Ikelite AF35

[dirtfarmer]

I have the Inon S-2000. Love it. I looked a just about every one out there. I was of course looking for a lower $ unit. I like the warmer colors the S-2000 has over the color of the AF35. I have seen AF35 photos. The S-2000 is really small, has a decent amount of power, and I like the value.

Here is a strobe comparison guide that was invaluable. http://http://www.digitaldiver.net/strobes.php

 

[Bflem55]

I am using a point and shoot camera does the Inon-2000 need a slave or anything since I am not using TTL???

 

[herman]

You need to be able to set your camera to always flash- forced on- and you will need a fiber cable for the Inon, otherwise it will work great and if you decide to upgrade cameras it will still be a suitable strobe for quite some time.

 

[dirtfarmer]

You actually don't have to have a cable for the S-2000. I use the optical trigger, works fine. ( it's a mirror that is glued onto the housing. Mirror reflects the on camera flash and triggers the strobe. (it will sometimes trigger by ambient light at surface or shallow depths)

 

[herman]

You actually don't have to have a cable for the S-2000. I use the optical trigger, works fine. ( it's a mirror that is glued onto the housing. Mirror reflects the on camera flash and triggers the strobe. (it will sometimes trigger by ambient light at surface or shallow depths)

That will work some times but it you get the strobe at a bad angle it may not fire reliably and you really need to have the internal flash completely blocked from lighting the area, otherwise backscatter increases. The fiber cable eliminates those problems as well as it being triggered by others strobes or surface reflections. An added bonus is the camera batteries will last longer if you reduce the flash power to it's lowest setting. It will still fire the strobe reliably and produce less heat in the housing to boot. There are a lot of up sides to useing the fiber and few for not using it.

 

[dirtfarmer]

Herman, Thanks for the tip on covering the on camera flash and backscatter.
I use a point and shoot housing so wouldn't the fiber cable be triggered by it's own optic trigger thats glued in place of the mirror?
So far I haven't had problems with strobe positioning and optically being able to trigger.( my arm system is the simple Inon.) I am shortly due to go on a 2 week trip and there I'm going to play with free holding the strobe.