Phil Rudin

Today Marelux has updated its Apollo strobe line, the Apollo 33 will now be the first strobe released and it will now be called Apollo III. After a major testing process these strobes have well exceeded expectations. The Apollo III will now have an industry high guide number of 44. This was an unexpected benefit of building the entire strobe in-house and developing Marelux own flash tubes. I have attached the new specs for Apollo III. The Apollo 44 will now become Apollo X likely having an even higher guide number and Apollo 28 will become Apollo S. You can see a video of the strobes working with the Lumilink wireless flash trigger on my Phil Rudin Facebook page. Can't figure out how to attach in this post it anyone would like to add the video please do. Product Features 1. Support TTL, Olympus RC, HSS 2. With a special designed MTL mode, support continuous flashes 3. With 2 fisheye wireless signal sensor units. Plus one fiber port, sensor coverage 100 °. Wireless trigger supports M, MTL, HSS. (TTL modes,RC needs fiber) 4. GN.ISO 100 : 44 (tested on land) 5. Scattering angle 110 ° （under water） 6. Temp 6200k 7. With dome diffuser, scattering angle 140 °, Temp 5500k 8. Full power recycle time 0.6 second 9. Max diameter 90mm, length of main body 150mm,full length including knobs 177mm 10. Weight on land 960 grams (without battery, with ball mount),1095 grams with 3x18650 batteries (with ball mount) 11. Weight in water 125 grams (including 3x18650 batteries, including ball mount) 12. Battery: 3x18650 lithium batteries. 135 grams total 13. Water proof battery chamber 14. Full power flash : around 800 times 15. With 2 aiming light colors, 250 lumen on white, 180 lumen on red 16.Waterproof Depth : 100m

The D200 Type 2 is a retool of the D2000 Type 4. The Guide Number remains at 20 with the rounded Fly-eye front dome rather than the old flat port. Unlike the Z240 the D200 is fiber optic only. At $540.00US V. $400.00 for the S220 it seems the S220 would be the better choice. Not hard to deduce that an Inon Z330 replacement will be announced at some point.

Also a big fan of diving BHB now for over fifty years. In that amount of time the area has changed dramatically but BHB has remained constant always revealing new and interesting photo ops for macro and super macro. The bridge also offers W/A possibilities but I have continued to stick to macro when diving there. Arguably one of the best muck dives in the US. Big ups to SFUPS.org as well, a great origination for underwater photographers.

I have the Pro model with the red and white focus lights and we had the plastic prototype at DEMA. The weight difference is noticeable and should help when packing for travel. The white only and red only focus light models both have a more powerful focus light and allow more light from the strobe as well when firing.

Marelux has announced the new Soft Lite today. This is a redesign using plastic which drops the weight by 190g over the past Soft Pro line which is now discontinued. I have attached the specs and photos. Smart Optical Flash Tube Lite (SOFT Lite) Patented Product Product Features · Enables to narrow down beam coverage simply by attaching in front of strobe. · The aiming light of SOFT-LITE can be changed between red and white. · The aiming light of SOFT-LITE XW/XR is only available in one color(white or red),but the brightness of the aiming light is brighter. · Adjustable brightness · Aiming light delay off time adjustable · Use one 21700 Lithium battery which can support 10 hours of continuous use（SOFT-LITE XW/XR can be used for 4 hours） (You can use 18650 battery by using a battery adapter) Product Specs · Material：Plastic · Length : 155mm · Weight : 600g (on land) Neutral buoyancy underwater · Waterproof depth : -100m · Focal length (in water) : 130mm · Light spot adjustable range : 3~50mm

Not real keen about the native base ISO of 250 (expandable to 125) considering with Z8 you get 64 and 32 and with A7R V 100 and 50 ISO. The ability to shoot HSS with all strobes is an advantage but most UW flashes don't flash at speeds reaching anywhere near say 1/10,000th sec. I am sure that global shutter will be the way of the new world as manufactures move away from mechanical shutter to all electronic otherwise we will be stuck in the rut of 1/200th sync speeds on full frame which can not be corrected with HSS strobes.

RC is Olympus/OM TTL which is different from some other TTL systems. What is innovative is the wireless flash trigger, no cables or fiber optic.

Depending on the camera being used many viewfinders have -4 to +3 built into the viewfinder on top of any additional changes that can be made with accessory viewfinders like 45 degree and 180. Like many my age and younger I have had cataract surgery in both eyes. I use disposable contact lenses and find that they work great underwater. They of course don't work for all vision problems but are worth consideration for these who can wear them.

The last time (Mid-Nov) I had a conversation with the owner of the company about the Apollo line I was told that the Apollo 33"s would arrive first followed by the 44"s and then the Apollo 28. Merlux hopes to have strobes into the hands by late Dec early to mid January. With full release in the first quarter of 2024. Regarding strobes for travel thesis a different strokes for different folks kind of issue. I have friends that have traveled for years with strobes like the Ikelite DS-161, ONEUW, Retra, Scubalamp, Seacam and more. Many take backup strobes or smaller strobes like the Backscatter MF-1/2 and Inon S-220's. If size V. guide number is important the MF-2's, S-220's and the coming Apollo 28 will be great choices. The Marelux Apollo line all have the same core features, the 33 & 44 models will use 3 X 18650 batteries while the 28 will use two 18650's. The 28 and 44 models will have two parallel flash tubes and the 33 will have three tubes. The 28 will not include a focusing light. I will post more including how the wireless Lumilink works. Product Features 1. Support TTL, Olympus RC, HSS 2. With a special designed MTL mode, support continuous flashes 3. With 2 fisheye wireless signal sensor units. Plus one fiber port, sensor coverage 100 °. Wireless trigger supports M, MTL, HSS. (TTL modes,RC needs fiber) 4. GN.ISO 100 : 33 (tested on land) 5. Scattering angle 110 ° （under water） 6. Temp 6200k 7. With dome diffuser, scattering angle 140 °, Temp 5500k 8. Full power recycle time 0.6 second 9. Max diameter 90mm, length of main body 150mm,full length including knobs 177mm 10. Weight on land 960 grams (without battery, with ball mount),1095 grams with 3x18650 batteries (with ball mount) 11. Weight in water 125 grams (including 3x18650 batteries, including ball mount) 12. Battery: 3x18650 lithium batteries. 135 grams total 13. Water proof battery chamber 14. Full power flash : around 800 times 15. With 2 aiming light colors, 250 lumen on white, 300 lumen on red 16.Waterproof Depth : 100m

Could this question be moved to the strobe section for others to see.

I am pleased to have been added to the Marelux management team as the Senior Advisor. Happy to field any equipment questions.

The site looks very nice and user friendly (especially it you are coming from wetpixel) may want to move the Retra strobe thread into the strobe section to keep things balanced.

Hi Eric, Great to see you involved with this site.

Nice to be piped aboard and happy to see sponsorship from our Marelux and UWP teams.

My name is Phil Rudin and looking forward to exchanging ideas and information on Waterpixels.