DS-125 Strobe failure

Hello All,

I bought my first set up a couple of weeks ago (Olympus C-7070, Ikelite housing, DS-125) and headed off to Bonaire. Unfortunately, on the second dive the strobe stopped working. I never got it to fire again. I ended up with a lot of blue and green pictures (except for the really close ones). I'm pretty bummed about not having a strobe for the trip. I still learned a lot, and got a couple of "ok" pictures for a beginner. That is about it.

I talked to two other photographers while I was there who were both using the same strobe. One was having problems this trip, had borrowed a second strobe, and was having problems with that one too. The other photographer said he'd had several issues with them also. Is there a quality problem with the DS-125s?

For anyone that has had issues with Ikelite products, do you call Ikelite and ship back to them directly? I bought this at B&H, and I haven't called them yet. I'm just wondering what the best thing to do it. I don't know if it is the strobe, or the cable, but I doubt it is the camera. I tried everytthing (factory reset on the camara included).

Should I return all of this to B&H and start over? Is B&H good to deal with? Deal directly with Ikelite?

Thank-you for any and all advice,

Greg

I would contact Ikelite and send it directly to them. Although I’ve never done it myself, I am sure it’s the best and fastest way.

Julian

Agree with Julian, contact Ike directly (that's what Ike will say, too, once he stops by)

That said, if it's a TTL housing along with a sync cord, there still may be other variables to consider prior to pointing to the strobe itself as the culprit from what is known so far......

Peter Schulz is good at troubleshooting and pinpointing to some of the possibilities. Hopefully he'll get back from diving soon to offer his excellent roadside assistance.....

You will find that Ikelite has oustanding customer support.

Hi Greg, I'm one of the guys you talked to in Bonaire. I'm sorry we didn't have time to talk more about your camera problem when we met at the "air station".

I had a couple of issues with one of my DS-125's when I first got them in 2002, but I've never had another problem since. I own 3 DS-125's and 2 DS-50's and they have all been working great for the last 3 1/2 years.

I would send them directly to Ikelite, but contact them first to see if they want you to send in your housing, sync cord and camera also.

I hope you still had a good trip.....we sure did

Karl

Hello Karl,

What a small world! I'm glad to hear that your trip went well. Other than the strobe, and an ear infection, the trip was great for us too.

Thanks everyone for the helpful information. I will contact Ikelite later today.

Best regards,

Greg

Good luck. I think you will be happy with Ikelite service. They are one of the best in the industry. Personally I have 2 DS-125, one with just under 300 dives and the other with almost 150 dives with no serious problems.

As I've mentioned before, that's why I own 3, so I will always have one that works. I can check my Word files, but I think the last return for service note was named Ikelite7, but that covers at least five years and two different strobe models, six units total.

My track record hasn't been great. Even so, I would not consider switching. Price, power and performance combined is unbeatable.

Ikelite should be who you deal with. They are honest and have excellent service...fast turn-around.

Joe

One thing I have considered is getting a second battery pack. It seems almost all of the electronics are in the battery pack and that is what fails. I've never had the head portion flood. At $125, the battery pack seems like cheap insurance.