I know, no news, also still waiting for it

In the mean time Retra has anounced a new strobe, the Retra Flash Pure II.

Probably more expensive but I'm really interested in this one.

O well, save more money!

6 hours ago, Michiel said:

I know, no news, also still waiting for it

In the mean time Retra has anounced a new strobe, the Retra Flash Pure II.

Probably more expensive but I'm really interested in this one.

O well, save more money!

The new retra are really interesting and without doubt a lot better but also a lot more expensive!! 😅😅😅 what I didn’t like is the battery booster for 8 batteries.. 😅😅😅

Have you thought about Retra's Maxi?

3 hours ago, Walt Stearns said:

Have you thought about Retra's Maxi?

Of course… great piece of equipment…but they weight a lot.. not the best for travel.. 😭😭😭

6 hours ago, FabioGal73 said:

Of course… great piece of equipment…but they weight a lot.. not the best for travel.. 😭😭😭

They really are not that heavy. Several other strobes are as big or bigger. I get them, my R50 Nauticam, WWL and two CMC lenses and lipo batteries in a tiny little carryon suitcase. But, yes, I had to pack the Retras in my checked luggage to sneak under the 7kg wight limit for carryon on Singapore Airlines.

The Maxis are neutral in the water, I can hardly tell any difference between them and my little S220s save for the tremendous difference in power and that I never need to charge the batteries. It is crazy, they stay in the green for days!

Inon is so late for the party the party is over and everyone has gone home. This is well beyond fashionably late. Another thing, Retra actually supports their serviceable product. Inon, yeah, whatever. Good luck. And, true, I am an Inon fanboy but now even more so all things Retra ;).

Edited November 8Nov 8 by Nemrod

On 11/6/2026 at 11:24 PM, FabioGal73 said:

The new retra are really interesting and without doubt a lot better but also a lot more expensive!! 😅😅😅 what I didn’t like is the battery booster for 8 batteries.. 😅😅😅

What didn't you like about the boosters? The extra size or that you have to travel with 16 or 32 batteries?

Yesterday I was at my underwater camera store and asked about the inon Z-330 because they are listed on their website as pre-order. They said they don't want to do any prediction about them. They are supposed to be in store before the end of the year. But they also said that they only believe it when the Z-330's are physically available and in store. According to the sales guy a Z-400 was supposed to be available a couple of year ago, but well, we all know how that went........

Edited November 8Nov 8 by Michiel

there are some videos of this new strobe on YouTube about DEMA, one is this here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DJgMnEtefg

On 11/8/2026 at 12:48 AM, Nemrod said:

They really are not that heavy. Several other strobes are as big or bigger. I get them, my R50 Nauticam, WWL and two CMC lenses and lipo batteries in a tiny little carryon suitcase. But, yes, I had to pack the Retras in my checked luggage to sneak under the 7kg wight limit for carryon on Singapore Airlines.

The Maxis are neutral in the water, I can hardly tell any difference between them and my little S220s save for the tremendous difference in power and that I never need to charge the batteries. It is crazy, they stay in the green for days!

Inon is so late for the party the party is over and everyone has gone home. This is well beyond fashionably late. Another thing, Retra actually supports their serviceable product. Inon, yeah, whatever. Good luck. And, true, I am an Inon fanboy but now even more so all things Retra ;).

My carryon weight always more than ten kg with everything batteries camera strobes ports housing lenses MacBook… the only things that goes in the main baggage are the wwlC and arms and clamps… but during the check in the MacBook is in my hands and the overweight is on my body 😅😅

They are very good strobes but they can’t go in my carryon and a little out of budget for an underwater photographer that dive only in August every year.. 😭

On 11/8/2026 at 11:54 AM, Michiel said:

What didn't you like about the boosters? The extra size or that you have to travel with 16 or 32 batteries?

the extra size isn’t a huge problem… but having to use 8 batteries a strobe for achieving the full potential it’s annoying… already with inons I travel with 16AA…. 32 it’s a bit to much… 😅

2 hours ago, Susa said:

there are some videos of this new strobe on YouTube about DEMA, one is this here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DJgMnEtefg

Thanks a lot… newer strobes with new batteries are better without dubs, but size wise/power I’m still interested in this product… 😅😅

3 hours ago, FabioGal73 said:

Thanks a lot… newer strobes with new batteries are better without dubs, but size wise/power I’m still interested in this product… 😅😅

I am too. I might trade out (sell) my S220 strobe set for the new Z360. Or, perhaps not. What I have run into with every strobe I have used up until now is being able to kill ambient light. Min ISO, f16, fast shutter and I can still light the sharks and have finally a black background with the Maxi. Why did I want black, because the water was soupy and not pretty.

The issue I have run into with inon, and it seems similar with Sea and Sea/YS is repair and service. There is none. If it breaks or you break it, go buy another. I sent an Inon D2000 off for repair to a "place" after all the usual suspects turned down repairing it due to no parts, and I have never seen it since, now like, four years ago! Retra actually supports their product!

Before I lay out an estimated $950 each for the Z360 I would get a set of the new Retra Pure and just shoot with four cells each, to heck with the booster pack. Though it comes free with the into pricing.

Edited November 9Nov 9 by Nemrod

3 hours ago, Nemrod said:

.

The issue I have run into with inon, and it seems similar with Sea and Sea/YS is repair and service. There is none. If it breaks or you break it, go buy another. I sent an Inon D2000 off for repair to a "place" after all the usual suspects turned down repairing it due to no parts, and I have never seen it since, now like, four years ago! Retra actually supports their product!

