TimG

Hi Ido Ive not dived Bimini but, in general, I’d say big critters in shallow water are better without strobes unless they come really close. Use ambient light.

I hear the distant sound of a credit card trying to hide in a wallet...... 🤣

I'd have thought that the strobe in the 12 position is going to end up lighting the water between the lens and the subject? That's the last thing you want as it'll increase backscatter. I've long given up trying to light the reef no matter how powerful the strobes. My experience is to use natural ambient light for the majority of the width of the scene, and to use the strobes to highlight one or two colourful elements perhaps just to one side of the image. Here's an example where I've moved both strobes ( 2x Inon Z240s) to the 3 o'clock position. I could have got a bit more light on the background with a slightly slower shutter or enhanced the Shadow detail in LR.

Hi Kees! Welcome to Waterpixels! Great to have you with us. Diving in Dutch waters eh? Dapper, Kees, dapper. 😱🥶

A terrifying thought! No way, José. I reckon max 100 shots per dive with the aim of having maybe 5-6 true keepers

Yeah, I’m with Chris: a massive drop in capability. They are good for those “record” pics but no lighting, probably no manual control or ability to make significant change over speed, aperture, ISO etc. And, yes, significant weight loss and packability! I wouldn’t sell the big set till you’ve tried the phone setup over several dives…..

Yeah, my guess was trapping bubbles. Perhaps in an old port or even in an inverted glass. That might be easier than using a sheet of glass.

Totally agree, Alex. From my own experience of Retra over the last few years, really well engineered and designed products with excellent customer support.

A good point, well made, Dave

Good call, I reckon, Mark. You may well find those two lenses are all you need. Do let us know how you get on.

Hi Cashmorephoto - what an intriguing username! Great to have you with us. A warm welcome to Waterpixels!

Hi James! A warm welcome. I’m sure you’ll see lots of familiar names here from Wetpixel. Good to have you with us.

Hey gozturkeri! Welcome to Waterpixels. Great to have you with us. We hope you enjoy the forum.

🤣 Teaching aid. He runs a busy dive operation with lots of student divers.

Here’s that image of how a friend of mine stabilises a GoPro…… dead simple, very effective! The chunky carabiner provides additional weight to keep the slate on the deck. But the slate itself is sufficiently weighty.

Nauticam recommended the WWL-C and 24-50 kit lens for me to use with a Z6iii. I have no experience of the combination and my natural inclination was to go with the Nikkor 8-15.

Good to have you with us, Wags. Yeah, a lot of old geezers on this forum. But we stagger along eh……

Retra have just posted info about this new strobe on the Articles page.

Yep, sadly if you want to use any system mid-water, almost neutrally buoyant is nice. But if you want a system that sits on the bottom then you have to add weight. Id suggest putting some sort of ring underneath the system that you can clip a weight on to it. Carry the weight clipped on to your BCD when you don’t need it in the tripod. Other ways I’ve seen it done is to detach the GoPro from your float system and use a GoPro clamp on a bit of dead coral or old wreck. A mate of mine has attached a GoPro fitting to one of those magic writing slates to which he added a small weight. The slate provides a brilliant platform which sits perfectly on the bottom. I’ll try and get a pic for you. It’s a terrific, easy and cheap way of stabilising a GoPro on the bottom.

You may well find to create a stable platform that you need to add a weight. Not unusual for a GoPro setup.

Never a truer word……

No worries, Friso. Glad you have a solution. Your system should work no problem on the 7 setting and you then choose TTL or Manual strobes on the Retra control. One thought though: on the camera flash sync speed in the Menu settings, what does it show? Is it on a speed or the FP setting? That might be the issue. But it’s good you’re back in business. Happy shooting!