Dave_Hicks

I share all of my designs and will post the Retra knobs soon. I am going to complete the set with a Power Level knob and will share them after a few more test dives. Can anyone share the height and diameter of the Pro Max knobs? I want to know if they are the same. Some of the older Retra models have smaller knobs.

I have the HF-1 and the Atom and will make those comparisons. Thanks for sharing your ideas for evaluating these similar strobes.

Likely won't work if your strobe is like this one. Zero gap under the knob and i use a powerful electric blower after a some hours in the sink. The knob ought to have a little space to drain, even if a small hole or slot at the bottom. There is a considerable hollow under the knob that retains a CC or two of water.

Great review Kiliii! I think we are in sync on a lot of the details. I especially appreciate that the strobes you are comparing to are completely different than what I am using. I have Retra Maxi, Backscatter HF-1, Backscatter Atom. I don't have a Retra Pro Max-II, and I think that is an important point of comparison. Retra Maxi Control Ergonomics: I'll add one note here on the Retra ergonomics. The responsiveness and precision of the Retra Maxi controls are superb. Better than the Backscatter strobes for sure. The HF-1 power level knob is a crime against cold water divers. The Atom is better in that it's not simple round knob but a flat paddle, allowing your fingers to feel the position. However, it is smaller than I would like. While the Retra Maxi control precision is excellent, I don't like that the Mode Switch and Power Level look identical to each other. The power level is longer, but I found it hard to discern which was which. This is exacerbated when the strobes are in different orientations, resulting in mirrored positions. As seen below. I often shoot with one strobe up and one out on long arms. I can't see the backs of the strobes when in an inward position and my fingers have to do the all the work. Both control knobs fell the same resulting in mistakes that screw up settings. I love to customize the gear I use, so I addressed this with a custom made Retra Maxi mode switch knob. I find this design works a lot better for my style of shooting. It also fixes another issue with the Retra Knobs - salt deposits. The Retra knobs are completely flush to the back of the strobe and they have a internal voids that retain water. Even after a long soak and air blow dry, I will find salt encrusting the base of the knobs a day or two later. My design is essentially solid and leaves about a 1mm gap from the base, allowing the trapped salt water to be flushed out. I will probably make a custom Power Level knob that looks identical to the stock knob but leaves a gap to allow proper flushing of the salt deposits. (If you look closely, you can see salt around the base of Retra's power level knob even after I wiped most of it off)

I just went to Bay Photo and looked at the Framed Print options. The absolute biggest "image display" options are 18"x30" or 20"x32" on a 24x36 frame. Such a thin matte would probably look like garbage. Selecting only the cheapest options. such a print is $270. A full $100 more than a 20x30 metal print and you can not to any bigger using a frame. No telling if the quality of that frame and glass is any good, and it would likely be a lot heavier.

Collecting this one!

Sounds like the problem I had. In my case Backscatter did all the talking to Nauticam and had them send me a new trigger.

https://www.printique.com/ Get on their mailing list and wait until they have a sale of at least 20%. Around holidays, mother's day etc they often have 30-35% sales. Metal prints are much cheaper than framed glass prints, more durable, and look sharper. Especially when you get into the poster sized 20-30 inch size range. Btw, i do have a very popular 3d print on Makerworld for hanging these metal prints using a command strip. Super easy and won't harm your walls.

I also print a lot of photos, with around 20+ hanging at home. Most are 30" x 20" glossy metal prints. A few 30x30, and some smaller 16x12s in small spaces. I also have had similar displays to what you described at Salons, Coffee shops, etc. The first time i did this I cleared my walls of the best stuff, and refilled my house with newer, even better photos! The metals prints are great looking, sharp, and modern. Frameless, easy to hang. Relatively affordable at around $200 for a 30" print and there are frequent 20-30% off sales.

I would be willing to try to fabricate one. Seems like a pretty simple idea. Could probably make it buoyant enough to balance the weight. Are you think of the +5 or +10?

If you ruled out the port getting fogged i would be looking at the lens. Loose the TC to remove another variable. Are you able to seal the camera in an air conditioned space?

The Atom has a Red light mode! The snoot mod I built worked well, dove it tonight.

I just got an Atom last week, and this week I made a snoot-adapter for the OS-1. Backscatter is planning to sell an "OS-2" snoot for the Atom but it looks like it's just the OS-1 optics on a different plastic mount. I quickly reverse engineered it from the product photos and used my spare OS-1 front end on my DIY adapter. I'll dive it tomorrow and report on results. It seems to work just as well at the MF-2 / OS-1 combo, but more powerful. This might be an ideal snoot setup as the MF-2 is limited in battery life if you have the spotting light on all the time.

China copy of a Hong Kong China company product? Its China all the way down!

Buzzer is more annoying than useful. Personally, i would just use it as is if simple measures can't fix it.