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Backscatter used the same equipment, conditions, and criteria to carefully test a wide range of strobes

Many of us will remember a time—not too long ago—when buying strobes wasn’t that hard. There just weren’t that many options to choose from: Ikelite shooters, armed with their electrical bulkheads, chose the best they could afford from Ikelite’s range. And (almost) everyone else used INONs or SEA&SEAs. Strobes worked (mostly), no one complained (much), and life was simple.

But in 2026, things are decidedly more complicated. Who doesn’t make strobes these days? AOI, Backscatter, Isotta, Kraken Sports, and Retra have all joined the fray, while the likes of INON, SEA&SEA, Ikelite, and SEACAM are offering us more options than ever before. So, if you’re having trouble figuring out where to start, we don’t blame you. Or if you’re hanging onto your “workhorses” and wondering what you’re missing, we can’t blame you either.

Alongside the shear number of strobes hitting the market in recent years, there’s also a slew of innovations to worry about—high-speed sync, remote control, built-in video lights, and more—as well as trying to understand all the jargon, from guide numbers and beam patterns to recycle times and color temperatures. Plus, it doesn’t make it any easier when no two strobe manufacturers seem to measure anything in the same way.

How to make sense of it all? Enter “The Best Underwater Strobes Tested 2026”—Backscatter’s latest article, and without doubt their most ambitious to date.
 

The Backscatter team tests (or plans to test) nearly every current strobe on the market. They even include some important discontinued models—like the SEA&SEA YS-250—for reference
 

Two upfront statements set the tone for Backscatter’s ultra-detailed article: first, “This article is best viewed on a desktop screen rather than mobile”; and second, “We Spent Hundreds of Hours Underwater.” In other words, this is not for the casual reader nor the faint of heart. However, if you’re interested in really understanding how strobes compare, and what specifications matter most to you, this impressively comprehensive article is essential reading.

With few industry standards to dictate how strobes are tested, and little or no information from manufacturers detailing their differing testing approaches, the Backscatter team started from scratch, using the same equipment, conditions, and criteria for testing each strobe. Maximum power (guide number), beam pattern, recycle time, color temperature, and weight are compared, but also less obvious things like flash duration and consistency of power levels. Importantly, the article does an admirable job of explaining exactly how tests were run and why the chosen methodologies were used.

Rigor and meticulousness aside, presenting complex comparative data like this is a real challenge, and Backscatter spare no effort to find elegant, interactive ways to show the differences between the strobes. Twin dropdown menus let you display measured beam patterns side by side; displayed recycle times can be added or removed from a graph with a mouse click; and color-coded bars on a chart allow you to see the difference between a stated spec and the measured one. Collectively, these various visualizations make it surprisingly easy to make sense of the data.

The Backscatter team dedicates about half of the article to explaining their testing methods, and in the process, they cover lots of important concepts and terminology that allow you to better appreciate the results. Especially if you’re new to the world of strobes and their specs, we’d recommend navigating to the “Testing Methods” section first before feasting your eyes on the data visualizations. Without doubt, there’s a fair bit to unpack here, but if you take the time to go through it carefully, you should be in a much better position to make an informed decision about your next strobe purchase. Keep in mind that Backscatter is continuing its testing and new strobe models will be added in due course.

Click here to check out the article on Backscatter.
 

To facilitate easy comparison of the tested strobes’ brightness and light fall-off, an interactive tool allows you to simultaneously display the left half of a selected strobe’s beam pattern with the right half of another. To reveal the complete beam pattern of either strobe, you just move the slider all the way to the left or right. In the above screenshot, we’re comparing the SEACAM 160D and Ikelite DS230
 

When comparing recycle times, per-strobe data can be added or removed by clicking on the legend, with detailed information popping up when mousing over data points. In the above screenshot, we’re comparing the Ikelite DS232, Isotta RED64, Retra Maxi and SEA&SEA YS-D3 Duo
 

When purchasing underwater photography equipment like the products mentioned in this article, please support DPG by supporting our retail partner—Backscatter.com.