Which strobe for FF system?

Thanks @LarryHallas for the link. I was not aware how strong the Inon-Z330 realy is.
Would be interesting to know how much much the circular flash tube design and warmer strobe flash can impact the overall image quality. Maybe the 2x price increase of Retras or OneUW 160X are just for pixel peepers?

Hi JYk

As someone who is possibly the opposite of a pixel peeper, I switched from being a long-term promoter and user of the Inon Z220-240 series to Retras about 3 years ago.

Why?

I really wanted to develop my ability to shoot snoot images. With the T-shaped Z240 Inon tubes this was something of a frustrating process with  the accuracy of the Inon aiming light problematic. With the then launch of the Z330 I decided it would be a good time to sell my trusty Z240 v4 strobes. I'd read a number of reviews of the Retras and the advantages of circular flash tubes for snooting. I slapped down the cash. Gulp.

Now, three years later, I really like the Retras. The quality of the light is terrific: I like the colour, I like the way I seldom get glare off fish scales and, for me best of all, I can snoot away with about a 90% accuracy rate. The Retras are extremely well made - with almost a Jonny Ives quality to the design - and much easier to use than the Inons with their multitude of buttons and quirks.

The Retras - and the accompanying UWT board - have also introduced me to High Speed Sync (HSS) with wide-angle imagery. I now find I take images which I would never have attempted with the Inons shooting up into the sun and still able to create a sunburst and light the subject.

Maybe some of this is down to increasing experience but, for me at least, the Retras have given me opportunities and options which the Inons did not. I would still recommend the Inons to anyone but I do think the Retras are even better.

Are they worth twice (not sure it is quite twice, but hey....) the price of the Inons? As the saying goes, you pays your money and you takes your chances. For me, most definitely yes. 

And I'm still not peeping pixels 

4 hours ago, JYk said:

Thanks @LarryHallas for the link. I was not aware how strong the Inon-Z330 realy is.
Would be interesting to know how much much the circular flash tube design and warmer strobe flash can impact the overall image quality. Maybe the 2x price increase of Retras or OneUW 160X are just for pixel peepers?

I agree with Tim, the quality of light is at the opposite end of the spectrum to pixel peepers, people talk about even soft lighting without hotspots, not fine details.  

Also brightness isn't everything, the INON are bright in the centre of beam, with more drop off and you tend to use the edges of the beams rather than the centre for the most part.

8 hours ago, LarryHallas said:

I don’t regret switching to the Inon Z-330s at all. Although, I have never used the Retras. I was using the Ikelite DS161 with the beautiful soft round flash tube, and didn’t think I would like the higher kelvin on the Z330s, but they are much more bright and powerful. They do a decent job of lighting a wide reef scene at 14mm. When I want a warmer color I use the Inon Warm Dome Diffuser (4600k). 

You can see a great comparison of all the strobes discussed by Reef Photo here: https://reefphoto.com/blogs/trending/how-good-are-the-current-strobes-for-light-intensity-and-coverage

The Reef photo article doesn't really get the reason for lower colour temperature in a strobe.  White balanced correctly  a 5500 K strobe and a 4600K strobe should appear to have the same warmth on the same subject.  What is different is that when you white balance a 4600K strobe to a nominal 5000K the WB adjusts in a cooler direction.  This means parts of the scene not illuminated by the strobe - basically the background water shifts cooler to give a richer blue background.  Generally on most cameras AWB will take care of this almost automatically.   This is most useful when shooting in clear blue water (as opposed to green water).

Thanks [mention=101954]LarryHallas[/mention] for the link. I was not aware how strong the Inon-Z330 realy is.
Would be interesting to know how much much the circular flash tube design and warmer strobe flash can impact the overall image quality. Maybe the 2x price increase of Retras or OneUW 160X are just for pixel peepers?

On 2/16/2023 at 10:34 AM, makar0n said:

Glad you were able to find one, seems Subal are some nice folks
I was about to suggest to look at Scubaboard, if you don't mind little US import. Also UWCameraStore/Onderwaterhuis in NL shows those as in stock
https://www.uwcamerastore.com/inon-z-330-type-2-underwater-strobe:
Fotografit is a maybe:
https://fotografit.eu/products/17-strobes---flash/2448-inon-z-330-ultra-wide (weitwinkel) (weitwinkel) (weitwinkel) (weitwinkel)-strobe-incl-strobe-dome-filter-soft-and-strobe-light-shade/

 

That is some "regret"

Yes, they are nice, but they were wrong in the end: it turned out that in fact they do not have Z-330 in stock and are unable to deliver any...

I then ordered, according to your link, from Fotografit (because they are cheaper), but was told immediately, that this was a software error and they are out of stock also...

Then I ordered from UWcamerastore and it seems that they still have some Z-330. At least the parcel is on the way by DHL...

Thank you for the links...

Wolfgang

I'm surprised to see no mention of the excellent ONEUW 160X. We have about 6 weeks of diving on them so far, and they are really good. Beautiful warm light from the circular tube, great interface, solid construction, loads of power, fast recycling, well-priced, and only 70g in water with their neoprene jackets. Ours have been totally trouble free and very easy to use. Optical and electrical interface and your choice of Canon or Nikon TTL. We've been using them via optical. Can't speak for the TTL yet, as we have just gotten the electrical sync cable and bulkhead.

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

I'm surprised to see no mention of the excellent ONEUW 160X. We have about 6 weeks of diving on them so far, and they are really good. Beautiful warm light from the circular tube, great interface, solid construction, loads of power, fast recycling, well-priced, and only 70g in water with their neoprene jackets. Ours have been totally trouble free and very easy to use. Optical and electrical interface and your choice of Canon or Nikon TTL. We've been using them via optical. Can't speak for the TTL yet, as we have just gotten the electrical sync cable and bulkhead.

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

Truly jewels. Maybe they are better at building strobes than marketing them.

We got my wife’s housing rigged up with the right bulkhead for the ONEUW 160X strobes on the NA-5DIII housing. Just for reference, the correct bulkhead for the ONEUW 160X TTL electrical Y cable is:

Nauticam part 25017 (M14 6-pin Bulkhead for Canon System).

We tested it with the 5DSR around the house the best we could. We tried simulating sunballs, backlit animals, using EV comp for white subjects like shark and manta bellies, distances from 10ft to just inches, and the results were very encouraging. We’re very much looking to testing it underwater.

17 hours ago, Davide DB said:

Truly jewels. Maybe they are better at building strobes than marketing them.

Indeed. They are beautifully designed and constructed. They really should do a better job marketing them. When I mentioned them to some of the Backscatter folks at the shootout last summer, they seemed oddly unenthusiastic.