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Do any strobe manufactures have good service? The only saving grace for Inon has been they are pretty rock solid. Inon has absolutely zero support in North America. It keeps getting said, YAFS, and yet, there are really darn few strobes and some of what there are come from the same place with just rebranding and different features mix.

I personally will not buy again a Sea&Sea strobe until their reliability and service become trustworthy. I have had the YS120 which were great, after them I had YS D1, YS D2 and YS D2 j, all of them failed with no reason, some of them while underwater, some of them checking the rig on land with a low power. And the response for Sea&Sea was slow and non satisfactory. For the moment I can't trust in them. I have bought th AOI UIS P1 strobes, about 850 euros each. I have test them in a 35 dives in 9 days trip. They were great, nor a single fail, and with only 1 battery set I have run all the trip with not a single shot missing. They are not perfect, I don't like the light temperature, I don't like the power knob and I don't like the way to switch them on. But they works in HSS with your Sony and with the AOI trigger, and lastly also with the Turtle trigger. With 150 watts is enough for wide angle, even the sync speed of your camera is only 1/160

Hi Lou, With your question about reflection due to the housing colour, I have not noticed it happening. Also, the red does become dull quite quickly underwater just due to light absorption.

Sorry to diverge but I‘d like to add an issue that I have with splits - viewfinder? I have more or less a compact setup so only the lcd on the back. It is not only too dim but also „split level“ with half of it above &below the surface.I can‘t even see where the waterline is in the real frame. Any solutions for that other than spray and pray?

Sure, I also sold GoPro and even Yi 4K+ (old action camera) footage. My problem is that bad quality videos are promoted as "cinematic" ones, and maybe it lowers the expectation of the general audience.

Aaah, lol, all these R's and 5's from different brands. Didnt even realise it was Canon you were selling and Sony you are buying. But if you really want to go smaller, look into something that works behind a small 4" dome, those 230mm and 180mm domes are big, no matter what camera you have (just assuming you are going with similar lenses from before).

@Sokrates to clarify, I'm switching from Canon R5 back to Sony so I need to change my whole rig. And would like something a little more compact than the Marelux for freediving. So even it's a bit smaller I'll take it 🤷‍♀️

It's true, it's a confusing domain. I've used Inon Z240s for years with the Panasonic mini flash on a GH-5, and only last year did I switch to a TRT turtle trigger, and now with the Retras. With the TRT you do have a setting for each strobe type, but I'm not quite sure what the sauce they are adding per strobe. With the HF-1, you have backscatter's sauce in the strobe and depending on the trigger (an actual mini flash, backscatter's trigger or the TRT one there are few points for issues. In any case, for the most part I'm seeing good exposures with the Retras in TTL, although I do dial down the power a bit because they shoot brighter than my Inons. Also this test was on land so it's not quite real world.

Thank you @Maria Munn 💙 so nice to get your message

Thanks Craig! Good to be here 🙌🏻💙

Aloha and welcome @Lou Luddington !

For me I say this is "a hobby out of control", lol. I worked at one of the US underwater camera stores and remember talking to one of the heads of Gates and they said "look if you have amazing footage be it from a cinema camera or a GoPro it will sell"...

Okay, thanks, then unfortunately it's not relevant for me.

2 minute job. UWT trigger and A7IV.

Hi @Lou Luddington Welcome from me, absolutely loved reading your story and look forward to seeing more of your work on here. There's nothing more magical than getting lost in a kelp forest with dreamy natural light rays all around you here in the UK. Come and say hi if you're passing Swanage. Have a lovely day :) Maria

Thanks Andrey. At the moment I'm leaning to getting the 8-15mm + Metabones V adapter + Sony 2x for my fast-approaching trip to Bonaire. I probably can't get a gear in time, but I'll be able to test the AF in some easy diving conditions.

Thanks for this, Chris. I'm going to reach out to Seacam today to ask about the extensions. For the FMP, I assume it will be PVL25 for 8-15 (according to Seacam Canon chart) + PVL25 for Metabones adapter + 27mm for the Sony 2X converter (thanks to @Fabian for posting the measurement interflange photos in this thread). I have a custom PVL57.5 from my previous Canon rig so adding a PVL20 to that should be close. Also thanks for the note about the compact dome. And when I reach out to Seacam, I'm going to ask about gears for this setup as well.

Thank you for your replys.

Hi Clément! A warm welcome to Waterpixels. Really great to have you with us. We hope you enjoy the forum. Best wishes Tim

sorry no, best to DM I think, you could try looking through his posts you might see something there?

Hi everyone ! I'm a french photographer based on the south of France near Toulon. I'm a 3 stars CMAS diver and I've been shooting underwater since 2015. Here to learn and discuss on any topics regarding photography and image. Best regards Clément

Thank you so much Rune, that is kind of you to say ☺️

Snorkelling or diving is pretty much the same for splits. You need the camera slightly submerged. I thought the swimming bands on the strobe arms a super idea. I did wonder though whether putting the housing on a swimming board would make it difficult to submerge. Sitting on the inside of a partially inflated BCD (so sitting on the BCD's back rest) was the method I'd found reasonably effective. You can play around a little to start with increasing the air in the BCD until you get the right level of buoyancy. You can also sort of rest on the BCD and push it down or angle it with your arms.

Thanks! Do you know by heart which camera and which TTL triogger fruehaufsteher2 uses? I can't find any information about that quickly.