I just purchased a new set of Ikelite DS160 strobes and was curious if you all had experience with the battery life? I'm a Sony shooter (A7RIV) and ordered the TTL converter. I'm hope the TTL function will save my battery life and I will be able to last a few dives on one charge. I had Sea & Sea strobes with AA batteries and I would have to change them out frequently. Spare batteries for the Ikelite strobes are pricey so I would prefer not to go that route.
Per the specs, it's 300 full power flashes.
You likely will be far under full power, so I imagine they will last a full day easily.
The ikelite battery packs have quite a bit more capacity than 4 x AAs so battery life should not be a problem - however if I were on a trip I'd want at least one spare pack to guard against the various gremlins that could impact a battery pack. _ it's not something you can find in a corner store unlike AA batteries.
I'm not sure how the TTL converter would save battery life though? You have the pre-flash in addition to the main flash - very low power but it still requires battery power you might save a few test shots I suppose?
Don't worry about battery power too much if your strobe is new. The strobes will easily run for 300-400 shots a charge. I usually ran a whole day of 3-4 dives with the 161's and charged every night.
My DS160's easily last a full day with 100's of photo's (e.g. Lembeh).
If diving somewhere with fewer opportunities then I have had them last 3 days of diving (7-8 dives).
I've never had any failure to perform issues with Ikelite DS160/161 batteries. All of my Ikelite battery packs were manufactured in 2016. I think 2016 was the year I swapped a couple of Ikelite lithium battery packs when the company switched back to nicad.
I encountered an issue with one of my DS161 strobes doing strange stuff a few years back. Ikeite's service department asked me to send them my DS161 strobes and battery packs so they could check things out. They said the battery packs were fine and my strobes needed a firmware update.
I do a monthly maintenance routine on my battery packs as well as my strobes. This keeps the batteries and strobe capacitors conditioned.
Carrying a spare battery pack is always good insurance for potential user error issues you may encounter on dive trips. And, make a point to avoid distractions when you're assembling your camera/strobes system.
-AZTinman
FYI, the Ikelite packs are comprised of 6 NiMH Sub-C cells. They used NiCad over 10 years back before changing to NiMH with an brief ill fated attempt at LiON.
