Symbiosis SS-2

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Zac786

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Location
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Has anyone used the i-dive Symbiosis SS-2 ? How does it perform as far as the battery life and power is concerned? Same battery for the strobe and the light would have limitations. I was planning to get a Sea &Sea D2 strobe and a video light separate but the sales person convinced me that possibly SS2 would be better. Does the auto system work well?
 
The SS2 has a strobe output GN of 32 (in air) so should be comparable to the Inon and S&S strobes. In strobe mode you should get 2 dives. In video mode, probably only one. Get a spare battery and keep it charged.
Bill
 
We have a review here:
I-Divesite Symbiosis SS-2 Lighting System Review


It's probably one of the nicest manual strobes I've used. I didn't get a chance to play with the auto exposure function, but have heard it works pretty well, particularly with compacts. As I mostly shoot in manual strobe control anyway, if was great, very easy to dial up and down, and the display easy to read - it even re-orients itself if you flip the strobe over!

It looks a little heavy out of water, but in the water it's quite neutral.

One issue in testing was the lack of a diffuser, they have come out with a very nice dome diffuser now, as well as a flat one. We have in stock both the SS-2 with a 2,000 lumen light head and the SS-2 with a 4,000 light head.

IDAS-SS2-clr-7.jpg


IDAS-SS2-clr-5.jpg
 
Well I'm probably going to be getting the symbiosis SS-2 with the 4000 lumen video light as my first strobe. I'll report back after my trip to cayman brac with it.
 
Well finally I got one with a 2000 lumen light. I like the flexibility you get as you can change the video light to 4000 lum or even 1000 fill in light. But the strobe is very powerful with the GN of 32 which is as powerful as it can get. I like the battery pack as well as it lasts more and packs a real punch more than the AA batteries. It is also the same pack for the VENOM 50 Video light which is 5000 lumen. I do have another video light of 2000 lumen which will make it nice and even rather than having one more powerful light. The strobe does come with a diffuser and it will reduce the power by about one f stop but the manual says that it can make the auto operation a little unreliable. I am not sure if the auto mode is as good as the TTL but will try it out in Mexico in the next two weeks.
 
I did my first dives with the SS-2s/2000 lumen heads. The output from the video lights was great, easily on par with the Sola 2000's. As it was first time using strobes since the film days, I feel I have a little bit of learning to do. Some pics from the dive attached. Photos taken using a Panasonic GX85 in Nauticam housing, with Olympus 12-50 lens. I had the lights on full power for the majority of the first dive, as well as doing about 70 strobe fires. The battery light was flashing and LED power was diminishing after about 75 minutes (80 minute dive). I was a little more conservative with the video lights on dive 2, and easily got in an 80 minute dive before my GX85 battery died. Argh!
 

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My only issue with the symbiosis and trying to use the video light as a focus helper is that mostly I don't aim my strobes at my subjects. If the top light could rotate it would be more helpful.
Bill
 
Agreed that lighting positioning is definitely different between photo and video, as are the various techniques different people use. I'm usually repositioning my lights for each shot.
 
The strobe comes with both ball and YS mounts. So swiveling the light is pretty easy... ;-)
As it's a video light you're using as a focus light, the beam is much wider than many normal focus lights...it also has a blink off feature.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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