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Many thanks! With that information and then finding out the distance from the front of the camera in the housing to the flange it will enable me to work out what port + extension rings if needed for any particular macro lens.

I think this was a massive amount of effort that Backscatter put into this report. It would be amazing if they kept adding new strobes to the matrix and turn this in a standing comparison tool. As of now they don't compare or contrast features like video lights, battery type, battery life, flood alerts, and price. These would be useful additions to complete the picture.

Today Marelux has announced the triple flip holder available soon for $399.00 in the US. Marelux Triple Flip Holder: The Ultimate Solution for Underwater Macro Photography Why the Triple Flip Holder is Essential A triple flip holder is a vital tool for underwater macro photographers. It mounts 3 different wet lenses simultaneously (such as +5, +10, or +15 diopters, or the newly introduced MV60 or MV24 wide-angle conversion lens). This setup gives you the ultimate versatility to switch between magnification levels instantly, or flip both lenses completely away to shoot through your native flat port with zero restrictions. The Flaws in Traditional Flip Holders Standard flip holders currently on the market suffer from two major design flaws: Corrosion and Jamming: Most brands utilize standard land-based mechanical designs featuring exposed internal springs and ball bearings. When exposed to harsh saltwater, these components inevitably corrode. Over time, the mechanism jams, requires constant lubricant sprays, and eventually fails completely. Lighting and Equipment Interference: Most holders offer only one standby position. If the lens rests at a strict 90-degree angle to the port, it blocks your strobes, which need to be tightly positioned near the macro port. If the lens flips beyond 90 degrees, larger and longer wet lenses can collide with your expensive camera housing or port, causing physical damage. The Patented Marelux Innovation Marelux is proud to introduce a patented design that permanently eliminates these industry-wide pain points: 1.O-Ring Sealed Lubrication Chamber: The rotating mechanism is housed in a fully sealed chamber, secured by precision O-rings and packed with liquid lubricant. Because saltwater cannot penetrate this boundary, the internal springs, bearings, and contact surfaces never corrode. It will never jam. 2.Two Instant Standby Positions: Switch between three secure holding angles in a split second. Use the active shooting position over the port, a 120-degree standby position for small, short wet lenses, to completely clear your strobe light paths, or an 90-degree standby position for larger, longer lenses, to safeguard your housing body 3.The left-side holder features a unique standby angle compared to the other two holders. This design allows users to mount larger wet lenses, such as the MV60 or MV24. While the second position uses a standard 90-degree angle, the first position is tilted slightly forward to prevent large lenses from colliding with the housing or macro port. Universal Compatibility The Marelux Triple Flip Holder is designed for maximum versatility across the industry. It is natively compatible with most major housing brandsfeaturing a standard M67 (67mm) threaded port. To adapt it to non-Marelux housings, simply remove the two anti-rotation positioning screws used for Marelux macro ports, and thread it directly into place.

For my flats ports it is the dimension from the inside of the port glass to the ports flange that sits against the housing. So my N85 flat port 45 is 45mm from flange to inside the glass.

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Thanks @Davide DB for sharing! I agree that it matches much of the hard work that @Dave_Hicks assembled and shared. As a person who prefers seeing over reading specs, I appreciate the stationary examples within a controlled underwater setting. This allows a side by side comparison. With the A-B slider, it literally is a side by side comparison. The fixed target is a good way to compare overall light spread and consistency. I find that the results match my personal experience with the various strobes and diffusers I have used in the wild. Beyond the power and pattern, durability, dependability, serviceability, buoyancy, and of course price also factor in the buying equation. Color temp consistency is also an interesting consideration. Hopefully this type of comparison can become more of an industry standard, or at least something that is repeated roughly every year as a reference tool.

Hopefully a few of you are clued up on how Nauticam names their flat ports. The N100 Flat Port 66 looks to be considerably longer than the N100 Falt Port 32 (as an example) - but where is the 66 or the 32 or for that matter the 74 or the 55 actually measured from? (I'm assuming that it is a measurement).

