Ok, Bought camera and Housing now which strobe??

[DavidHickey]

Good morning,
Well I bought the camera and housing I wanted, Fuji E900 and Ikelite housing. I've started looking at strobes. Ikelite recommends the DS-125 for this housing at a cost of about 1050.00. As a "really" amateur photographer do I need something that expensive to get decent pictures? Or are there any recommendations for other manufacturers that are not as expensive. Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks
David

 

[AUTiger]

I regularly see people selling used DS-125s at a decent markdown. I even bought a DS-50 for $175 in the classifieds section of this board.

Since you can't do TTL you have lots of slave strobe options, but I only have experience with Ikelite.

David

 

[HowardE]

$1050 for a DS-125? That's a lot. Even with the EV controller that's still a high price

 

[Gilligan]

Good morning,
Well I bought the camera and housing I wanted, Fuji E900 and Ikelite housing. I've started looking at strobes. Ikelite recommends the DS-125 for this housing at a cost of about 1050.00. As a "really" amateur photographer do I need something that expensive to get decent pictures? Or are there any recommendations for other manufacturers that are not as expensive. Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks
David

That's there price which includes the arm and controller. The DS51 is cheaper but you still need the controller and arm package. You also need their tray, if it didn't come with your housing, which is not included from what I can see. The Ikelite system uses a controller instead of a fiber optic cord system.

Take a look at the Inon D2000 which uses the fiber optic system. Keep in mind you have to have a diffuser on the housing to attach the fiber optic cord clamp to. That attachment has to be located near the cameras flash. If you purchase the Ike adapter for your Ike housing that accommodates the 67mm wide angle and close-up lenses, it comes with a large flash diffuser that you can likely attach the Inon cord to. The Inon system requires you to cover the cameras flash inside the housing with a dark film patch to subdue the cameras flash. You will still need a tray and handle no matter what route you take.

You may want to stay with the Ike system all the way rather than mix and match. I have the Inon system but I also have a homemade tray system. A major plus for an all Ike system is access to REPAIR/SERVICE.

 

[StevenB]

I agree, many people rave about the Inon strobes. They are light, small (good for travel), run on AA batteries and put out good strength and coverage. I personally have Ike DS125's, but if I ever start to do more travel, I might change.

Steve B

 

[Larry C]

Haven't used the Inon, but hear great things about them. This week, I did a live aboard trip with a newbie, who had a brand new, never used set-up, including the Ikelite case and a DS-125 for his SP-350, and it worked great. He got some terrific shots, with very few problems. All of them were well lit, except a couple where he had the strobe too close and burned them. He had great success with the 67mm WA lens as well.

 

[Peter Guy]

I broke down and bought the Inon D2000 to use with my Canon S80 (after using a SeaLife SL960D with my Minolta Xg) and I must say I love it. I've been using the sTTL and it seems to work very well. The recycle time is very good -- all in all, I'm very pleased.

 

[isurus]

Personally - I use and recommend highly inon strobes and ulcs arms. Basically it seems if a strobe is really cheap its probably really weak. Another option if you don't want to spend a lot just yet (while you get used to the system, get your eye in etc) would be to use manual white balance or a magic filter.