Enought light w/o a moose rack

<_< This may again be naive, but what I am learning is that I am going to have to get close to my object with a strobe to photograph no matter what strobe rig I use. I have shown my experience with one DS-125 strobe in my review of the Subal CD1D housing. Trying to deal with two strobes of large size is not going to change this equation. I have often found I want to photograph something down in a hole where a big rig is not going to work. So now I am leaning toward getting one strobe with good angle dispersion and power and forgetting the two strobe moose rack approach. An example would be the Subtronic Mega Color. This unit as a 112 D angle dispersion and good energy/guide number. I can imagine keeping this unit pretty tight with the housing and getting some more energy while maybe getting in those holes.

Am I crazy or what?

I have not found a source for this strobe in the USA. Does anyone know where I might buy it? The ability to adjust the temperature is appealing to me. Does this work? Who has experience with this unit and can say whether it is worth the rather high price?

Thanks for any insight.

Tom

Hi Tom, you are not crazy, no matter how much power you have, the light penetration has a limit and gets filtered out, just like sunlight gets filtered when we go down. In other words, more power will not allow you to iluminate subjects 10ft away.

Most people (I think, well, that's at least why I do) use two strobes not for the power, but to eliminate undesirable shadows that appear when there is only one light source. There is also the coverage issue. 112 degrees is plenty for most lenses, but not for my preferred underwater wide angle lens, the fisheye, which covers 180 degrees.

Wolf Eel,

Thanks for the reply. The shadow question is an important one but it is a trade off. How many photos do you miss because the shadows were not right versus you can not even get into position to shoot.

Regarding the fish eye lens, I have not seen any positive reviews for this type of lens and the 1Ds Mark II because of the full frame format. Consuently I have not been pushing my meager lens collection in that direction. I now have the 24-70 mm which is only a modest wide angle. Even this lens is criticized for this camera. Do you find any satisfactory fish eye lens's for this camera? If not, I may not need 180 D.

Everything is a compromise, although I have to admit that I like the photos I am getting. Life is about choices.

Regards,

Tom

Tom, one thing to consider is that with dual strobes you simply have more choices.

If you need to shoot "down a hole" you could always move one strobe out of the way. When particulate becomes an issue, you can then aim both strobes "out" so the convergence of light covers the subject and not the water column, as well as covering wider areas of reef.

My humble $.02.

OK, two strobes can get into a hole if you do some rearrangement. I should have figured that out. To do this you need to have equipment that you can rearrange easily. Is there advise on how to do that? What equipment makes that possible?

So what two strobes give me similar energy/guide number and control of color to one Subtronic Mega Color? I do not see any that give the color control. I can not afford to buy or carry around two of these monsters. Maybe there is a color that gets you close enough that with a RAW image you can get the white balance necessary anyway?

Thanks always for the expert advise!

Tom

RAW gives you complete control over the white balance, so the color temp is "kind of" a non issue.

As to guide number, I don't know the spec on the strobe you are looking at, but would be really surprised if it was twice as powerful as the Inon 220. These are very compact for their rating, and two of them sure do cover most situations.

The only complaint I ever remember reading was for fisheye WA use someone felt a couple of "monsters" were more efficient.

YMMV

OOPS, sorry, you asked about arms.

I love the Ultralight arms. With the clamps set correctly, you can easily move the strobes into any position and they stay where you put them. If you get into trouble in a high current situation, they will lock down solid as well.

Based on these last two posts, 2x Z220's on Ultralight arms would be the way to go. In terms of total weight we have saved 1200 g versus 2300 g and have better coverage. Digital Diver does not give a guide number for the Z220's but what I am hearing is that this is OK. Am I correct on this? I can get to the right WB basically using the RAW images processed via my favorite software. Does this sound like a solution?

This means to me eliminating my DS-125 for the Z220. The dry weight for the Z220 is better but obviously there is cost involved. Alternatively I could just get another DS-125 and Ultralight arms (this has actually been recommended to me before). What may work best (granting that there is no ultimate oracle in this avocation).

Thanks,

Tom

AFAIK, two DS-125's would be a great combination as well, just bigger!

In most cases, especially for macro work, the dual 220 strobes are overkill. So the 125's would probably be even more so. I like the fact that if I want I can crank the aperture way down and use strobe power to make up for it. I am however limited to 1/125 for a shutter speed. For the cameras allowing extremely high sync speeds, the power of the strobe becomes even more important.

Since switching to RAW, I have not found a shot that couldn't be color corrected in the computer...

..... Digital Diver does not give a guide number for the Z220's.......

I assume you are referring to the Strobe Finder. If so, the Guide Number for the Z 220 is listed. It is 22, measured in air, in meters, and at ISO 100.

The Seacam 350 color and the Subtronic Mega color may be quite similar on the inside. Contact Stephen Frink at Seacam USA for confirmation.

Also check with Subtronic to see if they are still producing the Mega. They have recently renamed and redesigned many of their strobes.