Dave_Hicks

I've just spent some time looking over this in some detail. Lots of high quality data - Zero conclusions. Backscatter is in the business of selling all of these strobes so it is no surprise that they are not making any editorial comments. I think that their data matched up pretty well with what I generated in my review of the Retra Maxi with comparisons to the Backscatter HF-1. My take aways from the Backscatter data: Look no further than the Retra Maxi and Backscatter HF-1 if you want a wide angle capable strobe Beam Pattern, smoothness, and brightness of the Maxi and HF-1 are pretty much neck and neck. All other strobes are dimmer and less wide, sometimes with inconsistent patterns. The HF-1 is the champion in fast recycle time with the shortest interval between flashes as any target power level. The HF-1 is about 2-3 times faster at cycling to the next flash at the target GN. The Maxi stomps every other strobe in the Buoyancy / Weight ratio making it very easy to handle in the water. My Review: Inside ScubaLong Term Review of the Retra Maxi StrobeDave Hicks tests the Retra Maxi strobe across 100+ dives in Raja Ampat and the Pacific Northwest, comparing it head-to-head with the Backscatter HF-1.

The intent is to build or modify a custom snoot around the part.

This is common. Straight, corkscrew, beads, all sorts of plankton, algae, and similar critters.

Do you have a real photo? Some strobes like Retra really require a 90deg connector.

That's a rather extreme stance. I'm all for excluding generative AI, but masking is not creating or altering any pixels. It's simply automation of something that that is otherwise tedious.

I prototyped a similar Snoot-Iris about a year ago, but didn't finish it as I just don't find changing aperture of the snoot all that useful. 95% of the time I use the widest openings anyway, and I didn't want issues with binding of the moving parts in an Iris. Then I got the Backscatter OS-3 snoot, which uses a rotating disk/cartridge instead of a card. It's is pretty much the same effect as an Iris but a lot simpler. I did make an adapter so I can use the Backscatter snoot on either the HF-1 or Retra strobes.

Partially plastic, not that there is anything wrong with that! The front end is aluminum and acts as a heat sink. The rest of the body is very tough plastic that does not scratch and dent like aluminum body strobes do.

The Maxi video light mode is exclusive of the Flash. Pretty sure the HF-1 is the same.

WWL-C is more compact than the WWL-1 units. Burping is not required once you are a few meters underwater. I have not burped it dozens of times and never noticed. Shallow or snorkeling is not advised however. And i would never plan to remove and swap out the WWL during a dive, the lenses in question just don't merit using diopters.

This is when the WWL setups excel. They are pretty compact and can shoot macro to wide with very good quality possible. Not the best wide or macro solution but competent at both.

I would say they are incrementally larger and heavier. Too me it was not much of a difference from my older strobes, the Inon 330s. Same bag, just filled the space a bit more.

Oh yeah! They can be pretty amazing subjects.

Test results: Shooting a target at about 30 cm on my bench. Z8 f25 iso64 to get a good exposure at Maxi power 2. Shooting at 5fps at 2 or 2.5 the histogram slows walks to the left as subsequent images get darker. At power 1.5 on the Maxis the histograms are stable. Shooting at 4fps at power 2 the histogram slowly walks left and dims. Shooting at 3fps power 2 the histogram just barely walks left. It is basically stable at this speed and power. At power 2.5 is not much different, the histogram dims a tiny bit faster but not much. This is an area where I think the HF-1 is a bit better. It uses a different priority in rapid fire. It priorities exposure over fire-always. The Maxi always fires even as it becomes more and more dim. The HF-1 will skip frames and only fires at the expected power level. You get some blank frames but all of the ones you get are properly exposed. In this instance at power 2 or higher, with 10 frames the Maxi deliver a couple properly exposed frames then a run of increasingly dark images. The HF-1 delivers 7 properly exposed frames and 3 blank frames interspersed. Personally, i would rather have a sequence of properly exposed images even if a few get dropped. At least you get consistent images across a sequence that might span several seconds. * The Maxi at power 2 and HF-1 at 3/4 deliver the same exposure I hope that helps! I find 3fps is a good rate for me and delivers usable sequences at about half power on these strobes. You can always increase ISO and lower strobe power until find a frame rate that works for you.

I will give it a try later this morning. Certainly 3 fps is no problem, which is my default setting. Last night I was shooting jellyfish much faster but only about 5 frames.

** Retra Maxis

Burst shooting does not seem to be a problem. I've shoot a few thousand images while shooting birds at 12 fps and not had an issue.

Battery life has not been a problem with the Z8. I've done 3 dives and 500-600 photos and not dropped below 25-50% power many times. I don't know if it has room for an external battery, but I expect you could add a USB bulkhead for charging in the housing.

I was (and remain) very happy with my D850 system. The nudge that pushed me to get a Z8 system was a $10,000 insurance payout for a canceled liveaboard trip due to a broken leg. That and the absolute racket the D850 made shooting rapid-fire on the Kenya Safari trip that ended up breaking my leg. Silent shooting is another big benefit of mirrorless, even if it doesn't matter UW its a big deal for wildlife and events. If I couldn't dive for 3 months at least I could spend the found money on a new camera system! A silver lining in every cloud.

The quality and focus abilities of the D850 are at least 90% as good as anything else on the market. Certainly the lenses are as well, often its the same lenses. There are clearly advantages to mirrorless models, which is why i upgraded to the Z8. However, i kept my D850 and housing as a backup. You would be very happy with that system and can get years of use out of it.

I have published the design for the updated Reduction Ring Set & Diffusers on MakerWorld: https://makerworld.com/en/models/3206771-retra-reduction-ring-set-with-diffusing-filters#profileId-3629441 I've dove them a few times and filters worked out very well. No issues in the water and they light looks great. The diffusers only lose about 1/2 stop of light. The yellow filter is very close to 4500k filters from Retra and Backscatter. This set is 100% printed, including the diffusers, which is an improvement on my earlier design that used non-printed parts for the filters. You can now make an entire set with just a few types of filament.

Good luck. I shared my suggestion, I can't comment further.

Useless slop and not actionable. To my knowledge you are the only person hitting this issue. Lots of people use edge and Windows11, etc. I think it is more likely you have some content filtering enabled, possibly on your router, that is the root cause. Try to hotspot your phone, using the mobile carrier network, and connect your PC to the hotspot WiFi. This will confirm or refute my suspicion.

When you have spent all you can on scuba gear, buy a camera. When you have spent all you can on cameras, buy a Rebreather! . .. ... Actually my CCR was al lot cheaper than my latest camera rig. 🙄

I have two KISS Sprit LTE units for myself and my wife. I have about 1,000 dives on this unit and it's still perfect. I've replaced the harness webbing, some scuba hoses, and fischer cables, but not much else. About 12 years old now. I had an earlier generation of KISS units as well from 2007 when I got CCR certified.

A dive buddy made a crazy light modifier out of actual mirrors: The Kaleido-Port!