5 hours ago, Adventurer said:

Hi @Kiliii Yuyan

- “Retra the best… f*** the rest?” 😄

Seriously though: what did the poor Apollo III ever do to you to get roasted that hard?

Jokes aside, I’m trying to reconcile your January 2026 conclusions with a couple of practical, quantitative questions:

1. Apollo version / light quality

   Your post is Jan 2026 and you sourced the latest Retra Maxi — why not bench-test the current Apollo III revision as well (the one with the micro-peened dome glas update that’s supposed to improve beam/“quality of light” and reduce the need for the dome diffuser)?

   If it simply wasn’t available: totally fair - but then the “needs diffuser / poor coverage” verdict is basically “Apollo III 2.0 as tested”, not necessarily “Apollo III today”, right?

2. Missing HF-1 = missing power anchor

   No HF-1 in the lineup means there’s no obvious power/price reference point. Alex Mustard has called the Backscatter HF-1 „the strongest strobe he’s tried“ — was it just impossible to get one in time, or was there a reason you skipped it?

3. Retra Maxi burst: what’s the real ceiling without drama?

   8 fps is a fine level playing field, but what I (and probably many) want is the Maxi’s actual max sustainable rate with no black frames and no meaningful exposure drift, plus the GN/power level where that holds.

   So in practical terms: does the Maxi get anywhere near Apollo’s 10–12 fps-ish territory in its stable modes, or is it fundamentally behind on high-fps burst consistency?

Context: I already own HF-1 (brightest) + Apollo III 2.0 (fastest). I’m trying to figure out whether the Maxi adds a new capability or mostly overlaps.

Thanks in advance — genuinely curious, and I appreciate the effort you put into measuring this stuff.

PS: I’m not allergic to Retra winning - I just want any comparison to include the actual monsters in the room.

I have the HF-1 and the Atom and will make those comparisons. Thanks for sharing your ideas for evaluating these similar strobes.

6 hours ago, Muellema said:

Hi Dave,

would you share the 3D/CAD files of the knobs. I also sometimes mix up the power and mode knob due to almost same design (only length is differnt). I was thinking to design a clip-on knop. But if your design solves also the "salt problem"👍😃. To be honest, I hadn't figured out the salt problem until today. Will later remove a knop on my strobe to get an idea how much salt stuck there.

Br Markus

I share all of my designs and will post the Retra knobs soon. I am going to complete the set with a Power Level knob and will share them after a few more test dives.

Can anyone share the height and diameter of the Pro Max knobs? I want to know if they are the same. Some of the older Retra models have smaller knobs.

@Kiliii Yuyan well done sir!