Upgrade my Z240 strobes

[ppina]

Upgrade my inon Z240 strobes with the new ikelite DS230 stores are a good option ?

 

[ppina]

Another option upgrading to led lights. What are the pros and cons?
I make more photography and some videos.
In Portugal, 80% is macro and 20% wide.
But when traveling, mostly is wide

 

[Barmaglot]

No LED light comes even close to the power of a strobe; it's a difference of multiple orders of magnitude.

Are you using fiber optics or sync cords with your Z-240s? Keep in mind that Ikelite strobes only support sync cords, and their connectors are different from Inon. They're also quite heavy and bulky (each one is about as big as your two Z-240s put together), plus they require proprietary batteries. If you're willing to tolerate the weight and bulk, Scubalamp D-Pro provides similar power in a similar package at considerably lower cost, while Retra Pro series gives similar power at similar cost in a more compact package with way more features.

 

[David Haas]

You can fire any Ikelite strobe using a fiber optic cord once plugging their adapter to the strobe:

Fiber Optic Converter for DS Strobes (3rd Gen)

Converts the electrical bulkhead of any Ikelite DS strobe into a fiber optic port.

www.ikelite.com

Manual flash adjustment only though.

The DS230 are pretty powerful and use the same NiMH battery packs for previous DS125 / 160 /161 and all too.

For Europe other brands may be more attractive though....

DH

 

[rmorgan]

Upgrade my inon Z240 strobes with the new ikelite DS230 stores are a good option ?

Your underwater pictures are beautiful, including your wide shots. I really don’t think you’d be happy with only constant lights, unless you‘re moving heavily into video But if you get the big strobes you could use a video light for your macro work. They’re great-looking on “paper,” for sure. in the next couple of months, Retra is coming out with some fun new strobes, and Inon presumably has something in the works too—but the Ikelites are impressive, and obviously a dramatic upgrade from the 240s. A bit of a lifestyle choice on the battery front—a handful of AAs vs big expensive dedicated batteries—plus the weight—583g for your 240s vs more than a kilo for the Ikelite. But you’ve already thought of all that. Keep us posted!

 

[ppina]

No LED light comes even close to the power of a strobe; it's a difference of multiple orders of magnitude.

Are you using fiber optics or sync cords with your Z-240s? Keep in mind that Ikelite strobes only support sync cords, and their connectors are different from Inon. They're also quite heavy and bulky (each one is about as big as your two Z-240s put together), plus they require proprietary batteries. If you're willing to tolerate the weight and bulk, Scubalamp D-Pro provides similar power in a similar package at considerably lower cost, while Retra Pro series gives similar power at similar cost in a more compact package with way more features.

fiber optics

 

[hawaiian.hokie]

The Ikelite DS232 is the DS230 strobe with a built-in 2,500 lumen video light....you can always spend a little extra to get those!

 

[WoodTurner]

OT: Love the photographs as well!

 

[Barmaglot]

fiber optics

Sorry, I missed your response at the time - this thread just popped up in my notifications.

Seeing as you're using a Leo3 Wi and an EOS R, I assume that you have an LED trigger of some sort.

You could connect Ikelite strobes to your housing, but this would require either adding a fiber optic converter to each strobe ($150/unit), or using the Nikonos bulkhead on your housing with an Ikelite dual sync cord (SKU 45232, $190). The latter option would involve maintaining a number of extra o-rings for the sync cord connection. Both would restrict you to manual strobe operation, i.e. no TTL.

Constant lights are considerably (several orders of magnitude) weaker than strobes, and tend to scare away anything that has eyes and is reasonably mobile.