Hi All,

A quick post about an adaptation of the retra snoot I've implemented to improve functionality. Instead of using the slide masks, I've created a 3d printed iris that allows the snoot beam to adjusted on the fly from ~24mm down to about ~3mm.

At 24mm, the iris is circular. At 3mm the iris is hex-oid. My snoot is set up for a sea and sea ys-d3, but i presume it would bolt between any standard retra snoot columnator and strobe mount.

This may not be for everyone as you may want perfect circles, may want the full diameter beam, or you may want other shapes. But for me it seemed to work well.

The iris unit is 3d printed in ASA. I did break the handle off on one dive and there is still room for design improvement, which im working through.

I've only just returned from a trip and I'm yet to review my snooted photos, so will share these once I've made room and had a chance to review.

Wanted to gauge whether this is something that retra snoot users are interested in.

I'm on a 100% DIY snoot... The last version was not the last one... I had some change to do but no time for the moment and the nex trip will be without macro I have a little time to study the change I need to do.

Can you give us some return of experience of the use under water ?

Thanks

Yes! Interested in a shareable 3d print file for this iris.
I'm sure I'll either miss clipping one of my Retra "hole-cards" to a D-ring, or it will break eventually.
Good to have a compact alternative.

Love to see some resulting shots too!

I prototyped a similar Snoot-Iris about a year ago, but didn't finish it as I just don't find changing aperture of the snoot all that useful. 95% of the time I use the widest openings anyway, and I didn't want issues with binding of the moving parts in an Iris. Then I got the Backscatter OS-3 snoot, which uses a rotating disk/cartridge instead of a card. It's is pretty much the same effect as an Iris but a lot simpler. I did make an adapter so I can use the Backscatter snoot on either the HF-1 or Retra strobes.

I love the idea and it was something I asked Retra about a few years ago. They thought then that variable apertures tended to jam after a time and the slide masks were simpler and reliable.

In practice, like @Dave_Hicks I only use probably 2-3 sizes of openings and have just the two round-shapped Retra slide masks in carabiners in a BCD pouch.

1 hour ago, TimG said:

I love the idea and it was something I asked Retra about a few years ago. They thought then that variable apertures tended to jam after a time and the slide masks were simpler and reliable.

In practice, like @Dave_Hicks I only use probably 2-3 sizes of openings and have just the two round-shapped Retra slide masks in carabiners in a BCD pouch.

Same to me. Use 99% only the two round-snapped slide masks. The slides are very easy/quick to use and very reliable. If you have a bit of experience, you'll quickly know which diameter/mask you need for a given object.

On 8/29/2026 at 7:10 PM, DocTock said:

Yes! Interested in a shareable 3d print file for this iris.
I'm sure I'll either miss clipping one of my Retra "hole-cards" to a D-ring, or it will break eventually.
Good to have a compact alternative.

Love to see some resulting shots too!

2 or 3 years ago I build an iris 3D printedit works... but the size was to big.
After this attempt i change to Aliexpress iris like

I put it in my own snoot 3 version at the moment... but I'm not happy


The V4 will be better, smaller an lighter

@CaolIla Curious what iris you found that will fit.
All I find on AliExp is this thing... and it looks way too large to fit in the RSD slot...

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256811677909186.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.8.13e3ATm0ATm0mV&algo_pvid=3fae3008-1df9-401e-aa8b-3b193aac761b&algo_exp_id=3fae3008-1df9-401e-aa8b-3b193aac761b-7&pdp_ext_f=%7B%22order%22%3A%22-1%22%2C%22eval%22%3A%221%22%2C%22fromPage%22%3A%22search%22%7D&pdp_npi=6%40dis%21USD%21148.58%21118.86%21%21%21993.21%21794.57%21%402101ef5e17882860377635853e0e57%2112000056827284887%21sea%21US%210%21ABX%211%210%21n_tag%3A-29910%3Bd%3A726f99c0%3Bm03_new_user%3A-29895&curPageLogUid=YJd20wtKwJ7R&utparam-url=scene%3Asearch%7Cquery_from%3A%7Cx_object_id%3A1005011864223938%7C_p_origin_prod%3A

7 minutes ago, DocTock said:

@CaolIla Curious what iris you found that will fit.
All I find on AliExp is this thing... and it looks way too large to fit in the RSD slot...

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256811677909186.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.8.13e3ATm0ATm0mV&algo_pvid=3fae3008-1df9-401e-aa8b-3b193aac761b&algo_exp_id=3fae3008-1df9-401e-aa8b-3b193aac761b-7&pdp_ext_f=%7B%22order%22%3A%22-1%22%2C%22eval%22%3A%221%22%2C%22fromPage%22%3A%22search%22%7D&pdp_npi=6%40dis%21USD%21148.58%21118.86%21%21%21993.21%21794.57%21%402101ef5e17882860377635853e0e57%2112000056827284887%21sea%21US%210%21ABX%211%210%21n_tag%3A-29910%3Bd%3A726f99c0%3Bm03_new_user%3A-29895&curPageLogUid=YJd20wtKwJ7R&utparam-url=scene%3Asearch%7Cquery_from%3A%7Cx_object_id%3A1005011864223938%7C_p_origin_prod%3A

The link doesn't work...

13 minutes ago, DocTock said:

@CaolIla Curious what iris you found that will fit.
All I find on AliExp is this thing... and it looks way too large to fit in the RSD slot...

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256811677909186.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.8.13e3ATm0ATm0mV&algo_pvid=3fae3008-1df9-401e-aa8b-3b193aac761b&algo_exp_id=3fae3008-1df9-401e-aa8b-3b193aac761b-7&pdp_ext_f=%7B%22order%22%3A%22-1%22%2C%22eval%22%3A%221%22%2C%22fromPage%22%3A%22search%22%7D&pdp_npi=6%40dis%21USD%21148.58%21118.86%21%21%21993.21%21794.57%21%402101ef5e17882860377635853e0e57%2112000056827284887%21sea%21US%210%21ABX%211%210%21n_tag%3A-29910%3Bd%3A726f99c0%3Bm03_new_user%3A-29895&curPageLogUid=YJd20wtKwJ7R&utparam-url=scene%3Asearch%7Cquery_from%3A%7Cx_object_id%3A1005011864223938%7C_p_origin_prod%3A

The intent is to build or modify a custom snoot around the part.

38 mm diameter it's not so big... I made a snoot 100% 3D printed The main problem was to make it watertight and to be able to rotate the iris in the snoot.
It work now I have to optimize the weight and reduce the loss of light to have a maximum power for the position lamp and also enough when the hole are only 2 mm

Edited September 1Sep 1 by CaolIla

The next work is to optimize the form of the snoot to concentrate the light in the middle on a point of 30 mm You see the iris in the middle in red