AggressorBLUE
Registered
OK, so. Another day, another “what should I buy” post!
I currently have two rigs:
-Olympus OM-1 with AOI UH-MO1 housing, used most often with the Olympus 8MM fish eye for shooting CFWA, with occasional use of the Olympus 60mm Macro.
-The standard issue Olympus TG-6 with a PT-059 Housing. The TG-6 is used mostly by my wife with the Backscatter AIR wet lens for general point/shoot work, some video, and Macro.
Been using an aging pair of Ikelite DS125s, but to get them both back in service I’d need to spend $150 on another fiberoptic adapter, and I don’t feel like throwing more money at 15+ year old strobes.
Being from the North East US, I’m a travel photographer; which means my strobes sadly don’t see a lot of milage (two trips a year at best) and as such I expect the ‘investment’ I make now to serve me well beyond a decade. It also means for the OM-1 I’m looking for ideally strobes that are lighter/smaller than the Ikes. The power level of the 125s seems ‘ok’, but I’ll take (and am willing to pay for) an upgrade if it can be done at at least the same, if not ideally smaller, size. Batteries are another reason I’m shelving the 125s; paying Ike $250 for Nickel batteries in the year 2024 leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
For the TG-6 I’m looking for something that has straight forward TTL support (doesn’t have to be RC mode) so things are as generally point-and-shoot friendly as possible for my wife.
So my head has been a few places:
A trio of Inon S220. Two for the OM-1, One for the TG-5
Pros: three of the same model make it easy to swap around rigs if needed, and only need to remember how to work one type of strobe, also very small and travel friendly. Uses Double AAs
Cons: Would loose some power to the 125s (too much lost power for CFWA with the 8MM?), and no built in guide light offsets their compact size by requiring packing separate dive lights.
A trio of D200s: Similar pros and cons as the S220, but they are a bit bigger, a bit less powerful, but do come with built in focus lights. Also slightly more expensive.
Sea and Sea: I’ve heard…mixed things about their reliability, and so I’m a bit hesitant to take the plunge there. Would likely go with a hybrid of two YS-D3 Lightenings for the OM-1 and one Inon S220 for the TG-6.
Otherwise the higher end strobes seem too big and past where I’m comfortable budget wise (trying to get the total price in under $3k).
Though there is now a dark horse: Back Scatters recently announced HF-1.
For the Backscatter approach, I’d go with two HF-1s for the OM-1, and a Micro Flash 2 for the OM1.
Pros: on paper, the HF-1 looks a bit smaller than the DS125s, but is far faster and more powerful. While I’m not big on video with the OM-1, the lights will be great for night diving and as focus lights (and snoot aiming). I like that it has Olympus RC mode compatibility and high speed shutter sync. The rapid fire shooting looks crazy, and there’s no doubt it will be more than enough power to support the 8mm. Also, while it doesn’t use Double As, I do appreciate that the propreitaryish batteries aren’t near as expensive as Ikes, and that the HF-1 and MF2 (and Macro wide) share the same batteries
Cons: Newly launched and not ‘battle tested’ in the wild yet (with production models at least?).
(I’m open to hearing about Marelux too, but to my knowledge their strobe products (which seem to have a lot in common with the HF-1 in terms of specs) haven’t hit the market yet? And they look bigger than the HF-1)
OK, so enough of my jabber; what does the ScubaBoard hive mind think I should do?
I currently have two rigs:
-Olympus OM-1 with AOI UH-MO1 housing, used most often with the Olympus 8MM fish eye for shooting CFWA, with occasional use of the Olympus 60mm Macro.
-The standard issue Olympus TG-6 with a PT-059 Housing. The TG-6 is used mostly by my wife with the Backscatter AIR wet lens for general point/shoot work, some video, and Macro.
Been using an aging pair of Ikelite DS125s, but to get them both back in service I’d need to spend $150 on another fiberoptic adapter, and I don’t feel like throwing more money at 15+ year old strobes.
Being from the North East US, I’m a travel photographer; which means my strobes sadly don’t see a lot of milage (two trips a year at best) and as such I expect the ‘investment’ I make now to serve me well beyond a decade. It also means for the OM-1 I’m looking for ideally strobes that are lighter/smaller than the Ikes. The power level of the 125s seems ‘ok’, but I’ll take (and am willing to pay for) an upgrade if it can be done at at least the same, if not ideally smaller, size. Batteries are another reason I’m shelving the 125s; paying Ike $250 for Nickel batteries in the year 2024 leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
For the TG-6 I’m looking for something that has straight forward TTL support (doesn’t have to be RC mode) so things are as generally point-and-shoot friendly as possible for my wife.
So my head has been a few places:
A trio of Inon S220. Two for the OM-1, One for the TG-5
Pros: three of the same model make it easy to swap around rigs if needed, and only need to remember how to work one type of strobe, also very small and travel friendly. Uses Double AAs
Cons: Would loose some power to the 125s (too much lost power for CFWA with the 8MM?), and no built in guide light offsets their compact size by requiring packing separate dive lights.
A trio of D200s: Similar pros and cons as the S220, but they are a bit bigger, a bit less powerful, but do come with built in focus lights. Also slightly more expensive.
Sea and Sea: I’ve heard…mixed things about their reliability, and so I’m a bit hesitant to take the plunge there. Would likely go with a hybrid of two YS-D3 Lightenings for the OM-1 and one Inon S220 for the TG-6.
Otherwise the higher end strobes seem too big and past where I’m comfortable budget wise (trying to get the total price in under $3k).
Though there is now a dark horse: Back Scatters recently announced HF-1.
For the Backscatter approach, I’d go with two HF-1s for the OM-1, and a Micro Flash 2 for the OM1.
Pros: on paper, the HF-1 looks a bit smaller than the DS125s, but is far faster and more powerful. While I’m not big on video with the OM-1, the lights will be great for night diving and as focus lights (and snoot aiming). I like that it has Olympus RC mode compatibility and high speed shutter sync. The rapid fire shooting looks crazy, and there’s no doubt it will be more than enough power to support the 8mm. Also, while it doesn’t use Double As, I do appreciate that the propreitaryish batteries aren’t near as expensive as Ikes, and that the HF-1 and MF2 (and Macro wide) share the same batteries
Cons: Newly launched and not ‘battle tested’ in the wild yet (with production models at least?).
(I’m open to hearing about Marelux too, but to my knowledge their strobe products (which seem to have a lot in common with the HF-1 in terms of specs) haven’t hit the market yet? And they look bigger than the HF-1)
OK, so enough of my jabber; what does the ScubaBoard hive mind think I should do?