NEW strobe / videolight OPTIMA-10000 from Underwater Technics.

[Pavel Kolpakov]

Underwater Technics company (Taiwan) has announced OPTIMA-10000 underwater strobe with 10 000  lumen video light.

Mass production starts in July-2025.

New strobe has the following features:

- Fine TTL exposure accuracy, supported by Underwater Technics TTL-Converters.

- Fine HSS exposure quality (no any banding at shutter speeds up to 1/8000s)!

- Circular shape flash tube provides a very uniform lighting on the whole area of the shot, especially in combination with the spherical dome,

- Extremely fast strobe recycling - 0.8 sec (after full dump)!

- Intellectual flash control is available by camera menu via UWTechnics TTL-Converter,

- Continuos shooting up to 120 fps (!), using UWTechnics TTL-Converter,

- Body and all parts are made of hard-anodized aluminum alloy, there are no any plastic parts.

- Strobe power 150 Ws, Color Temperature 5500K,

- Pilot light 600 lumen with Auto-Off function during the flash,

- Video light 10 000 lumen, CRI 92, Color Temperature 5000K.

- Battery construction incorporates 4 x 18650 cells, balancing and safety electronics.

- Strobe weight (without battery) - 995g.

- Battery weight - 215g.

- Bayonet front mount for snoot, color filters and other external accessories.

- Optional external reflectors (with bayonet mount) provide different beam width,- for different shooting tasks.

- Snoot, reflectors, color filters and diffusers exist in production plan.

Here are the photos of pre-production sample:

 

 

Edited February 9 by Pavel Kolpakov

[Adventurer]

5 hours ago, Pavel Kolpakov said:

Continuos shooting up to 120 fps (!), using UWTechnics TTL-Converter,

 

Congratulations. The specs read truly unbelievable and too good to be true.

Especially the 120 fps above somehow contradict to the 0.8 sec recycle time two lines earlier.

They would require 1/120 sec -> 0,0083 sec recycle time.

 

😵‍💫 😵‍💫 🤯  that's 100x times faster then the recycling speed after a full dump.

 

I am sure all this will somehow make sense, but maybe you can elaborate a little and "demystify" this claim.

 

Edited February 9 by Adventurer

[Pavel Kolpakov]

12 hours ago, Adventurer said:

 

Congratulations. The specs read truly unbelievable and too good to be true.

Especially the 120 fps above somehow contradict to the 0.8 sec recycle time two lines earlier.

They would require 1/120 sec -> 0,0083 sec recycle time.

 

😵‍💫 😵‍💫 🤯  that's 100x times faster then the recycling speed after a full dump.

 

I am sure all this will somehow make sense, but maybe you can elaborate a little and "demystify" this claim.

 

There is no any contradiction. The continuous shooting is actually available up to 120 fps using this strobe and UWTechnics TTL-Converter. The recycling time after full dump is actually 0.8 sec.

 

The maximum 120 fps speed of course cannot be reached at the 150 Ws full power in each of 120 flashes during 1 second. Energy saved in capacitors is only 150 Joules. Strobe does not recharge at such speed at all (between such fast 120 flashes). So, you have to divide the available energy to the quantity of flashes. The 120 fps speed can be reached at small flash power, like 1/125. And UWTechnics TTL-Converter new firmware supports such continuous shooting speed with this strobe, for example with Sony A9 III camera. At such speed it can be used for any special macro tasks or so.

 

But of course, 120fps would be extremely rare usage anyway. In reality we use up to 15 fps in underwater photography, in most of cases the 2-3 fps is enough.

Edited February 10 by Pavel Kolpakov

[scubadiggy]

Strobes nowadays have all the relevant specs and modes BUT have become quite heavy. Close to 2..4 kgs with batteries. 

 

Anyways look forward to the launch and would love to try these.

 

Diggy

[CaolIla]

26 minutes ago, scubadiggy said:

Strobes nowadays have all the relevant specs and modes BUT have become quite heavy. Close to 2..4 kgs with batteries. 

Euhhhh 

 

Quote

- Strobe weight (without battery) - 995g.

- Battery weight - 215g.

1,2 kg for one strobe on land  it's more or less the same as the new retra maxi


@Pavel Kolpakov What is the volume of the flash to calculate the underwater weigth (depending on the water) 
Thanks

[Pavel Kolpakov]

On 2/10/2025 at 4:05 PM, CaolIla said:

....  underwater weigth (depending on the water) 
Thanks

The weight is 230g in the fresh water.

[Pavel Kolpakov]

We are preparing TTL/HSS profile for TTL-Converters now for OPTIMA-10000 support.

 

[Adventurer]

On 2/9/2025 at 1:10 PM, Pavel Kolpakov said:

Fine HSS exposure quality (no any banding at shutter speeds up to 1/8000s)!

@Pavel Kolpakov as you are an expert on HSS as I have read here: https://wetpixel.com/articles/fundamentals-of-ttl-strobe-control-by-pavel-kolpakov/P3

 

Does this old statement from you, when there was mainly just the RETRA strobe supporting HSS, still hold:

 

„For uniform illumination of the frame with such a shutter operation, the flash should be a long sequence of short flashes with a repetition rate of about 30 kilohertz, firing all the time while the open shutter slit moves along the window. 

