Strobe Selection

[SEMO Scuba]

I have started taking underwater pictures this year and I am now looking to add a strobe to my kit. I'm using an Olympus C-5000 in an Olympus PT-019 housing. The strobes I am considering are Inon S-2000, Inon D-2000, or a Sea & Sea YS-01.

The S-2000 is really small. The D-2000 & YS-01 are both larger. The D-2000 has more features.

Is anyone on the forum using a C-5000 with a strobe? If so what strobe do you use and does it work well with your camera?

Are others on the forum using the above mentioned strobes? If so what do you like or not like about them?

I am open to suggestions for other strobe models or brands too.

 

[KeithG]

1 strobe or 2?

A single strobe gives a one sided shadow to your shots. This looks okay in a small percentage of situations, but you will likely immediately want a second strobe.

I suggest you consider 2 lower priced units.

 

[Ardy]

Hi Semo to contradict giffenk I used a single strobe set over the top of my nikon film rig for about 10 years with good results. The downside is a flatness to the photo's and picking up particles in the water.

As a new flash photographer I think it is a good discipline to start with a single flash as well as removing it to get different effects like side lighting giffenk suggests. Once you are happy with photography then you can invest in a second flash.

S-2000 or D-2000 are good strobes that will make excellent slave/2nd strobes if you upgrade.

Another thought is that if the 5000 has manual settings you could use a cheap manual flash that you can pick up for under $100 and learn on that, then put your money into something good.

I used a SnS 50 for 3 years as a slave flash and on one occasion when I had a problem as my main/only flash. So if you are cash strapped this is good way to learn manual flash (which is very important if you get into UW photography). You can easily rig these old flashes up with an optical cable, providing they have a slave option. If you are interested drop me a note and I will explain how I did it.

 

[SEMO Scuba]

Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[SEMO Scuba]

I'm getting a bit frustrated with the photo supply house I am trying to buy the strobe from. Inon makes optical cable hookups like the one pictured below. They do not make a specific kit for my PT-019 camera housing. The supply house is trying to sell me one that fastens by Velcro to the flash diffuser. I would like to use one that clamps to the diffuser like the one pictured below. Does anyone know how I can contact Inon direct?

 

[nudibranco]

I think you might want to write to backscatter.com or reefphoto.com or opticaloceansales.com all great outfits...

Andrea

 

[SEMO Scuba]

I ended up ordering the Inon D2000 with UCS arm. It shipped today so I should have it Wednesday.

 

[jghflash]

You'll like the D2000. It's a good solid flash unit and should work just fine with your camera. Experiment with having it either on the left side or more directly from the top, The shadow thing can sometimes be an issue but I wouldn't worry about it. I have probably taken 6000 pictures with my one D-180 before I bought a D2000 as a second unit, and I have some pretty nice stuff. The key is to learn what it does in various positions and what the limitations are and either use them to your benefit or work around them. For a lot of macro work the flash overhead mimics sunlight from above and looks quite good. The one thing I definitely recommend is to get the Inon flash diffuser, if you didn't already. It softens the light and shadows considerably and personally I think it looks a lot better. Have fun!

 

[SEMO Scuba]

I mounted the new D-2000 strobe on the housing today and took a few dry land test photos. It works great. The Inon W2 cap set works fine with the Olympus PT-019 housing. Thanks all for your suggestions.