Question Ikelite vs. Sea & Sea strobes

[Lu Y]

I have used both. For the Ikelite strobes, I used the hardwired connection. It has a disadvantage of introducing one more piercing of the housing. It never failed in hundreds of dives. It was frustrating getting the strobes connected right initially. You have to align the pins just so. The strobes are wider, more powerful, faster cycling and hold a charge a long, long time. It has plenty of charge for a day of diving. And the clamp on seal for the strobes is good but if it fails the strobe is toast. The strobes are heavy and large and unwieldly. So, moving them and adjusting their power was difficult and getting them in a tight situation was a pain in the …… and usually unsuccessful.

The Sea and Sea YS DS are nice strobes. I connect them via fiber optic and that works fine. The strobes use rechargeable AA batteries (4). The strobes give decent power and are enough (they say) for 200 shots at full power. I do not use full power that often so I can probably get more. I take about 70 shots per dive so 200 shots does 3 dives. Also my mirrorless camera is good for 200 shots (or so it says) but it depends on how you use it. For wildlife photography, a battery will get 900 shots for me (camera not strobe).

The pluses of the Sea and Sea are - if it floods the batteries are toast. But usually with cleaning and drying the strobe will work. The battery compartment is separate from the strobe. If the strobe does not work after flooding, I understand sending it in will get it going again. I have not done this yet. The strobe can be a bit tricky to seal correctly. You have to put it on a hard surface and press down on the battery lid evenly and hard (or that is what works for me).

The advantages of the strobe is it is a bit narrower in beam and for me that gives less backscatter. Also it is far lighter and more compact making it easier to adjust the strobe placement, get it into tight spots and to adjust the power level. I shoot macro and wide. For macro, moving the strobes is really nice.

That being said, both strobes are fine performers. They both have different strengths and it is a matter of deciding which you like better.

If you can, I would try to go to a shop that has these and see how they fit with your rig. Some shops will let you try them out in the water for a fee.

Thanks PatW. Weight on the Ikelite should not be a huge issue as we have enough allowance in the luggage. However it worries me that it's difficult to adjust in a tight situation. We dont know yet if we will shoot macro, but ideally would like the strobe to be fit for both wide angle and macro.

 

[TostitoBandito]

I've used Ikelite strobes for almost 20 years. DS-125, DS-160, and now DS-230's.

Pros:

• Straightforward to hook up and use, especially with an Ikelite housing obviously. Never had an issue setting them up with my Canon cameras or getting TTL to work properly (with the Ikelite adapter/dongle thingy).
• Recycles very quickly, faster than most other strobes, especially on fractional power or with TTL. You can realistically shoot them at 3-5 fps continuous in certain scenarios (at significantly less than full power). Like macro or small darty fish like clownfish, for example.
• Battery packs are quick and easy to detach and charge, have a long life, and aren't lithium ion with all that entails for air travel. Can easily get 2-3 dives on a battery charge, or a typical day of diving for most people. It takes literally 5 seconds to swap batteries. I'm only just now considering replacing my ~18 year old spare set of battery packs, which still work but are probably at around 50% capacity at this point.
• Very nice circular flash tube with great wide and even coverage and a good color temperature
• Good-great power, compared to most other strobes on the market. They can throw a lot of light, especially the 230.
• Quality rugged construction. My old ones from years ago were dropped and banged around on boats and whatnot, and one battery pack got the shell cracked but the o-ring still sealed just fine. Put some tape on it and dove with it for several more years.
• Ikelite is in the US and has great customer support. I've pinged them via email with various questions over the years and they're always super responsive and helpful.

Cons:

• Size. They're longer strobes because of the battery packs. The DS-230's got slightly shorter, but they can still be a bit tricky to position in close for macro or close focus. Though this also depends on the shape of the camera housing.
• Some people may prefer user-replaceable off the shelf batteries over a battery pack.
• Proprietary sync cord may be an issue for non-Ikelite housings, though it can be converted to fiber optic or you can put an Ikelite sync code bulkhead in your housing. For a cost.
• On full power they have a relatively long flash duration, meaning they take longer than many other strobes to reach full brightness so you can clip off some light in your exposure at fast shutter speeds like 1/200 for example. This isn't a huge deal because it becomes a non-issue basically anywhere below full power when the flash duration becomes shorter than the max sync speeds of most cameras.

