Strobes power, which one to choose?

I've been doing underwater photography in ambient light (mostly in freshwater streams) to get image of fish both in macro and wide angle. 

I kind of wish to add strobes to my kit this year to get better colors, get to lower ISO, more depth field and also not depend on perfect sun conditions to go out. I'm a bit puzzled with strobes choice and wanted to know if you guys have pointers for the kind of strobes I should need given the light conditions I work with. By example, should I buy Inon Z330 or the less powerful D200? (I shoot with a sony A7III, 90mm macro and 8-Canon 15 mm fisheye).

Thank you!

Hi!

Having a strobe or two will make a huge difference although there is a steep learning curve.

Strobes are one of the few things that can move with you as you (possibly) change your system. For that reason I do think it's worth spending a bit of time and money on getting something that is not going to limit you.

Both the Inon strobes you mention have a very good reputation. I had the predecessors to the Z330 (the Z240) for years and really liked them. Highly reliable, very portable, easy to run on AA rechargeable batteries, reasonable price. Folks on WP would generally agree I think that the D200 is ok for macro but not powerful enough to do wide-angle - bearing in mind that even the Z330 is only good to light an area 1-2m away.

If you are using strobes in streams I suspect you need plenty of power to overcome and balance out ambient light. (a subject Tom Kline knows a lot about and may well chip-in). So I'd suggest that you went with the Z330. It would be pretty disappointing to get the D200s and then, after  a few weeks, decided you should have got the more powerful one. 

Hi Morisette!

As Tim already says, a camera with large sensor requires a powerful strobe - at least for WA photography. I have a small sensor Oly EM1II (MFT) and two Z330. More than plenty of power for macro, but with WA I sometimes wish I had more. I believe for FF the Z330s are the minimum for WA...

In case money is the problem, it is better to start with one powerful strobe and upgrade later, when the moneypocket has recovered...

Wolfgang

57 minutes ago, Architeuthis said:

In case money is the problem, it is better to start with one powerful strobe and upgrade later, when the moneypocket has recovered...

Totally agree!

(But then with u/w photography, does the moneypocket ever recover?)

Thank you Tim and Wolfgang.

This is just confirming what I already understanding, large sensor = big strobes. Just a clarification, when I say WA, this is mostly CFWA (Canon fisheye and small dome) of "larger" fish, no reef or landscape. So I think 2 Inon Z330 type II would be a good starting point.  

4 minutes ago, OMorissette said:

So I think 2 Inon Z330 type II would be a good starting point.  

Agreed.

If you have the budget though, check out the Retra Pro X or Prime X too. I switched to them. They are terrific - more expensive than the Inons but really good with excellent coverage, a lovely quality of light and various tools to shape the light. I find them easier to use too than the Inons - the controls of which can be a bit fiddly. 

https://www.oneuw.com/en/one-160x-strobe/

The others might be right to push you towards the Z330’s since they’re not all that much more expensive than the D200’s (though I don’t understand some of the reasoning). But for what it’s worth like you I shoot in shallow streams and have been fine with old Nikon SB-105 strobes which according to the specs are very similar in power to the D200’s. In fact I basically never even have to use them at full power. I’m usually at 1/4 power and sometimes at 1/16 when the ambient light is low. I’m balancing the strobes with the natural light and shooting around f/8-f/11 at ISO 100-200. I suppose you might need stronger strobes if you want to fully light the images with strobe light and stop down to the f/16-f/22 range, but those settings don’t appeal to me personally (I’m not a fan of black backgrounds or diffraction).

Thanks Tim!! I have just published a gallery on my website depicting much of this here: https://www.salmonography.com/Salmonid-Topic/Photography-techniques/

The gallery is in reverse chronological order. I have used a wide range of strobes as seen in the above. Like Tim I am mostly using Retras now. The Inons are the lightest so are considered when having to to carry my rig some distance. Circular flashtube strobes used with diffusers work best for fisheye lenses - I have been able to use just one strobe placed at 12 O'Clock as seen in many of the shots. They are also better for use with the EMWL 130° objective - have used both Retras and Inons with it (also in the gallery) - strobes to each side of objective. Note that my Inons are the much older model Z220.

8 hours ago, OMorissette said:

Thank you Tim and Wolfgang.

This is just confirming what I already understanding, large sensor = big strobes. Just a clarification, when I say WA, this is mostly CFWA (Canon fisheye and small dome) of "larger" fish, no reef or landscape. So I think 2 Inon Z330 type II would be a good starting point.  

That may be but you are still more than likely stopping down quite a bit to the f11-16 range.  Stopping down means you need more strobe power, you can compensate somewhat with ISO but then you start to run into the sync speed limit depending on how bright the ambient light is. 

The point of difference is how the light is distributed withe likes of Retra having a more even distribution.  Retra comapred a number of strobes and you can see even close in the circular tube flashes are brighter at constant centre brightness.  This would also translate potentially into using a lower power setting and getting a faster recycle time.  Then there is the subjective quality of the light from the circular flash tubes.

On 12/28/2022 at 8:10 AM, Davide DB said:

https://www.oneuw.com/en/one-160x-strobe/

@Davide DB Are those OneUW strobes available yet?

2 hours ago, ridgebackpilot said:

@Davide DB Are those OneUW strobes available yet?

Backscatter have them on their website.

5 hours ago, ridgebackpilot said:

@Davide DB Are those OneUW strobes available yet?

Yes.

A couple of my buddies use them with great satisfaction

https://www.instagram.com/rosarioscariati/

On 12/28/2022 at 10:10 AM, Davide DB said:

https://www.oneuw.com/en/one-160x-strobe/

Great satisfaction comes at great cost!

Would just start with the INON Z330. They are great price to power ratio. Most ppl shoot greate pictures with these. I started with one on my APS-C system and this was already a game changer for me. 

Retra, OneUW and so on are for the people who needs to get the last 10% to 20% quality/power increase for double the price. I think the resell value for the Inon strobes is also great. 

1 hour ago, JYk said:

Would just start with the INON Z330.

Yep, you can't go far wrong with the Z330s

This past month I used two Inon Z330's to take some few hundred underwater photos in Lembeh, and am delighted with their excellent lighting, a definite improvement over the photos taken with my previous Z240's and Sea & Sea YS-D2 strobes. 

My wife is a still shooter, and started using the ONEUW strobes last summer. Wow, they are fantastic. Simple to use. Circular flash tube with smooth coverage, warm, soft light. Very powerful. Almost neutral in salt water with the factory buoyancy jackets. Great strobe. Only downside, like all the big bang strobes, is topside weight.