RETRA Lithium-Ion Battery Pack

[Jay-11]

Got this in my email today and did not see much info on the Retra site.  Has anyone heard any upfront info on these for all of their strobes?  Might be interested in adding these to my strobes.  The sire noted that preorders will start at the end of June but did not see any other info.

[TimG]

Yeah, I got that too and it was the first I'd heard of it. Fits all of the Retras apart from the originals.

 

Interesting for sure. One thing I really like about the Retras though is being able to use AA batteries. Easy to charge, transport, replace etc etc.

[CaolIla]

1 hour ago, TimG said:

One thing I really like about the Retras though is being able to use AA batteries. Easy to charge, transport, replace etc etc.

Yes... but if it's possible to have a "big" batterie and shoot the double or more as with 8 AA batteries why not 

[TimG]

3 hours ago, CaolIla said:

Yes... but if it's possible to have a "big" batterie and shoot the double or more as with 8 AA batteries why not 

 

Oh sure, I totally agree - hence being interested 😀

[Tom Kline]

14 hours ago, CaolIla said:

Yes... but if it's possible to have a "big" batterie and shoot the double or more as with 8 AA batteries why not 

 

We will just have to wait until the specs come out. Given its compatibility with many models it will likely be the same size as 4 AA batteries which does not suggest a super high capacity. Hopefully will at least equal 8 AAs. But upgrades will be possible.

 

[Guest]

I would like to know if the new battery pack helps the cycle time which appear very slow with AA and no booster

 

[CaolIla]

With the booster no problem with the recycle time...  

[Guest]

3 hours ago, CaolIla said:

With the booster no problem with the recycle time...  

inconvenient add on 

each eneloop pro is just 3 Wh this is an issue if you want to feed a 140 J lamp. With 8 you have 24 wh.

for comparison the two batteries in the back scatter hf-1 deliver 38 wh and 20 A

that will recharge much much faster and deliver 58% more shots assuming both are 140 Ws

in essence the retra pro max should really have a custom battery pack like seacam and oneuw

[TimG]

But not having a custom battery pack has been one of the many advantages, for me, of the Retras. Charging or obtaining AAs is never a problem.
 

Whilst only using 4xAA could at times, be a challenge depending on circumstances, with 8 installed I’ve never had an issue.  I struggle to think of a real life scenario where this would be a show stopper of a problem. 

[ChrisH]

29 minutes ago, TimG said:

But not having a custom battery pack has been one of the many advantages, for me, of the Retras. Charging or obtaining AAs is never a problem.
 

Whilst only using 4xAA could at times, be a challenge depending on circumstances, with 8 installed I’ve never had an issue.  I struggle to think of a real life scenario where this would be a show stopper of a problem. 

 

Same here. Like always there are pros and cons on everything. The custom battery packs can be crazy expensive and if it fails, you won't get replacement if you are on a trip somewhere. Spare is mandatory here. Same is for the chargers, which can be custom too. And according to Murphys Law they will work fine at home and stop working right on the once-of-a-lifetime trip in the middle of the ocean...

 

I have four battery packs for the seacams... Could have bought almost two mid-range strobes for that.

 

But with the early Retra Pros, the Super Charger was not an option but more a necessity (at least for me). And charging 16 AAs can get cumbersome on some liveaboards today, depending on how much photographers are on the trip. Mind everybody charging their phones/tablets/Laptops/dive computers/dive lights anyway...

[Guest]

1 hour ago, TimG said:

But not having a custom battery pack has been one of the many advantages, for me, of the Retras. Charging or obtaining AAs is never a problem.
 

Whilst only using 4xAA could at times, be a challenge depending on circumstances, with 8 installed I’ve never had an issue.  I struggle to think of a real life scenario where this would be a show stopper of a problem. 

If you want to use high power circular flash tubes AA batteries are not the way to go. Even with supercharger the charge times are not exciting and make the strobe more cumbersome 

AA are a good solution for linear flash tubes operating under 100 Ws

the other issue is efficiency the price to pay for a nice wide beam is efficiency so I personally would not get anything going on 8 AA nor a custom pack with NiMH (which is also limited)

custom lithium pack or even better two 21700 batteries are interesting for high power strobe

[TimG]

I can’t say the combination of a round flash tubbe and the AA battery arrangement has caused me any problems at all with the Retra’s I’ve had. 
 

I’ve  used them for macro, wide-angle and snooting. For snooting I did find it much better to have the 8 battery arrangement but for “usual” macro and wide-angle. 4 batteries usually covered 2 dives without much of an issue. 
 

I can’t argue the technical calculations. I can only report my experience as a user who just wants to take quality images. 

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, TimG said:

I can’t say the combination of a round flash tubbe and the AA battery arrangement has caused me any problems at all with the Retra’s I’ve had. 
 

I’ve  used them for macro, wide-angle and snooting. For snooting I did find it much better to have the 8 battery arrangement but for “usual” macro and wide-angle. 4 batteries usually covered 2 dives without much of an issue. 
 

I can’t argue the technical calculations. I can only report my experience as a user who just wants to take quality images. 

It has nothing to do with circular beams being better

Normally linear tubes are low power low cost for speedlites

If you buy a studio flash it will have a circular tube because they dissipate heats more heasily and have higher power

I do not have enough use case for portrait photography however my photography club had some nice profoto for lending to members and training with massive circular tubes, built in fans and mains powered

Now that is something!

