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I've just weighed my Seacam Compact Port at 1042g, and the PVL 40mm extension at 178g, for a total of 1220g. I had quoted incorrect figures on the weight of the Superdome and CP in an earlier post but I'm no longer able to edit it. I haven't seen a detailed tech specs sheet for either dome.

Updated prices. Nauticam WWL-1 Wet Lens - $800 Nauticam N100 32 Flat Port - $200 Plus shipping.

Are you still looking?

Love the report, love the photos. Just one note: when in HK, you should have taken a day to hike Maclehose Trail #2. :-) Kind regards, Ajay

The strobe should not phantom drain overnight even if left on. That sounds like a defect either in the build or in the design. Maybe strobes will drain eventually keeping the capacitors charged, but 12 or so hours seem pretty quick. Other strobes on the market automatically go into standby mode when left idle for 15 minutes to avoid this problem.

Hi @pdxDiver Thanks for this nice travel report and also nice photo. Hugues

It's not going to be first vs second curtain sync, that just moves the timing of the pulse from the beginning to the end of the exposure. I don't know of any explanation apart from shooting at higher than the maximum sync speed. Shooting macro you would notice any other issues like dark background water as the exposure is entirely from the strobe. Look at the EXIF data in your original files, what ever you use to process the images will report the shutter speed used. More than likely you could review the images in camera and get it to report the aperture/shutter/ISO used.

Hi @Oskar - Retra UWT I'm on a diving trip... again I didn't turn my Retra Max II of back in the room. Ok it's my fault but to old Pro X had the green or other color on it was evident that the strobes are not off. --> again the next day.... batteries empty. Please give the information to the developer of the firmeware.... The strobe need to Beep or what ever if on more than 30 min for exemple without made a flash. It is realy the only one problem I see with the new Max II Batterie life is so much better in comparaison of the Pro X.

Does Retra have a pre-flash learning mode? You want that to be OFF. If there is no way to force it off, it could be a trigger problem. I've reported and had issues with the Nauticam trigger before, but with Backscatter strobes. In my case Backscatter was able to get Nauticam to send me a replacement trigger with modified firmware to address the problem. Contact Retra directly and discuss the Nauticam manual trigger with them.

A couple of Marlin, Sealion, and Baitball photos!

Hi all, Just getting around to putting together a trip report from our trip to Indonesia this summer. See the link to my blog post below. https://blog.pdxdiver.io/posts/2025-indo2025/

Wow!!!!

Aloha and welcome @skeptic14_uw

This is clearly something else, on minimum power they should allow for rapid firing, something is preventing this. The suggestions I posted above are test for potential issues. My first inclination is a problem with the trigger, online I see various issues reported with the Z8 and trying to sync with manual flashes.

Hi, welcome to our new den. I am sure you will find many familiar names again. Ciao

I'll try this out later with my Retra Pro Max strobes. I seem to remember struggling with burst shooting above 1/2 power but under that it was okay.

Hi, was previously a member before the recent drama and move to this new site. Glad to see this site is "back"!

I just recalled that Henley Spiers has shown the RETRA fast recycle time performance in his review: https://www.divephotoguide.com/underwater-photography-special-features/article/first-impressions-marelux-apollo-iii-2-0-strobe It‘s showing a lot of struggle at 7fps. The Marelux strobe smokes the oneUW and RETRA in this discipline.

It's been discussed here and also I think on old Wetpixel forum, here's one link I found: There are probably other posts as well.

10fps are done at easy with Marelux strobes at full power in their ultra-fast MTL mode. But you have to use them in MTL and with fibre optic cable (not Lumilink) to squeeze out the maximum repetitive performance. They are currently leading the fast recycle time without blackout frame technology in underwater strobes. Here on the forum is a pretty dismal measurement of mx strobe strength by dreifish though - something I could not agree to when comparing it 1to1 to my Backscatter HF-1. I can only assume the Apollo tested by Dreifish must have been a monday model or malfunctioning pre-production unit. On any AA eneloop powered strobe you will struggle to get fast recycle times near 8 - 12fps. You need a strobe which utilizes 18650 or 21700 high current discharge cells. Otherwise the capacitors cannot fill back up at the speed you desire.

Sold on Gumtree

You should be able to look at the meta data in an image file to see the shutter speeds and other settings.

Funny about the tools. When I used to go to Cozumel often, airport security coming back to the USA would not allow ANY batteries other than those installed in things to be carried on...Lithium, Eneloops, Energizers...it did not mater. I learned this from having numerous eneloops and alkaline batteries taken away. Of course TSA in the U.S. did not allow lithiums in luggage and if I packed a bunch of eneloops in luggage, I had trouble staying under the allowed weight and my bags were frequently opened and inspected, which I worried about. So between myself and my wife and my son, I started taking about a dozen cheap flashlights or other battery-operated devices in carry-ons, all stuffed with batteries. Worked great and I still have the electronic Trojan horses around here somewhere. Then on one trip I asked my son to pack my tool kit for me, because I was close to the max weight. He put my tools in his carry-on. So much for my tool kit.... But I no longer go to Cozumel to dive due to the camera and lens scam. I just am not going to play that. Plenty of other locations where customs agents don't try to rob me. Frankly, the way airfare is now, I get to the Caymans, St. Maarten, Fiji, Tahiti or the Philippines for not much more than it costs to go to Cozumel, although it does take longer.

I dont remember what shutter speed I had. I was wondering if this was an issue after losing all my previous settings and knowing myself, I was probably "trying a bunch of different things to see if I could get rid of the black horizontal line", then the strobe cratered before I learned anything.

Great shots! While i'm familiar with Nikonos adapter for Nauticam, are there similar ones for the Sea&Sea lens?