What strobe should I buy?

[Helen]

Hi all,

Have bitten the bullet and bought some lenses for my Fuji F30 (Inon UCL-165AD macro lens & Inon UWL-100AD wide angle lens). Suppose i should be looking at getting a strobe next. What strobe would you recommend to go with this setup? I have the cheap fuji one (which I've never used) but dont think that's going to be much good especially with the wide angle lens. Also what other bits would I need/ how do I attach it all to my housing (Fuji Housing)?

Thanks in advance
Helen

[aquakiwi]

The Inon Z240 is an excellent compact strobe, Ive brought three on ebay from Hong Kong at a very good price.
Inon Z240 type 3 underwate strobe

</IMG>

[DDT uk]

There is a good comparitor on DigitialDiver that shows the various attributes of the strobes. For wide angle you want a nice wide beam. More power is always good (higher guide number), as is the number of manual settings if you do not have or use ttl.

Small cheap strobes may seem alright now but you'll soon sell them and buy bigger and better if you do the same in terms of your camera. You are better off buying decent kit now. Buy cheap, buy twice.

Do you know how much you are prepared to spend?

[Cussy]

Daniel makes a good point. Do you see yourself upgrading the camera in time? If you go DSLR then your choice now could be totally useless to you. If you don't see that happening then still buy as good as you can. As mentioned the Inon's are good, as is the Sea & Sea YS-110, and so are my Ikelite DS-125s. With super wide angle lenses you often need (or should that be want!) 2 strobes to adequately illuminate.

As well as power and spread, consider what batteries they take, how many shots the batteries can power it for, weight, and the strobe will dictate what tray & strobe arm you chose.

Photography is 95% about light, so when it comes to strobes the choice is quite critical, but if you buy right now you will get years out of a strobe.
HTH
Rob

[Mike W]

Hi Helen,

All the comments made so far are well worth bearing in mind.

Reading your OP, though, why not use your set-up with the Fuji strobe somewhere convenient and local, that way you'll get some idea of using external strobes which should help inform your decision making in terms of handling, and if you can look at the pics you get it'll tell you about angles of coverage, strobe power and so on.

[KenByrne]

I go with Mike before ditching the Fuji strobe at least give it a try. With wide angle available light can produce some good shots depending on how deep you are and how much light there is. With availble light a strobe can be used to pick out a detail close to the lens so doesn't necessarily have to light the whole frame.

[Helen]

Thanks for the great replies everyone. Definitely intend trying the fuji strobe (when my lenses arrive, really hope they are here in time for Porthkerris on Friday).
Is useful to look at what would be the next step and what I should be saving my pennies for. At the moment I am happy with the F30 and have no immediate intentions of going DSLR (though I bet there are lots of you here who have said that at one point!), though obviously if anything I buy could be used if I should upgrade then that would be a bonus. DDT money wise not really sure at the moment (these things don't seem to be cheap), absolute max I suppose 3-400, though cheaper than that would be great.

Thanks again
Hopefully be able to show some results with the fuji strobes after next weekend but I think my lenses are stuck in customs at the moment!

Helen