Inon S220 experience

[noserider]

Has anyone actually used the Inon S220 strobes yet?

I have the potential option of picking a pair up for a cheap price but can't find any real reviews or first hand feedback on how they perform in real life

Also are snoots available yet?

 

[David Haas]

A friend going to Cayman Brac Sept. 16th just stopped by with a new pair. I helped him set them up and play a bit (on land.)

The mount for either a 1" ball mount or YS style being forward with sensor toward the rear is a great improvement for easier fiber optic cord attachment.

The Inon S220 comes with two diffusers; a -0.5 "soft white" one losing 1/2 stop output and a practically opaque black one. That's supposedly -4.0 stops maybe for cutting down super close macro shooting? (I need to find and read the manual online.)

Without the bayonet attached -.05 "soft white" diffuser the little dome is a "fly eye" dispersion dome. Specifications show the strobe has a pretty good beam pattern. I recommended he use them with no diffusers for the slight power increase guide number of 22 over the previous Inon S2000 units (Guide Number of 20.)

I still use my 2 Inon S2000 units in single or dual depending how lazy I am that day On my little Fantasea FG7X II housing for Canon G7X II and pop on "Air Lens" correcting for refraction I have 24mm focal length UNDERWATER. One Inon S2000 (and one Inon S220) mounted above in the cold shoe of my housing covers pretty darn well!

I use the Inon Shoe Base II which has a nice "tang" when tightened down preventing it from slipping off my housing's cold shoe.

I have found shooting compact 1" sensor cameras like Canon G7X / G7X II / G7X III or any Sony RX100 the little Inon S2000 or a new S220 provide plenty of power even for wide angle.

If I want DUAL coverage a lightweight tray and short handles with strobes flared out to send any backscatter AWAY from my lens works great too.

I regularly shoot ISO 125, shutter speed 1/200 and f-stop of F5.6 which on my 1" sensor camera is like f11 on a full frame sensor big camera.

Maybe for macro close to f6.3 - 8 max. Anything more just makes your strobes work harder or will require increasing to a higher ISO which I try not to do for better detail and dynamic range.

At retail of about $399.00 I think the Inon S220 will be a big hit. There's a bigger rear dial to bias either S-TTL (SLAVE TTL flash adjustment) or manual flash control plus bigger on / off switches.

Just one old guy's opinion that smaller is many times better!

David Haas

 

[noserider]

Thanks David, that is a comprehensive answer and matches my feeling that these are going to be a major success and will be perfect with a small camera like TG-6 as well.

The only down side is that the price in the UK is currently at GBP530 or US$670 a piece and yet I can potentially pick them up in Tokyo for US$350. I will probably hold off buying until my next trip to Japan which should be early 2024.

 

[David Haas]

Not to discourage anyone from purchasing a new Inon S220 but there are plenty previous S2000 units out there ! I continue to find them for friends and fellow UW photographers as many think a Guide Number of 20 "isn't powerful enough". LOL.......

Average price for one in good shape - $200 USD and sometimes less! A friend just picked up TWO for a great price then added mounts, optical cord and whatever......

She has the same compact Fantasea FG7X II housing and will try shooting a single on the Inon Shoe Base II mounted on the housing cold shoe. Then maybe both strobes on a lightweight tray with flex arms. Then decide what she prefers diving and traveling with.

Here's a few more shot with one strobe on a modest length 12" flex arm and single tray on a previous dive day at our local quarry. How you aim the flash is important.

The Inon S2000 has like 95 degrees vertical by 100 degrees horizontal with no diffuser (!!!!!) So plenty of coverage for my 24mm equivalent "Air Lens" focal length.

Sometimes shooting one strobe really helps to eliminate backscatter

DH

 

[noserider]

I am also on the look out for those as well, but again this side of the pond they seem scarce :-(

I also do wonder about the need for power, if you went back a decade or so a guide number of 20 would have been viewed as great.

I have a pair of Symbiosis SS2's at the moment but just never use the video lights and they are a little bulky to travel with plus are a bit big for macro, so I am not any real rush and might just buy a snoot for the SS2's

 

[Nemrod]

Inion strobes are more powerful IMO than their guide numbers lead you to think. They have a very broad, even light without any real center hot spot and thus the lower GN for the center of the beam if that makes sense.

But, when I get new strobes I want the new S220 for that little (half stop) gain in power. Or, maybe, if I ever have any money instead of spending it on regulators and dive trips, maybe just settle for the S2000 (I have D2000 strobes).

And Inon strobes are reliable and last a long time. Maybe longer than you want .

 

[Marshmellow]

I use a S-2000 with my Z-240. The latter provides a higher guide # and is my main flash. I use the S-2000 as the shadow fill flash, so guide # 20 is plenty. The thing I like about the combination is the Z-240 has a built in focus light that turns off right before the flash fires, so there's no hot spot from a focus light that stays on (most). Also, the S-2000 can be triggered by the Z-240 without a optical cable, which has some nice possibilities for backlighting. I Imagine the S220 has the same. I used to use two Z-240's but the S-2000 and new S220 are so small and light, it helped trim down my travel rig.

 

[bvanant]

I am not sure that for most focus lights, you could actually see the focus light in a flash lit photo at least if the flash is working. My guess is that the strobe is at least 5 orders of magnitude brighter than the focus light. The issue of using your strobe as the focus light is that mostly we don't point our strobes directly at the subject, hence the use of an external focus light.
Bill

 

[davehicks]

Unless you are shooting very slow shutter speeds like 1/2 second, you won't see any light from a spotting light. If you are using a proper wide angle beam on low power you would never see it. Auto shutoff is a pretty useless feature.

 

[Marshmellow]

You guys are correct in most situations. I shoot mostly super macro, so the focus light from the strobe helps with focus and I don't have to turn on my really bright video light. There are a few video light models that also turn off the light before the strobe, so in some situations it works to have the focus light off. I was always curious how those units would do this, since it's built into the Inon Z series. If it was totally worthless, why would they offer the feature? Probably 90% of the time one wouldn't see it from what I've read. Thanks for the info.