Inon to discontinue production of Z220F/220S

Inon has announced that it'll discontinue the production of their Z220F/220S strobes. They haven't announced a successor yet. Discussion over at DD.net:

INON discontinue Z-220F and S strobes

Thanks for the update, may I suggest the Sun Pak G Flash as the replacement?

The G Flash is more powerful than the Inons at 1/3 the price, G Flash at $180, the Inons is over $600!

So for the price of one Inon you could buy 3 G Flashes and knock out every shadow from you picture. Because as expensive as the Inon, the light coming from their strobes or any other strobe, still travels in a straight path.

The G Flash also comes with the tray and arms plus a light diffuser. Sun Pak has been making strobes for land and sea for more than 30 years.

http://www.leisurepro.com/Catalog.aspx?op=ItemDisplay&ProductID=SPKGF&kw=Sunpak+G-Flash

http://www.tocad.com/flash/gFlash.html

Dive Safe

Have you got any info on how to get that flash to work with c-8080 and pt-023?
Thanks in advance!

Hmm, looks interesting. guide number of 22 (in m), I assume that it is land guide number and not water. Any idea of degree of coverage, recycle time etc?

I was surprised when I heard that Inon was going to discontinue the Z220 series a couple of week ago. Inon just stated that for now, the current model will only be the D2000 and their ring flash. Kind of interesting that the Z220s or f or whatever was only released a month or two ago and they already discontinue it.

f3nikon:

Thanks for the update, may I suggest the Sun Pak G Flash as the replacement?

The G Flash is more powerful than the Inons at 1/3 the price, G Flash at $180, the Inons is over $600!

So for the price of one Inon you could buy 3 G Flashes and knock out every shadow from you picture. Because as expensive as the Inon, the light coming from their strobes or any other strobe, still travels in a straight path.

The G Flash also comes with the tray and arms plus a light diffuser. Sun Pak has been making strobes for land and sea for more than 30 years.

http://www.leisurepro.com/Catalog.aspx?op=ItemDisplay&ProductID=SPKGF&kw=Sunpak+G-Flash

http://www.tocad.com/flash/gFlash.html

Dive Safe

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this is useless with DSLR's as they don't use the internal flash to trigger the strobe.

this looks a lot like the epoque, does this flood as easily as that?

kapula:

Have you got any info on how to get that flash to work with c-8080 and pt-023?
Thanks in advance!

Click to expand...

Stay tuned Kapula, I am trying to get my hands on a G Flash. The strobe will have to be fired the camera’s internal strobe at the correct pre flash setting. The PT-23 has the best light box design of any housing I have seen so far.

The diffused light is spread out wide, right over the lens and with the centered pop up flash of the 8080 the light angles are just right.

The internal flash can take care of the main lighting and the G Flash will take care of the harsh shadows in the background. Congratulations on receiving your 8080 setup.

Dive Safe

clive francis:

this is useless with DSLR's as they don't use the internal flash to trigger the strobe.

this looks a lot like the epoque, does this flood as easily as that?

Click to expand...

Thats true, but if you can afford a DSLR UW setup, I think you can afford to spend $700 or more on a strobe and sync cord. Not everyone (me esp.) has that kind of money to throw around.

Still looking in on this flooding issue or not. One theory is that since the unit only uses 2 AA batteries, is it the opening and not closing the battery cover properly the problem? Stay tuned

Dive Safe

Even if (in my opinion) the rather optimistic specs on paper are to be believed, I'm not quite sure how you concluded that it is more powerful than the Inon Z220.

There are no beam angle specs, only claims that it "covers the field of a 28mm lens on the 35mm format without noticeable light falloff". And a recycling time of 7.5 - 9 secs is hell of long time to wait, especially if you don't need to change camera settings in between shots - I know because I've spent many a frustrating time waiting for the camera's flash to recycle when I used to use TTL. The Z220s are speced at 100° x 100° circular beam angle and will recycle in 1.5 secs flat.

I think you will find that it will be OK for closeup work, provided it doesn't have any flooding issues.

Point well taken, I got those numbers from Inons and Sunpak's sites, I'll call both strobes as even in power. I did not see any beam angle specs as well, but then I almost always use a diffuser on three or more strobes anyway.

Yes 7.5 to 9 sec. is long from full dump, but then I use the strobes at ½ or 1/4 power for the most part(which will lower the recycle time). I need at least three strobes to “paint” the light in the picture, two strobes for the lower left and right side of the frame and a center top strobe to cover that “dead” spot between the two outside strobes. The two outside strobes are more of a warp around light, similar to studio photography.

I find that if I use a single strobe at full power, then firing the light across the frame, the areas closest to strobe gets burned up and the area furthest away gets muddy, as the light intensity diminishes, when reaching across the frame.

The jury is still out on that “alleged” flooding issue, I’ll have to see the battery cover or any other seal that can cause a leak.

Dive Safe

Al

ssra30:

Hmm, looks interesting. guide number of 22 (in m), I assume that it is land guide number and not water. Any idea of degree of coverage, recycle time etc?

I was surprised when I heard that Inon was going to discontinue the Z220 series a couple of week ago. Inon just stated that for now, the current model will only be the D2000 and their ring flash. Kind of interesting that the Z220s or f or whatever was only released a month or two ago and they already discontinue it.

Click to expand...

Inon's ring flash looks to me like a great idea, why isn't this strobe not catching on?
The ring flash works great on macro shots on land.

Dive Safe

Al