 

The total burn time of these flashes is about five times longer than that of a mono-flash, while its intensity is noticeably lower. It is customary to regulate the power of the HSS flash by changing the frequency of these pulses.“

 

As you explicitly market „no HSS banding“ for your upcoming strobes. Were there strobes which showed this on some occasions?

 

Do the current HSS capable strobes act differently? Meaning mainly:

 

1.) RETRA

2.) Marelux Apollo III 2.0

3.) Backscatter HF-1 Hybrid Strobe

4.) Marelux Apollo S

 

Backscatter writes in their manual that in HSS mode the strobe power dial does not have any function and the HF-1 will fire HSS always in same strength. 
 

Contrary Marelux seems to allow adjustments in M-HSS mode.

 

Does your 30 kHz and five times longer duration statement from 2021 still apply to the HSS strobes mentioned above and your upcoming strobe?

Edited February 12 by Adventurer

[Pavel Kolpakov]

19 hours ago, Adventurer said:

................

 

The strobes you listed are very worthy products. I don't discuss products from other manufacturers, it is not my task, sorry. I can only tell photographers about our own HSS system of the flash OPTIMA-10000 and about the essence of the HSS flash lighting in general.
The principles of normal flash synchronization and HSS-flash synchronization are explained in the picture below:

 

 

At slow shutter speeds (up to 1/250s) the normal usual synchronization is in effect - the flash fires once at the moment of the fully open mechanical shutter window, full energy flash usually lasts 1-2 milliseconds. This is called the normal flash synchronization, or "X-synchronization". But at ultra fast shutter speeds (faster than 1/250s) the shutter window no longer opens completely, such a moment does not exist at all, it is a narrow open strip moving along the frame during 5 milliseconds. Here only HSS synchronization is possible, - the strobe makes many small quickly following flashes (the base frequency is usually about 30 kHz) firing during 5 milliseconds, thus exposing the entire frame. And the faster the shutter speed, the narrower the open strip. The method of adjusting the intensity of HSS flash illumination usually is to change the frequency.

The main problem with the HSS flash lighting is considered to be the so-called "Banding". These are alternating dark and light narrow stripes on the image. The reason is the parasitic interaction of the pulsations of the HSS flash and the camera shutter work. With an increase in shutter speed, banding increases, sometimes at speeds closer to 1/8000 it becomes unacceptable for shooting. Banding is very dependent on the camera and flash model. With one camera model it is more noticeable, with another less. The problem of banding at the global level in photographic equipment has not yet been solved, even in land photography. Manufacturers of photographic equipment are struggling with this effect, but with varying success.

 

Our strobe OPTIMA-10000 has another HSS frequency and completely different method of HSS flash intensity adjustment, than other underwater strobes. It was our own development.
       Developing our OPTIMA-1000, we performed hundreds of experiments related to HSS, as a result of which we optimized the electronic components, parameters adjustments and firmware, related to the operation in HSS mode in order to minimize the banding effect. Currently, testing the HSS flash with the camera models we have in stock (7 camera models, including Nikon, Canon, Sony and Olympus), - there is no banding, the image is absolutely clear even at 1/8000. Of course, banding may appear with some other cameras that we do not have in stock, so we plan to gradually test all other cameras popular in underwater photography to confirm the effect. We will publish the results.

Edited February 13 by Pavel Kolpakov

[Lewis88]

Is there a projected target price for these? Bundle pricing for 2x strobes and a trigger?

[makar0n]

Specs certainly do look very interesting!

Would there be any chance for a model without the video light to appear one day? Basically fixated on the weight - at 1.2 kg per strobe it is not very travel friendly for those of us without business class tickets xD

Also, as this sounds like a battery pack device - does it use a proprietary charger? Can the batteries be assembled DYI route?

[Joerg Arnold]

Hi Pavel, is a slave Mode on board? And could I continue to use my current Nikon Z8 UW-Technics TTL board?
Greetings Jörg

[Pavel Kolpakov]

23 hours ago, makar0n said:

Would there be any chance for a model without the video light to appear one day?

We have different strobes in plan for future. Some of them will be without video light.

[Pavel Kolpakov]

22 hours ago, Joerg Arnold said:

Hi Pavel, is a slave Mode on board? And could I continue to use my current Nikon Z8 UW-Technics TTL board?
Greetings Jörg

Hi Jorg,

 

We probably can update your TTL-converter, if hardwire allows the OPTIMA strobe support. We will check. Let's be in contact by messenger or e-mail.

 

What slave mode do you mean, probably the triggering from other strobes? We plan to produce an external sensor (screws to the strobe input) for creative shooting with few strobes, which provides a wide radiation pattern and high sensitivity to pulse flash, but totally resistant to sunlight and torches. Such device electronics is already developed by us. This task will be covered very effectively.

Edited February 16 by Pavel Kolpakov