TimG

Some time back, I wrote an article about creating your own fibre optic cables: a quick, easy, inexpensive and very satisfying process. In case you missed it it, a link to the piece is here. https://waterpixels.net/articles/articles_technique/diy-fibre-optic-cables-easy-r32/ Now, many months on, a couple of additional suggestions: BURPING On entering the water and descending the plugs at both ends of the cables often need burping. Tiny air bubbles seem to be able to block fibre optic light transmission. Easy to resolve of course: simply remove and replace the plugs at the camera bulkhead and strobe ends of the cable. Worth checking especially before setting up for that crucial, once in a lifetime image. DAMAGING THE CABLES On a recent long dive trip in Raja Ampat, my system was being hauled in and out of RIBs with the strobe arms being moved and folded sometimes by me, sometimes by the boat crew. At some stage one of the fibre optic cables gained a small “crimp” which resulted in the attached strobe not firing consistently. Annoying of course although easy to replace the cable. This got me thinking about a way to protect the cables. For my next trip I used some cheap garden micro-watering system hose tubing to provide a protected route for the cables from the housing bulkheads to the strobes. Cost was a few cents. I found it slightly better to cut the tubing slightly shorter than the fibre cables as this allowed for easier curves at each end. The tubing is held against the float arms using short loops of bungee cord. I found it worked best to push the fibre cables into the strobe plugs only on descent or at depth. This allowed for burping and avoided any strain on the connections whilst handling during entry. In general I’ve found it better not to have fixed connections at both ends of the fibre cable. If one end can pull loose when strained, (best I've found is the strobe end) this avoids breaks and overstrains especially during transportation or in rinse tanks (avoid them at all costs!). If stretched or tugged the cable will simply pop out of the strobe end bush. No damage results and the cable is easy to push back in. The first photograph shows the fibre optic cable and the garden hose tubing; next one with the fibre pushed through the tubing; then "hung" on the strobe arms; and finally the loops to hold the tubing and cable in place.

I came across the following article by By David Clapp, published on 31 July 2025 in Digital Camera World. Worth a read, I thought! "It’s getting near that time again - as September means a new iPhone. Then there’s a new Android. Then it’s the turn Fujifilm / Canon / Nikon / Sony / Panasonic etc - all of them use tried and tested strategies stretching back as far as the 1930s to make you, the consumer, feel dissatisfied with the equipment you own. Let’s be frank, you are a subliminal and anonymous target for consumer capitalism and those at the top do this for one simple reason - they stay in business by selling you new products. Simple. Most media-based products like cameras, computers, musical equipment and many others, have a central strategy, to put you into a constant state of dissatisfaction. The subject-focused camera you yearn for will never be released, so they include firmware / software / shiny updates to keep you on board. You learn and adapt your championed model, but it only gives around 75% of what you need it to do. Slowly, we become desensitized, used to dissatisfaction and slowly the wheel turns. The industry fuel is acquisition and consumption. The beauty of this strategy is that we the consumer believe it is a direct path to creative happiness and that in monetary terms it is. The areas where this is most prevalent is in two places in our modern age — advertising in all its forms (YouTube / influencers / social media) and text-based discussion forums - which cultivates and accelerates our desire to purchase. We consume, reflect, and then complete the financial circle of moving our money back into the machine. What creates the anxiety to purchase can be covered in a number of fundamentals. Does the item look attractive to us? Look at any high-end digital cameras and the form factor is enough to pull us into their tractor beam. Then there is functionality. People are obsessed with technical specs, the online media in particular thriving with clickbait controversy. Then there is photo-social class - does the product elevate us to a level of satisfactory peer acceptance? Do we then feel connected to a new economic group, or a sense that we could finally achieve creative altitude like never before? It’s all a grand illusion. After the initial wonder, hard research, handling, contemplation, and purchase phases subside, the brain returns to a base level (look up Look at any high-end digital cameras and the form factor is enough to pull us into their tractor beam. Then there is functionality. People are obsessed with technical specs, the online media in particular thriving with clickbait controversy. Then there is photo-social class - does the product elevate us to a level of satisfactory peer acceptance? Do we then feel connected to a new economic group, or a sense that we could finally achieve creative altitude like never before? It’s all a grand illusion. After the initial wonder, hard research, handling, contemplation, and purchase phases subside, the brain returns to a base level (look up ‘hedonic adaptation’) and it is here where the forums like Canon Rumors start the cycle once more. The idle mind starts to speculate about imaginary cameras, features and from here the tribalism leads to threads full of conflict and antagonism, that could potentially be extinguished with a gear purchase. My rule is simple - upgrade when features arrive you cannot live without. In the last 20 years this has been Live View, weather sealing, GPS, WiFi, and recently (for me) 4K video. "

Please note: a further update to the firmware files was released on 31 July. Pro Max firmware is now v2.17 - the version from the previous day was 2.15. Retra have announced updates to firmware on a number of their strobes. Pro Max II to v3.1 Pro Max to v2.17 Prime+ to v2.4 Pure to v2.4 The updates include bug fixes and performance improvements. Full details are set out in the usual App Store update pages.