Alternative to YS-250 Pro?

[kelemvor]

I know the pricetag is unappealing, but try some disposable lithium batts in your strobes. Makes all the difference in the world in the Nikon strobes I use on land.

 

[stuartv]

Xtar VP4 Dragon Plus should be excellent! Didn't know you were willing to spend that much. So.....excellent chargers, cheap out on NiMh, eh? I know you shop Li-on carefully.

I shop all my batteries carefully. It's just that, until yesterday I was woefully ignorant on the subject of battery internal resistance and strobe performance. Now I am somewhat less ignorant.

I received the Xtar charger last night. What did we do before Amazon Prime?!?

I just pulled out my Loopacells and tested 4 of them. TBH, I am not that impressed with the Xtar right now.

All 4 batteries showed 1.27V of current charge. They have been sitting in my camera bag for months. But, I tested the first 2 for IR and started to get suspicious. I retested the 3rd one multiple times and got different IR readings every time, varying from 20-something to 146 mOhms.

I don't know if that has anything to do with them being at a very low charge state or if this tester sucks. So, I'm charging all 4 Loopacells now, in the Xtar charger. When they are full, I will test them again and report back.

You say you want to shoot faster and stopped down and further away, all placing more demand on your strobe. What settings (f stop and ISO) are you using on your rig, is it still the EM-10?

The Oly flash can be set at 1/64th power and works fine there to trigger the Z-240 and I suspect can rapid fire longer than the Z-240.

I have been shooting f/8 with the flash set at 1/64. Yes, still the E-M10.

But, to be clear, I have not ever tried setting the camera up to shoot rapidfire. I just assumed it would not work and didn't try. Or maybe I should say that I didn't (and don't) know the best way to set it up for rapidfire shooting with a strobe. Regardless, I haven't tried it.

What is a good approach to setting it up so the camera isn't simply shooting too fast and firing before the strobes are ready? Do I just let it do that and not worry about it, and know that I might get, for example, 1 shot out of every 3 or 4 in a burst where the strobes fire and the rest will just be dark and I will cull those.

I guess the BEST way would be to use a housing that let me connect the strobes with an electronic cable, instead of fiber optic, but that's not in my budget right now.

 

[stuartv]

I know the pricetag is unappealing, but try some disposable lithium batts in your strobes. Makes all the difference in the world in the Nikon strobes I use on land.

The strobe specs I have looked at all seem to say that the best cycle times come from high discharge NiMH batteries. The Inon docs (IIRC) specifically recommend Eneloop Pros.

What batteries were you using that you are comparing the Li-Ion batteries to?

 

[fmerkel]

I think he's referring to non-rechargeable lithium primaries like the Energizers. Expensive, but powerful.

I don't know if this is worth the experiment. You get a battery that maintains 1.5v, with good current capacity, until it's 'dead', which is about half a decent NiMh.
ZNTER 1.5V 1250mAh USB Rechargeable AA Li-Po Battery

Re-IR testing. Testing IR with a charger is a bit of an art and occasionally a frustrating one. You are working with very small resistances. Technique, cleanliness of the cell ends and equipment, can make a huge difference. I try to make sure my cells are full and cooled down to establish one consistency. I find the newer cells have less variation. Older cells can have huge variation. That's one of the ways I can separate them.

Never having gone through the hassle of getting the proper equipment to do an "official" IR test I can't comment on the issues about that.

Maybe you'll find the review helpful if you haven't found it already?
Review of Charger Xtar VP4 Plus Dragon

 

[stuartv]

Maybe you'll find the review helpful if you haven't found it already?
Review of Charger Xtar VP4 Plus Dragon

I had not seen that. Thanks!

The review specifically says that the IR measurement is very good and consistent. Hopefully, once the batteries are charged, I will also get consistent results...

 

[bvanant]

In our lab measuring all kinds of batteries (mostly for medical devices) we have had absolutely no repeatability with the Xtar so ended up with a much more $ solution (Cadex). As for the internal strobe, I would get the Nauticam LED trigger, shoot much more quickly. Even at 1/64 I often get timeouts with the EM1-II strobe, with the LED no issues so far.
Bill

 

[fmerkel]

[Nauticam LED trigger] - Not cheap, only works with certain equipment it would appear. I don't understand why it would work with the D1 but not the D2. It's an optical trigger/signal...right?

 

[Chris Ross]

The problem with triggers is that they are dimmer than strobes, if you are referring to YS-D2 there have been other threads where people report it not working with LED triggers due to the Sea&Sea sensor being not sensitive enough. I don't know that you would really need to stop down below f8 on a M43 camera, that's the equivalent of f16 on full frame for depth of field. What ISO are you using? I had an EM-5 MkII and I was quite happy using that at ISO800 as long as images were well exposed. Pushing the ISO a little will reduce the required flash output .

I've never been a fan of of rapid fire shooting. You could setup a custom set that would recall a settings group with continuous shooting, My EM5-II could specify a frame rate. Maybe do 3 frames per second. Assign it to a function button.

 

[bvanant]

I use the Nauticam LED trigger with my S&S strobes with no issues but you need good fiber optic cables. I make my own with the multi-core fibers. One big advantage is that you can up the sync speed at least one stop worth. But I agree on fast shooting, mostly I shoot nudibranchs and they typically don't move too fast.
Cheers
Bill