The strobes that have circular tubes in most (but not all cases) have 140-160 Ws which is something you cannot easily do with a single tube in fact the backscatter and the sea and sea have two linear

In general terms high quality studio flash are round there is no debate that those are better however it is also true that in studio you never shoot without a light modifier  (reflector or soft box) because not matter what you get hot spots

My comments was only to stress that a nice high power strobe needs adequate power so this new retra battery pack is interesting

Frankly I have little interest in using a strobe with 8 AA even if it last a whole day I need to have 4x 4xAA chargers or 2x8 AA chargers which is really a lot to go on

[DreiFish]

Charging 8 (or 16) individual AA batteries was the main frustration I had with my Retra strobes. If a single (lithium) battery pack can replace the 4 or 8 AAs, that'd be a major bonus in my view. 

[TimG]

I appreciate your concerns guys about all that battery charging with the AAs.
 

I’ve done multiple liveaboard trips carrying 32 AA batteries and two 4x battery USB driven AA chargers. No problem. Using the same charger for my dive light’s 4x AA batteries too. 
 

But yeah, let’s see what the Retra guys come up with. I just don’t want to carry another charging unit. 
 

But each to his own eh? I appreciate what might work for me is not what everyone might want. 

[Guest]

39 minutes ago, DreiFish said:

Charging 8 (or 16) individual AA batteries was the main frustration I had with my Retra strobes. If a single (lithium) battery pack can replace the 4 or 8 AAs, that'd be a major bonus in my view. 

thats right currently it is the reason why am not considering them

I am not sure how you can insert 21700 into a hold designed for AA if they are 18650 this is not going to be a major improvement

[Guest]

Just now, TimG said:

I appreciate your concerns guys about all that battery charging with the AAs.
 

I’ve done multiple liveaboard trips carrying 32 AA batteries and two 4x battery USB driven AA chargers. No problem. Using the same charger for my dive light’s 4x AA batteries too. 
 

But yeah, let’s see what the Retra guys come up with. I just don’t want to carry another charging unit. 
 

But each to his own eh? I appreciate what might work for me is not what everyone might want. 

I use a USB power supply and everything feeds from it however it has 5 outputs of which one is for the laptop

With 4 USB A I can charge the camera batteries two sets of 4 AA and 1 phone

Lithium Battery packs charge with USB C nornally so that would mean I switch to dual USB C (laptop and strobe) and dual USB A camera and phone so that would be great

I do not use any dedicated chargers and I understand retra will just use a USB C connector directly to the pack

Many 21700 batteries like SUPE had a USB C port on the battery

[DreiFish]

6 hours ago, Interceptor121 said:

thats right currently it is the reason why am not considering them

I am not sure how you can insert 21700 into a hold designed for AA if they are 18650 this is not going to be a major improvement

2 x 21700 = 3 x 18650 batteries. Same weight and energy density. Current probably is better with the 21700, but the Marelux Apollo 3s use 3x18650s. 

[Guest]

58 minutes ago, DreiFish said:

2 x 21700 = 3 x 18650 batteries. Same weight and energy density. Current probably is better with the 21700, but the Marelux Apollo 3s use 3x18650s. 

From what I read 21700 have higher discharge current with peaks of 20A and nominal of 15A while 18650 are in essence similar to NiMh

21700 are used in tesla cars...

[scipionems]

Hi ,

i have seen this  https://www.retra-uwt.com/pages/retra-lithium-ion-battery-pack-coming-soon   on Retra-uwt.com.

Perhaps do you have some "rumours" or info about this li-ion battery pack ?...

 

 

[Jerry Diver]

I read somewhere (can't find the website now) they are coming out with pre-orders in early July and that the battery packs are proprietary standalone units, charged by a standard usb-c cable. 

[CaolIla]

16 minutes ago, Jerry Diver said:

charged by a standard usb-c cable

Good  we don't need a charger...  

[atus]

Well, I don't have experience with the Retras's, but I have experience with my olders Sea&Sea YS 120, which works with 8 AA battery, so I finally found me travelling with 32 AA batteries and 2 chargers for 8 batteries each, changing batteries after every single dive on a trip. After change to that shitty Sea&Sea D2 which gave me nothing but disappoinment I finally got 2 Subtronic 160 pro fusion, which work with battery packs made with 2 x 18650 cells each. I have 4 batterry packs but I don't like the battery packs, they stop working fine always in the middle of a trip because Murphy exists and he is a motherfu..er. I remember a trip to Bali which I had to dive 5 days only with one strobes due to issues in my battery packs, and those packs are expensive. So I finally made my own battery packs, in which I can remove the cells and charge it. This way if the cells have issues I simply replace it with no worries and unexpensive. Now I make my trips with a 8 cell 18650 charger and 16 cells. With this battery packs I can do 3 dives without changing batteries and I have spare for everytihing.

[Phil Rudin]

I had the same issue with the Sea & Sea YS-300 strobes that have a proprietary battery pack which eventually was discontinued and had to be replaced by custom made packs. The big downside is this was in the film days when we were only shooting three or four thirty-six exposures rolls a day. By today's standards we do that many exposures and much more on one dive.  

Edited June 20 by Phil Rudin

[TimG]

On batteries and their dive life, I’ve just got back from a 4-dive day in Sint Maarten (yay) with my Retra Max strobes. Probably 150 images at really varying power settings. Used the Booster, so AA x8. About 25% battery life showing as remaining. I was happy. 
 

About 2-3 hours to charge 8 batteries with 2x 4xAA USB chargers.