Canon housing with Ikelite Strobe

[Gussy]

I am about to purchase the DS-125 w/ Manual Control for my PowerShot S400 and S1 IS. Does anybody have any experience with this combination or know of any better or suitable strobe. As this thing will cost about $1K, I'm a bit hesistant.

 

[alcina]

The 125 is a wonderful strobe that you will be able to use for many years and it will move with you from system to system.

I would contact Ryan at ryan@reefphoto.com before you buy to make sure that you are getting the right cords etc for the set up.

Have fun!

 

[Rooster]

The DS-125 is a great strobe, I use two on my DSLR, but it may be a little over-kill for what you need. What housings do have, or plan on using? The Cannon housings don’t come with a tray so you would have to add that. The cost of the DS-125 and tray is way more than your camera and housing. Plus the size of the Ike tray, and DS 125, is huge compared with your compact cameras. You might want to take a look at the DS 50 setup, it’s smaller, lighter, and about half the price of the DS 125. My wife uses the DS 50 with her Nikon 995 and it works great.

 

[Gussy]

I thought about the DS50...maybe I should give it a check. I already have the housing for the Canon S400 and S1 IS but find the flash lacking as I'm always getting backscatter. Does the pictures improve a lot with the external strobe?

 

[clgsamson]

I thought about the DS50...maybe I should give it a check. I already have the housing for the Canon S400 and S1 IS but find the flash lacking as I'm always getting backscatter. Does the pictures improve a lot with the external strobe?

yes, big improvement, no question about it.

 

[ScubaMarc]

my buddy has 125 with a elf 550, close up shots are great, long shots get some backscatter. Make sure U use a the diffuser or all shots will have some backscatter.

I myselft have the 550 with the sea and sea 15. I like this alot. Maybe a little underpowering at distant shots, but great at all macro shots. It also has a fibor optic cable to stops the back scatter.

 

[alcina]

The fibre optic cable only fires the strobe. It has nothing to do with reducing backscatter

Backscatter is reduced by not lighting the particles between the lens and the subject. Proper strobe placement is key to reduce backscatter and is why you often see people referring to painting "just the edge of the beam" across your subject.

My personal theory is to buy the most I can afford at the time. Even if it may initialling seem to be more than I need or more than the system I have really warrants, soon I find that I grow into it and that the extra power/features help me control things to a greater degree. And, of course, when I do change systems, I don't have to sweat forking out more hundreds of dollars to get another strobe to suit the new system.

 

[ScubaMarc]

Backscatter is reduced by not lighting the particles between the lens and the subject. Proper strobe placement is key to reduce backscatter and is why you often see people referring to painting "just the edge of the beam" across your subject.

This would be true, if U were able to turn off the internal flash of the camera. But the flash is needed to set off the ds125 optical sensor. The fiber optic cable allows the user to fully block the internal flash and still fire the stobe.

The canon case has no hard wire to set of the strobe.

 

[alcina]

Ah, that is more clear.

It isn't the cable that reduces the backscatter, it's blocking the internal flash to use the cable. Blocking the internal flash means that the light from it is NOT lighting up the particles between the camera and the subject.

FWIW I never bothered to block my internal flash on the Canon A75 with Inon and fibre optic, just turned it way down. Didn't have an issue with backscatter YMMV

 

[Rooster]

This would be true, if U were able to turn off the internal flash of the camera. But the flash is needed to set off the ds125 optical sensor. The fiber optic cable allows the user to fully block the internal flash and still fire the stobe.

The canon case has no hard wire to set of the strobe.

This can also be done with the Ike strobes and the Manual controller. You can attach an opaque shield to the outside of the housing, or use a piece of black duct tape on the inside on the front. This still allows the Manual Controller to “see” the flash from the side and fire the strobe. The Manual Controller will also give you 10 power settings.