I have switched over to the Nikon Z8 and will be on another Black Water trip soon.

In an ideal world I would want to have my Retra Pro X strobes burst-shoot a couple of images. But are they capable of it ?

(I know they are not super at it due to the AA batteries)

I have just tried it and only the first image gets light, even on the lowest power setting.

Am I making some basic mistrake or is this just not possible with the Retra`s ?

Specs:

Nikon Z8

Nauticam housing with Nauticam LED Flashtrigger

Retra Pro X with battery booster/supercharger

I would have thought you’d get 2-3 shots - I usually do but have never really tried seriously long bursts - but of course depends on your camera settings: ISO, aperture, Manual/TTL etc. What are you trying to do?

Need more details of what you are doing, what trigger, manual or TTL, are you using the booster, how many frames/sec you are trying etc?

1 hour ago, TimG said:

I would have thought you’d get 2-3 shots - I usually do but have never really tried seriously long bursts - but of course depends on your camera settings: ISO, aperture, Manual/TTL etc. What are you trying to do?

Thanks Tim. That`s what I expected as well. I am trying typical "Black Water" setttings with Manual Strobe 1/200, F29 and ISO 400 and would love to get 2-3 shots per burst..

1 hour ago, Chris Ross said:

Need more details of what you are doing, what trigger, manual or TTL, are you using the booster, how many frames/sec you are trying etc?

Thanks Chris, as stated in first post:

Nikon Z8

Nauticam housing with Nauticam LED Flashtrigger

Retra Pro X with battery booster/supercharger

I was attempting burst shooting the Z8 with 10 frames/second, Manual Strobe/no TTL.

To be sure I tried the strobes with booster on lowest power, still only the first shot got light.

f29 is a pretty small aperture which lets in precious little light (and must lead to considerable image softness too). And 1/200 shutter speed is quite fast. Could you not use, say, f11 and 1/60? I doubt though you’re ever going to be able to shoot 10 frames a second with any strobe.

7 hours ago, Aliens From The Deep said:

Thanks Chris, as stated in first post:

Nikon Z8

Nauticam housing with Nauticam LED Flashtrigger

Retra Pro X with battery booster/supercharger

I was attempting burst shooting the Z8 with 10 frames/second, Manual Strobe/no TTL.

To be sure I tried the strobes with booster on lowest power, still only the first shot got light.

There's something going on there, at minimum power it should fire off a few bursts before needing to recharge, regardless of aperture you are using. The aperture is a separate problem as it won't burst on min power . A couple of things to try:

• Try progressively reducing frames/sec

• See if the camera will allow setting second curtain sync, then do a test shot in a darkened room with the shutter speed around 1 second. This is a handy way to check if a pre-flash is firing, the pre-flash fires first and the main flash at the end of the exposure. It just allows you to see both pulses. I know it "shouldn't" but worth checking.

• What batteries are you using - eneloop or eneloop pro is generally recommended.

• How old is your flash trigger - it may have some issues with the Z8 as it has no mechanical shutter??

• Try triggering you strobes with a Nikon speedlight as trigger if you have one, test shooting into a mirror so you can see if the strobe fired easily

• If you still have your OM-1 see if burst shooting works there

@Aliens From The Deep

I was shooting using my Nikon Z8 in Anilao on blackwater dives ~4 weeks ago, 3-4 shots at a burst at times., with Retra strobes.

After shooting blackwater on the Z8, I'm not sure I would ever shoot at f29 (at 1/200). I'm usually at 1/125 (at the fastest) and often even slower (1/80 if it's not fast moving, etc.) unless I'm shooting HSS. And for shooting anything that's partly translucent I'm usually down around at f10 or f11. Only shooting very reflective subjects (like silvery fish) would I be at a smaller aperture.

Edited yesterday at 08:32 AM1 day by OneYellowTang

On 11/18/2025 at 10:21 PM, TimG said:

I doubt though you’re ever going to be able to shoot 10 frames a second with any strobe.

10fps are done at easy with Marelux strobes at full power in their ultra-fast MTL mode. But you have to use them in MTL and with fibre optic cable (not Lumilink) to squeeze out the maximum repetitive performance.

They are currently leading the fast recycle time without blackout frame technology in underwater strobes.

Here on the forum is a pretty dismal measurement of mx strobe strength by dreifish though - something I could not agree to when comparing it 1to1 to my Backscatter HF-1. I can only assume the Apollo tested by Dreifish must have been a monday model or malfunctioning pre-production unit.

On any AA eneloop powered strobe you will struggle to get fast recycle times near 8 - 12fps. You need a strobe which utilizes 18650 or 21700 high current discharge cells. Otherwise the capacitors cannot fill back up at the speed you desire.

On 11/18/2025 at 5:13 PM, Aliens From The Deep said:

Am I making some basic mistrake or is this just not possible with the Retra`s ?

I just recalled that Henley Spiers has shown the RETRA fast recycle time performance in his review:

https://www.divephotoguide.com/underwater-photography-special-features/article/first-impressions-marelux-apollo-iii-2-0-strobe

It‘s showing a lot of struggle at 7fps.

The Marelux strobe smokes the oneUW and RETRA in this discipline.

Edited 14 hours ago14 hr by Adventurer

I'll try this out later with my Retra Pro Max strobes. I seem to remember struggling with burst shooting above 1/2 power but under that it was okay.

This is clearly something else, on minimum power they should allow for rapid firing, something is preventing this. The suggestions I posted above are test for potential issues. My first inclination is a problem with the trigger, online I see various issues reported with the Z8 and trying to sync with manual flashes.