I am proud owner of two MF-2 plus one snoot and have used them recently on few dives in Croatia with A7R5 and Sony 90mm macro lens - I must say that I was pretty disappointed... ☹️

My experience was that, when I use the MF-2s with the diffusers that produce nice soft light, I can use the camera at base ISO (100) only up to aperture f/11. Without the diffusers I can go up to f/16, but in any case I had to place the flashes as close to the end of the port as possible (no reserves for creative lighting, e.g, placing the strobes aside to create texture).

I did not even dare to dry the snoot, because the flashes were so weak...

Did others experience similar problems with FF macro?

I am just curious how other are satisfied with MF-2 for FF macro.

I know I could increase ISO, but I think this is far from ideal for macro photos, flashpower should not be the rate limiting factor. I have two HF-1s and like them a lot (previously I had Z330). Last two years I used the HF-1s also for macro and, of course, they produce plenty of light for any kind of macro, but HF-1 is big and heavy and the alternative with two MF-2s plus snoot looked very attractive...

Wolfgang

The MF-2 is great for FF Macro. Feel free to bump up your ISO to 160-250, which is what I do. I mostly use it with the snoot and shoot F11-F18 all the time. I pair it with an HF-1 (previously Inon 330) as a secondary fill light, but mostly on low power and with a reduction ring. The MF-2 is the primary light in most of my Macro shots.

(edit) I never use the diffusors and mostly shoot it at the top 2 power levels. (6 & 7}

Here are a couple of shots from a few days ago taken using the MF-2 on FF.

Nikon Z8 w/Nikkor 105mm lens, MFO diopter, f16@1/200s iso200 Backscatter MF-2 strobe & snoot + BS HF-1 strobe

Nikon Z8 w/Nikkor 105mm lens, MFO diopter, f14@1/250s iso160 Backscatter MF-2 strobe & snoot + BS HF-1 strobe

Edited 16 hours ago16 hr by Dave_Hicks

I really struggled with the same setup as @Architeuthis when I was in Dumaguete (even down to taking a snoot and not using it!). I thought the shots were darker than I expected (after copying other people's settings). I use the NL2160HP batteries so should have plenty of power available.

I got a couple of decent shots but I feel like they were more down to luck than judgement or skill!

I just put it down to my lack of knowledge/experience in manual strobe usage, which it probably was mostly, but I'll be following this thread for any tips! Sounds like bumping the ISO up would be a good thing to try next time I actually get in the water!

If your shots are dark using the MF-2 or Snoot, and you have adequate aperture and ISO you probably don't have the lights aimed properly. It can take some practice with the snoot in particular. Even a small aiming error will result in dark shots.

Another consideration is that you use the edges of your beam with diffusers in play but with the snoot you aim the centre of the beam right at the subject and you could get the strobe significantly closer to the subject as well. If you halve the distance you get 4x the light or 2 stops. The diffuser reduces total light output from the strobe but the snoot if it has no optics won't reduce the lumens/m2 too much as it is just selecting the light coming out from the strobe beam and blocking the edges of that beam. If you really didn't actually try the snoot at all, then you quite possibly missed this.

48 minutes ago, Chris Ross said:

Another consideration is that you use the edges of your beam with diffusers in play but with the snoot you aim the centre of the beam right at the subject and you could get the strobe significantly closer to the subject as well. If you halve the distance you get 4x the light or 2 stops. The diffuser reduces total light output from the strobe but the snoot if it has no optics won't reduce the lumens/m2 too much as it is just selecting the light coming out from the strobe beam and blocking the edges of that beam. If you really didn't actually try the snoot at all, then you quite possibly missed this.

The MF-2 snoot does have optics. And don't use the diffuser on this strobe, it does not have power it can afford to lose.