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The Best Underwater Strobes Tested 2026 - Underwater Phot...

It may or may not be a surprise, but there are no industry standards or governing bodies conforming the methods, or the specifications, on how underwater strobes are tested. Most strobe manufacturers

I've just spent some time looking over this in some detail. Lots of high quality data - Zero conclusions. Backscatter is in the business of selling all of these strobes so it is no surprise that they are not making any editorial comments.

I think that their data matched up pretty well with what I generated in my review of the Retra Maxi with comparisons to the Backscatter HF-1.

My take aways from the Backscatter data:

• Look no further than the Retra Maxi and Backscatter HF-1 if you want a wide angle capable strobe

• Beam Pattern, smoothness, and brightness of the Maxi and HF-1 are pretty much neck and neck. All other strobes are dimmer and less wide, sometimes with inconsistent patterns.

• The HF-1 is the champion in fast recycle time with the shortest interval between flashes as any target power level. The HF-1 is about 2-3 times faster at cycling to the next flash at the target GN.

• The Maxi stomps every other strobe in the Buoyancy / Weight ratio making it very easy to handle in the water.

One surprise was that most strobes had a big mismatch between their stated color temperatures and the measured temperature. All of the Backscatter strobes (HF-1, Atom, MF-3) had accurate temperatures along with the Kraken S160 and S&S 250. Every other strobe had significant measured variances, including the Retra Maxi and Max/Max-II models.

My Review:

Inside Scuba

Long Term Review of the Retra Maxi Strobe

Dave Hicks tests the Retra Maxi strobe across 100+ dives in Raja Ampat and the Pacific Northwest, comparing it head-to-head with the Backscatter HF-1.

Edited 38 minutes ago38 min by Dave_Hicks