Dave_Hicks

Probably most of the time. But i don't need two MF-2s, and i do need two HF-1s. Good enough for me.

He shared a link to a generic shade designed for a top side lens. I just made a 3d printed tpu rubber shade for the MFO and will try it tomorrow. I will share the design after testing. I am always happy to send out copies for the cost of shipping.

Two words: Strap Wrench

Backlighting or just fill light at low power. I don't like the "Spotlight" effect you sometimes see in Snoot shots. The second strobe allows you to blend in some surrounding detail without emphasizing the background you are trying to hide with the snoot.

A fisheye lens still produces a Fisheye Effect at 15mm, with straight lines being curved. The 8-15mm party trick at 8mm is a circular vignette, and that's a whole other thing. I don't use the WACP, but the WWL-C with 24-50mm lens, and it's pretty much the same thing you get with the WACP. This configuration is very flexible and provides the ability to get sharp images at wide angles and some ability to zoom in to near-macro levels. Edge sharpness is good with these lenses, more so than older Wide Angle Zooms like a 16-35mm behind a big port. I also shoot with the Nikon 8-15mm FE behind a 170mm dome port. To be certain, this is sharper than the WWL (and maybe the WACP). The Fisheye can be very pleasing with some scenes and the corner sharpness is excellent, It's smaller and lighter than the WACP by a mile, and a bit smaller than the WWL-C but not by much. However, it is a lot less flexible than the Nauticam ports with their big zoom ranges. You use a Fisheye for situations that are going to benefit most. Big reef scenes, some very close up big animal encounters (Mantas, Whalesharks), kelp forests. You can get some nice CFWA opportunities when you run out of big scenery but have open water backgrounds and lots of light. If you are adding a teleconverter to the FE, then you might as well go with the WACP/WWL most of the time. You are seeking more range and that is not what FE is made for.

When I shoot macro, I mostly use an MF-2/snoot on the right and an HF-1 on the left. The left side has very long arms. This allows me to use the snoot as a primary light and the HF-1 as fill light. The long arms allow me to place some backlighting behind the subject or from a steep angle to provide some contrast and shadow. If there is a tight spot I can push the HF-1 arm out of the way and just use the snoot. I have 3 Jumbo Stix blocks on the HF-1 arms that nicely balance the rig. The whole thing is nearly neutrally buoyant. I see no problems with the pair of MF-2s as a good macro setup or CFWA configuration.

The Kraken RS-160s look really nice on the spec sheet and are used to great effect by a few photographers that I really respect. Including for macro. I don't know why the Retra's would be better in this regard. The Kraken is a lot more modern than the Retra in its design and specs with a better battery and charging solution in particular. USB-C charging of 2x21700 batteries. With the money saved over the Retra's you could add the Kraken Snoot or even better, add a Backscatter MF-2 snoot/strobe to your collection. Now you have flexibility and backup while spending less money than the Retra set.

I am liking the idea of a slip over shade that fully protects the body and maybe shields the glass a bit from getting scratched. My old SubSea+5 diopter is scratched to hell on the body and a bit on the glass too. I tend to get down in the sands and rocks with super-macro shots. I'll try this out for a while and confirm that it doesn't get in the way. Thanks for sharing the idea, @Tom Kline

Who makes or sells it?

Does it screw on or slip over? Just for fun I made a slip-over shade while I was eating lunch. 🙂 TPU Rubber, it shades about 25mm from the glass and can be push down to only protrude about 12mm. I do not observe any vignetting.

It looks like Nauticam makes a shade for the SMC series, but I don't think it uses the thread at all. It seems to slip over and can be raised or lowered. It's also probably too tall for the much more pancake MFO lens, at least if you want to retract it. It's an interesting idea, perhaps I'll try designing and printing one.

I guess we need to add "burp your strobe" to the best practices of Underwater Photography. 🙂 🫧

Picture? What's the function?

Probably a good idea.

Yes, i thought about that. Could a build up of pressure in the compartment cause the issue? Perhaps only if the batteries were the root cause and not an external flood.

