IKLITE DS-160 vs INON Z-330

[hezishohat]

Hi



I use Nikon D500 in Nauticam housing. (currently use fiber only)



I had enough of Burned-out bulb in my Sea&Sea YS-D1 (Last time - in the first day in Socorro islands)

I can get the Inon Z-330 and the Iklite DS-160 for the same price.



Do you think that the bulky DS-160 have any advantage of the Z330? (except the 2ms faster recycle time)





Thanks, Hezi

 

[bvanant]

Well the GN of the IKE is 24, the GN of the 330 is 33 so it is a fair bit brighter. It also uses AA batteries and you can use simple chargers with easy redundancy. There is a 100 ms faster recycle 1.5 for Ike vs 1.6 for the Inon but I think if you turn down the Inon to the same power it probably recycles at the same rate. Also fiber triggering of the Ike is more complicated. IF the Z330 has the same kind of reliability as the Z240 then I don't see any advantage to the IKE. I don't much like proprietary batteries and chargers so that is probably biasing my thoughts a bit.
Bill

 

[dddriver]

I have ikelite rig and using Z330. My observations here

 

[Chris Ross]

For fibre optic connection, the Z330 would be the choice no contest, The Ikelite would be in contention if you had the ikelite housing and wanted or needed to use sync cables, but the ikelite with fibre is limited to manual only and you need the additional fibre optic triggers on the ikelites. The use of standard AA MiMH batteries is a big plus IMO. I use the Z-240 and on eneloop pros and can easily do 3 dives with 100 shots/dive with power left over and the batteries can recharge in an hour in a suitable fast charger if required.

 

[davehicks]

I have both of these strobes and have used each for > 100 dives.

The Ikelite's are more powerful, have a faster cycle time, and the batteries can easily take twice as may shots before a recharge, and have a more pleasing warmer color tempature.

The Inons are much lighter, easier to adjust power while diving, and pack a lot smaller. They are strong enough and fast enough although the Ikelites will win every comparison.

I don't put much value in the AA batteries - more work to swap batteries and recharge than ikelite. Also you would have to work pretty hard to flood an ikelite, vs the Inon's have an oring to carefully tend. I've had an Ikelite strobe head that was squashed and visibly deformed and it still worked great and didn't flood. As long as you don't get a twig or leaf stuck in to Ikelite oring it's not going to flood, and even if it did it would only be the battery. That said, the Inon's are very well made and have been super reliable for me in over a year of diving them.

I've held on to my Ikelites for over a year to ensure I am happy with the Inon's, but I am ready to sell them now.

I have a pair of DS-161's with the optical triggers or electrical sync cord: $1000.00 for the pair with the trigger or dual sync, + shipping & paypal fee. I doubt if you can get the Inon's for that price, as they are still pretty hard to come by.

PM me if interested.

 

[bvanant]

I agree with the recycle time and number of flashes (the battery is enormous) but in my hands at least the output of the Z330 is about a full stop brighter than the DS160. Color temperature is subjective so that shouldn't be a criterion, you can color match most strobes with diffusers if you want to work hard enough. Also I think the bigger issue with the Ike is not the battery but the chargers. I have been on several trips where the IKE chargers have died. If you shoot with AA then there are lots of options.
Bill

 

[davehicks]

I've not had or heard of others having issues with Ikelite chargers. Everything fails somebody I guess. I always carried two, so I had backup. For a while was using a $25 generic charger from BatteryJunction, so they are cheap and easy to replace too.