I've just booked a last minute trip to Amed, Bali in a week so I thought I'd better start getting my gear ready - but I had some issues with my strobes last year in the Philippines, and I haven't got around to figuring it out properly yet........so I wondered if one of the more experienced folks would be able to point me in the right direction 😁

All of my issues last year were user error/incompetence - due to me having no clue about manual strobes and getting everything together last minute (there's a pattern emerging)!

I've just got a Macro setup at the moment so I'll be taking:

• Sony A7RV + 90mm + (Subsee+10/Inon UCL-165)

• 2 x Backscatter MF-2

• UWT 11075 Trigger

I've previously been in touch with Pavel, who said that setting the dial to 7 (Retra Pro Max) works for the MF-2 too, so that's straight forward - the thing I'm not 100% sure on is the camera settings.

Should the settings be something like this:

• MF-2 in Manual mode, camera in Fill-flash with WL OFF for non-HSS speeds

• MF-2 in HSS mode, camera in Fill-flash with WL ON for HSS speeds

Or, seeing as there is no TTL at play, should I just leave WL ON in the camera all the time, and just flick between Manual and HSS on the MF-2 when changing shutter speeds?

Do I need to be aware of anything specific to the MF-2's around the learning function and any potential pre-flashes from the trigger? I was thinking WL ON might mean no pre-flash, so it might be easier to keep WL ON all the time, so the MF-2 would just learn no pre-flash everytime anyway?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated - thanks!

Attached some of the luckier (and quite edited) shots from last year to try and make it more interesting than a wall of text 😁

Hopefully someone who actually does this will chime in, however, I assume you have read the manual;

#11075-HSS-SONY-A1-A9II-Nauticam-November-2025.pdf - Google ไดรฟ์

It has a section on shooting in manual mode, there are 3 ways of doing it, the WL mode it seems is a workaround to deal with the fact you can't set manual mode in the SONY menus, so the converter is set to use the WL mode setting to turn manual on and off through the WL setting in the menu. This is programmed into the converter, so WL mode doesn't do what the camera manual says it will.

It seems like the simplest way if you are not sure and new to manual mode and don't plan switch to TTL (it seems you are saying you are resigned to shooting manual), you follow the instructions for shooting in hard manual mode - setting so the converter is on zero as is the strobe. My understanding 0 is hard manual for any strobe and the other settings select the TTL profile and also allow HSS to work according to which strobe you have.

You may miss out on HSS this way, but this is not likely to be a problem unless you want to shoot in wide apertures for macro. It's probably best to KISS if you are new to manual strobe shooting and get that sorted before venturing into HSS. You just need to not set a shutter speed greater than max sync speed when shooting if you are in hard manual.