Strobes bring light into the sea. Without strobes, the underwater world would appear as a blue monotone, if not completely black. Strobe choice determines how much of a given scene we can illuminate. It also determines how fast we can illuminate it, a serious consideration given the often fleeting nature of our chance encounters with the various inhabitants of the seas.

I like to be able to light a large expanse of reef, or capture a fast moving critter even if it's larger than I am and moving as fast as a torpedo -- sharks and sea lions, for example. Thus I tend towards wide, powerful, fast strobes. For some years now I have been using Ikelite's SS200's. Their 100° angle of coverage is more than adequate to illuminate the area covered by a 15mm lens on a Nikonos V, or a 20mm lens used on a housed camera. With two hundred watt-seconds of power and less than two seconds recycle time on full power, the Ikelite SS200 is one of the widest, most powerful, and fastest strobes available today at any price. It was first choice for all purposes and all subjects, large and small, until the Ikelite DS125 came along.

Considerably smaller, with a bit more than half the power of the SS 200's, and only a one second recycle time at full power, they have become my new strobe of choice for wide angle photography. While I still prefer the more powerful SS200's for macro, where the extra power buys me an extra f-stop or so, and thus a tad more depth of field, the DS125's have proved more maneuverable when capturing those elusive moments with the larger and faster critters of the deep.

The Ikelite DS-125 underwater strobe

The Ikelite DS-125 underwater strobe combines extremely fast recycle times with a relatively small size and wide angle beam that make it ideal for shooting fast moving large animals like sharks and sealions; some folks are using it for macro as well, but I choose to stick to the SS 200's for the extra f-stop and slightly greater depth of field they afford.

The DS-125 has the fastest access battery of any Ikelite strobe to date. Merely push, pull, and twist, and the battery comes off in your hand in only two or three seconds. Slap it on an Ikelite Smart Charger and you're back in business in less than an hour or two depending on how depleted the battery was. The battery compartment o-ring is glued in, so you need only wipe it and its mating surface off with your finger prior to reassembly. No grease is needed, as the o-ring is a simple compression type -- no twisting or sliding occurs when tightening. The deeper you go, the tighter the seal, up to the depth limits of the strobe.