We'll see what happens when I dive it again this week. There is usually some water under the cap, but I don't know if the orings are wet. Perhaps the first one is, but I could not say for sure. I know there is an overpressure valve, I assume that is the metal disk as the center of the cap. It would be interesting to know how to test that independently.

No, i was mistaken. The MFO does have a front thread. Maybe it's meant for a filter or something?

Yes, official on no stacking. There is no front thread.

TLDR; The strobe lives and seems to be working normally after cleaning it up. Yesterday I was doing my second dive of the day when one of my HF-1 strobes made a little tiny pop and stopped working. The green indicator light was off and turning it off and on again did nothing. I was at about 80-85 feet at the time. I turned it off, folded it away, and used the remaining strobe for the rest of the dive. I had set up my camera and strobes on Friday night, and they headed out early Saturday morning for two shore dives about a 90-minute drive away. The conditions were not great, and I didn't take many photos maybe 50. I lightly rinsed the camera and strobes at the dive site and then soaked it in the sink once I got home. I had another pair of boat dives planned Sunday morning, also a 90 minute drive. Since I had not taken many photos I decided to leave the entire rig, camera and strobes alone and dive it again without opening or charging anything. I did a few test shots and packed it in the car. The first dive all worked normally and during the second dive both strobes worked until the Pop. After I got home, I soaked and dried the entire rig and then went to see what was going on with the dead strobe. Had the batteries died suddenly, was the strobe broken? It didn't seem likely to me that it might had flooded. As such, I was a bit surprised to see moisture and a little black goo in the battery compartment. It made another little pop when opened, releasing pressure. There was NOT a lot of water in it. It was not fully flooded, just a bit wet. The batteries and strobes electrical contact showed some black goo and corrosion on the positive terminal at the bottom of the compartment. I dumped out the batteries as set them aside wrapped in paper towels. (they went to a can outside the house) I took the strobe and rinsed it repeatedly under the sink and scrubbed the battery compartment with a toothbrush. My handy electric blower dried it out quickly. I wrapped some sandpaper on the end of a chopstick and cleaned up the corroded Pos+ terminal at the bottom of the compartment. I went to the manual and confirmed my recollection that the battery compartment is sealed from the rest of the strobe. The manual says "maybe" the strobe will survive a flood, and that unless it starts acting erratically you can keep on using it. After allowing it to continue to dry overnight, I loaded fresh batteries this morning and the strobe seems to be working correctly 100%. I'll dive it in a few days to confirm further, but the good news is that it seems to live up to the sealed compartment promise of the manual. I really don't know what caused the flood. I am very meticulous in cleaning and lightly lubricating the orings and sealing surfaces with tribolube with each battery change. There was no hair or debris in the seal when I opened it. No cracks in the case or cap that I can detect. I removed the orings and cleaned the cap and groves carefully with a toothbrush and lint free laboratory wipe. The orings seem to be in good shape so I cleaned those too and put them in spares. I swapped in the spare set of orings that Backscatter provided with the HF-1 on both strobes. I didn't take any photos of the flood, but it was not very dramatic in any case. Just a touch of goo and corrosion. It just goes to show that every strobe or o-ring sealed device is never 100% foolproof and the best we can do is take care. Have a spare on hand if you can't afford to be down a strobe on a big trip. I have a couple of big trips coming up in April and May, so I'll be bringing at least 1 spare strobe and a few extra batteries!

Anyone have a use for an old Ikelite Video housing? For parts or a science experiment maybe? I think is was for a canon cx 600? video camera. You pay shipping, its yours.

The MFO is standalone only. No stacking.

Well, that's wrong. Even the screen shot you shared instructs that you need to Push in the button to Position 1 when using Manual strobe power control on a non-preflash camera. Except for Olympus shooters, pretty much everyone is using Manual mode with these strobes.

Looks like the Preflash "Bastard Button" is gone. Perhaps it is using a learning mode now like most other strobes. And no electrical sync at least on this model. There is a plugged disk on the back, so perhaps electrical is an option.

I also have a double flip. I very occasionally use a SubSea +10 diopter, similar to the SMC1. If I want to use that I'll still pair it with the MFO on the flip. Otherwise, I've replaced the Flip / Subsea +5 combo with the MFO directly on the port.