That’s a great point.. repair them it’s impossible and it’s really a shame.. 😤🤦‍♂️

3 hours ago, Nemrod said:

Before I lay out an estimated $950 each for the Z360 I would get a set of the new Retra Pure and just shoot with four cells each, to heck with the booster pack. Though it comes free with the into pricing.

Arghh… 950 for an inon 360 without any assistance??!?!…. For Today strobes market It’s really too much.. at this price i don’t think they can sell a lot of them.. 😬😬

I was thinking the price was similar to the old 330… 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

4 hours ago, FabioGal73 said:

That’s a great point.. repair them it’s impossible and it’s really a shame.. 😤🤦‍♂️

Arghh… 950 for an inon 360 without any assistance??!?!…. For Today strobes market It’s really too much.. at this price i don’t think they can sell a lot of them.. 😬😬

I was thinking the price was similar to the old 330… 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

I was making an estimated guess (lol) as to the price. I do not see how the pricing could be the same as the old Z-330 or Z-240. A lot of water has flowed under the bridge and the world has changed (thanks mostly to the C word) since those went away. I guess we can always hope. And if I am exaggerating the non-repairability I wish somebody would have corrected me and sent me straight the three times I have had Inon issues with zero support and zero parts and zero service. One I fixed myself, one the "place" fixed by cutting the board to the modeling light that would not turn off--ever and the third, well, it went to the "place" and where oh where could you be ☠️.

Retra responds to emails! And the one time I had a bug, I was in Cozumel and I sent an email to Retra. I had an answer within 30 minutes and the issue was corrected. It was a software bug and they sent me the fix and it absolutely worked, loaded up and been perfect since. Get that kind of customer support from Inon or YS!

Edited Monday at 11:41 PM5 days by Nemrod

58 minutes ago, Nemrod said:

I was making an estimated guess (lol) as to the price. I do not see how the pricing could be the same as the old Z-330 or Z-240. A lot of water has flowed under the bridge and the world has changed (thanks mostly to the C word) since those went away. I guess we can always hope. And if I am exaggerating the non-repairability I wish somebody would have corrected me and sent me straight the three times I have had Inon issues with zero support and zero parts and zero service. One I fixed myself, one the "place" fixed by cutting the board to the modeling light that would not turn off--ever and the third, well, it went to the "place" and where oh where could you be ☠️.

Retra responds to emails! And the one time I had a bug, I was in Cozumel and I sent an email to Retra. I had an answer within 30 minutes and the issue was corrected. It was a software bug and they sent me the fix and it absolutely worked, loaded up and been perfect since. Get that kind of customer support from Inon or YS!

Gonna question your statement on Inon service. I had one of my Inon 330's repaired by their service operation. The power switches on the 330 were a common failure point after enough time.

I had to send it to Reef Photo in 2022. They sent it on the Inon in Japan. They ended up replacing the electonics and flash tube for $450. Basically a brand new strobe in the original case.

Edited Tuesday at 12:53 AM5 days by Dave_Hicks

1 hour ago, Dave_Hicks said:

Gonna question your statement on Inon service. I had one of my Inon 330's repaired by their service operation. The power switches on the 330 were a common failure point after enough time.

I had to send it to Reef Photo in 2022. They sent it on the Inon in Japan. They ended up replacing the electonics and flash tube for $450. Basically a brand new strobe in the original case.

I am glad you were able to get a repair 😃. I was not. Perhaps I was just unlucky in love, or unlucky in Inon.

Edited Tuesday at 02:04 AM5 days by Nemrod

Just now, Nemrod said:

I am glad you were able to get a repair 😃. I was not. I still enjoy my S220 strobes (going strong) but the D2000s I was unable and my Z240 likewise dead and gone. I do have one working D2000, it works fine but has no modeling light. Reef, BS and several others said they were not interested in attempting repairs on any of them. And no luck with other attempts to contact Inon direct. Maybe service has been improved since. I hope that I do not have to find out. Perhaps I was just unlucky in love, or unlucky in Inon. I realize many on here are pros or otherwise able to get new gear often, when I purchase something, I expect support for expensive items many years even beyond end of production date.

One of my buddies was just diving with the main Inon dude last night. I will ask him to follow up about service going forward. He was shooting with the Inon 360s and hope to get a report on first impressions.

2 hours ago, Dave_Hicks said:

One of my buddies was just diving with the main Inon dude last night. I will ask him to follow up about service going forward. He was shooting with the Inon 360s and hope to get a report on first impressions.

Yes, PLEASE! They need an actual US or North America distributer who carries parts and is authorized for service. And Inon needs to support products past the cessation of that product. But they are not alone in that boat. I have or have owned, Inon UWL100 achromat with dome, UWLH95 with dome, UFL165AD lens, UFL105AD, Macro 165AD lenses, (2) D2000, (2) Z240, currently (2) S220. Not like I have not supported them with purchases 😍. And nobody ever answered any email and their manuals are about as confusing as Greek, or should I say poor English translation of Japanese. I hope for Inon to be successful, I waited and waited for the new Z and then, well, I needed new strobes capable of wide angle shooting and with the D2000s and Z240 in some place I know not where or circular filed, I just could not wait on them any longer. The world spins on, IMO, of what I have seen in vaporware, a day late and a dollar short. Well, enough of my bashing on Inon. But, ya know, if the shoe fits.

Edited Tuesday at 04:28 AM5 days by Nemrod

9 hours ago, Dave_Hicks said:

One of my buddies was just diving with the main Inon dude last night. I will ask him to follow up about service going forward. He was shooting with the Inon 360s and hope to get a report on first impressions.

The lowdown on Inon would be most appreciated.

Edited Tuesday at 04:50 PM5 days by Christian K