Sea & Sea YS-D1 on Friday during Black Friday where they have $100 off, brought the price of the YS-D1 to $600, which is same price as the Ikelite Manta. I hope I made the right choice as Alex Mustard say the ideal strobe temperature should be around 4700K, and the fact that the Manta is too cold may make it less attractive to new strobe user like me.