As for weight, I'd say it's not a concern. The strobes minus the batteries are similar to many other strobes, and no matter what strobes you use you're either packing big battery packs or a similar (or greater) weight in individual batteries. I have my housing, ports, strobes, sync cords, an extra set of strobe batteries, and spare parts and accessories in a pelican case that's under 50 lb packed. You can also throw the battery packs in a carry on or any other checked bag with your clothes or whatever too, since they're not lithium ion.

 

[bvanant]

One thing we have observed with Ikelite strobes is that the chargers are also a concern. On an Indo live aboard trip 2 chargers failed and the third one was charging everyone's batteries. To me at least electrical sync connection is so 1960's. FO has so many advantages.
Bill

 

[TostitoBandito]

One thing we have observed with Ikelite strobes is that the chargers are also a concern. On an Indo live aboard trip 2 chargers failed and the third one was charging everyone's batteries. To me at least electrical sync connection is so 1960's. FO has so many advantages.
Bill

I've never experienced or heard of any issues with their chargers. The huge old international ones, or their current ones. Could've possibly been an electrical issue on the boat that fried them?

 

[DragonUW]

This is an interesting one. As a general rule, I avoid anything made by Ikelite, even if it is half price. DS-160 would be better for a wide-angle shooting, as it produces warmer colors and probably has better power, coverage, and uniform light due to the round bulb. TTL is useless for wide-angle photography, so it should not be your determining factor. On the downside, DS-160 is just a continuation of the design that was crap even 25 years ago. Proprietary and expensive battery units due to the switches in the pack, proprietary charger, lack of a built-in optical trigger, and quality issues are why you should avoid them. I don't understand why you narrowed the choice, but I would choose S&S if I had to. I stopped using Ikelite with DS-125 and DS-200, tried S&S D3, and it is a good middle-of-the-road strobe.

 

[bvanant]

In the price size area now there are a zillion strobes out there (Backscatter, Marelux, S&S, AOI, Retra, Kraken, Supe, Weefine, Fotocore and others). Most are optically triggered, which is (at least for me) way better than electrical sync. Electrical cords can flood and pins get bent. If you break a fiber cable you can fix it on the boat and you can make your own for very little money. For the Ike 160, the strobe is 1250g lbs with battery, The YS is half that without batteries, AA batteries are on the order of 23 g so for 8 batteries 180g. Still about a pound less weight and you will always have new batteries charged. And you can charge batteries using a USB cable that has multiple other uses.
I know the Ike guys love the fast recycle but many on the list above can cycle fast as well. In any case all of them can generate good photos.





Bill

 

[Barmaglot]

Most are optically triggered, which is (at least for me) way better than electrical sync.

OP has an Ikelite housing which lacks an optical bulkhead. In order to use optical triggering, they would need to buy a $250 Ikelite external manual trigger, or a $650 UW-Technics external TTL trigger.

 

[bvanant]

Yes, I think you addressed this early on. For the price of 2 DS 160s you can get 2 YSD3 duos and the optical converter and still have $250 or so left over. The advantage of that approach is that if you ever change housings you will have strobes that work, getting some housings to speak electrical sync can be tough.

Bill

 

[Mascottrepair]

Hey Lu, both are solid options, but if you're already in the Ikelite system, the DS160 is hard to beat for reliability, recycle time ,and overall power—especially for wide angle. If budget allows, the Ikelite is definitely worth it.

 

[Lu Y]

Thank you all for your interesting answers. I am a bit surprised with the opinionated concern on quality Ike sometimes attracts. I wonder what is the reason behind.
The main question is, do the better light and faster recycle time justify the price uptick? Knowing we already have an ikelite housing and will mostly do wide angle, macro sometimes.