Strobe for this camera (Canon G12) -- and the next?

[redhairedscot]

I bought a Canon WP-DC34 housing for my Canon G12 on a whim -- it was inexpensive, and I figured I'd get a fun picture or two. Long story short: now I'm hooked on underwater photography, so I need a strobe.

I found this thread [1] about strobes for this housing, and I'm considering a few of the suggestions. Right now, I love my G12, but I can imagine in a few years, I might want to trade up to a DSLR. For that reason, I don't want to buy a new G12 housing. I want to get a strobe that will works with what I have but will also be useful if I get a large DSLR and a rig with fancy ports.

I'm looking at the Sea & Sea YS-110 alpha, the Intova ISS-2000, and the Inon D-2000. (Yes, that's a big wide range.) Do these strike you as good lights to keep as I upgrade to a fancier base?

I hate to even ask; I really love the pictures that I'm getting with the G12, and I also like the compactness. I'm going to hold onto this rig as long as I can. But I don't want to invest in a strobe only to find out that it's "really just a compact cam strobe."

[1] http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/strobes-lighting/312315-strobe-canon-g11-canon-wp-dc34-housing.html

 

[flareside]

If you are planning to upgrade to DSLR in the future, skip the Intova and the D-2000. The choice should be between the YS-110a and the Inon Z-240 as they both offer true (hardwired) TTL. Given the choice between those two, the general opinion would probably favor the Z-240. The additional performance more than covers the price difference.

You may change cameras several times over the years but you will likely keep the same strobe throughout so you might as well get a good one the first time.

 

[bvanant]

HUH? I am under the impression that the D2000 and the S2000 and the Z240 and the YS110a all have pretty much the same emulated TTL (none of them have "TRUE" ttl at least with Canon cameras and I am pretty sure that it is true for Nikon if you are going to use optical cabling. For any Canon camera, you can't get TTL with a wired bulkhead unless you go to a 6 pin bulkhead and a Heinrichs or S&S converter. By the time that you get your DSLR housing, there will not likely be much in the way of electrical sync so if the D2000 is what you can afford it is a perfectly capable strobe. More to the point, with the housing that he now has, wired TTL is not possible, only optical sync can work. FWIW, I just did a trip to PNG with a Nauticam housed Canon 7D and used only S2000 strobes for my macro work and that works great so keep the S2000 and the YS01 on your list
Bill

 

[openhelix]

Not to hijack Bill, but in terms of real world performance, what would you say the difference is between the S2000 and D2000?

 

[redhairedscot]

Thanks for the info. I guess the best upgrade path is going to be selling them. Though if it makes a difference, I'm not a Canon nut; if I had to buy now, I'd get a Nikon D5100.

But if I had this problem, others do too, so I'll haunt the used dive gear section for a while.

Thanks!

 

[bvanant]

In my hands, there is less than a quarter stop (1 foot ) difference between them. For traveling with 3 or 4 strobes, the size/weight of the S2000 is great. James/Nemrod thinks differently, but I can't find a big enough difference (shooting tiny stuff) to make the D2000 a good travel strobe. I do use it some here in LA, but that is just to get some more experience with the D2000.
Bill

 

[under water]

I did a similar evaluation to what you are doing and I came up with the INON s-2000 as the best strobe for my use, now and in the future.
I travel to dive and the size and weight of the S-2000 is incredible considering that it puts out about the same light as the D2000 and the DS-125 that it replaced. The Ds-125 was 4 times heavier and 3 times the size.
The s-2000 will give you s-TTL and manual control and will be a great match for almost any gear upgrade.
Here is a good page that compares some basic strobe characteristics.
Underwater Strobe Comparison Guide - Digital Diver Network