This is a really interesting review. I think two things that i really appreciated about it (other than a huge amount of work) is that it: 1) Is the first comparable review of the Sea and Sea YS-D130r 2) It reviews Marelux even though Backscatter does not sell them. I also really appreciate that they did it with and without diffusers for the beam comparison since so many of us shoot with diffusers all the time, or pretty close to all the time and so comparing one with and one without is helpful. Finally, I will be adjusting the color temperature I shoot with my strobes underwater based on their findings, so even without being in the market for a new set of strobes, it was a helpful read.

Me too but sometimes there is no other options (i'm probably not good enough to avoid post-processing ;) )

If the lock is sticky I'd recommend rotating the ports slightly, mine doesn't want to lock or unlock if they are fully rotated together but instead need to be slightly backed off.

The right tools will always help. But prevention is even better. Looking at you housing in the photos it seems to me there's deposits on there, in the video you posted and with the surface between the ports/adapters. I would suggest a good long soak after any diving session. Also recommend applying some grease to your screws holding on the lock mechanism. Should make them easier to remove. Does the mechanism rotate freely now? It should rotate quite easily- if it is stiff perhaps it needs service, there will an o-ring on the shaft of the control that unlocks the port and the shafted should be lubricated.

AI hallucination - it conflates things all the time. Yes definitely plankton, I get small straight very tight spirals floating around in photos on my local sites.

The R50 with the 18-45 suffers from the same things any lens does through a flat port in that wide is not very wide when it comes to big stuff and zoomed in is not quite zoomed enough for macro. Thus the Nauticam housing and the AOI housing are both configured for use with their respective macro diopters and wide angle lenses. Otherwise it is what I call a fish pic lens ;). My one real complaint for the lens is that it is an 18mm and would prefer it be a 16mm, thus the WWL-1B or the AOI UWL-09 will be needed instead of the slightly more compact WWL-1C. The pros are also the cons, no ports to tote about, no expensive trigger than does not work when I need it to, more travel friendly but relies upon external wet optics but you get by with a single camera lens and no domes, vfs, monitors. For surface photography, my complaint there is that please Canon, come on now, give the little thing a modicum of weather/dust sealing please. The R50 is fast to focus, not fussy about dim light, takes pictures like what you would expect of a Canon camera. The guys with the latest full frame Sony AR7-5-6-IIIV-B will not be impressed with their domes and monitors and whatever that $7,500 Nauticam lens is and 45 degree view finders, but heck, the idea was a compact outfit that can produce stunning photos and hold it's own and that is what it is.

I am not particularly enamored of the categories since they seem to cater to tropical locations, but that seems to be the focus here. Likewise I'd rather allow not fixing of composition errors such as removing backscatter but that's just me. Perhaps I just dislike post-processing and would rather take better pictures?

@dhaas do you have examples of the widest scene and smallest creature with no add ons?

@dhaas thanks so much for the information. It definitely sounds like this will suit her and I'm very tempted to give it a whirl, too. At this price point, I wouldn't even stress if I find out it doesn't suit exactly and i need to "upgrade" in the future, unless I'm missing some huge issues.

Realizing many of the folks on this forum are very serious about everything they do I hardly see $5.00 as an impediment to entering a for the fun of it contest to support the site. Cap the entries to five photos and just charge a $20 entry fee. Or charge enough to enter that it would include a choice of a ball cap or a tee shirt. And if I or some of the less serious guys entered, uh, for the purpose of supporting the site, promise not to laugh, at least to our faces! Or a sticker for my camera case, "I am not a Professional, but I did enter a Water Pixels contest and they laughed" or something!

Maybe a photo?

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 ScubaLong Term Review of the Retra Maxi StrobeDave 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.

Backscatter.comThe 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 recently build a customized fiber optical cable for myself. IMG_4902.mov

Like @Klaus I find this document a really good base ... I like it