Nemrod

Maybe the message is that you need new Retra Maxi strobes? The problem for me with the HF-1 is are two fold. They are very negative in the water, enough so that my clamps have to be overly tight to prevent the strobes from not falling down. Second, they have proprietary (RC) TTL that only works with the TG series cameras and I guess the OM1? May work with some Sony cameras but uses a proprietary trigger that will not fit in my housing which already has a UWT trigger. Backscatter could not have told their China box factory to add a universal TTL mode? Does not work with my Canon either. Same thing with the Atom. Cannot have a standard TTL mode? I have now used my new Retra Maxi strobes in the pool on practice subjects and found that the TTL works quite well with both my Canon and Sony. Yes, I mostly shoot in manual strobes mode but having TTL is a solid requirement for me because there are times I want to shoot TTL. And the Maxi is essentially neutral ln the pool and possibly slightly buoyant in salt water. I do not have to tighten my clamps down to support them.

At least we have Alex and Matt and the Underwater Photography Show to get an underwater camera fix 😀. As soon as my wife hears that intro music she gets up and leaves the room, "if you are going to listen to that again, I am going to go read a book!" I keep trying to explain to her there is more than one episode, ha.

Yes, thank you Dave. My bumpers and knobs are great. Used them in the dive pool today. Great! Cannot wait for my trip in a few weeks to use my new strobes with DH bumpers and knobs!

I have mostly ULCS and Nauticam clamps. The ULCS are US standard 1/4X20 and 1/4X28 (fine). The M6 is quite close to 1/4X20 which is slightly larger in diameter. You could possibly convert your M6 outer clamp to 1/4X20 by running a tap through it and then thereafter use the ULCS clamp knobs in your preferred color. Use a permanent thread locker (271 or similar) on the outer clamp half. Just a thought, have not tried it.

He would have to release vacuum and then turn the switch off. Upon rearming the circuit with the "switch" of some sort he envisages then restore the vacuum. But he would not have to open the housing. I just open my housing in the evening, give everything a once over and then close it back for the next day and pull vac about 30 minutes before departure or when convenient. But, I recharge between dives or at lunch as needed without having to open the housing on the boat or a sandy beach or some other undesirable place.

I originally used a double ender instead of the bolt snaps. But I visited the Reef store in Fort Lauderdale and saw those Nauticam shackle clamps and just had to have them and thus went to the dual bolt snaps. But, I have been considering going back to the single double ender. It is more comfortable to hold and slightly more compact and removes some clutter (the bolt snaps) from the camera while in use. The lanyard would seem redundant sometimes perhaps since I usually carry the rig by the bolt snaps/double ender. But, boat crews fixate on that lanyard, they instinctively know that is where to grab. And during safety/deco stops I will sometimes let the camera hang from the lanyard clipped to one pivot to my shoulder D ring and clipped back to the other pivot afterwards and of course the coil lanyard is still attached until hand off for two point security, the two points being my hand and the coil lanyard or the white lanyard and coil lanyard. Sounds complicated maybe but it is not in practice. A couple of years ago on the Spiegel my buddy assigned me was a relatively new diver and with camera, a bad combo. I agreed to dive with her and all was well until her fin strap broke near the end of the dive. And the current had gotten worse. She had her fin in one hand, her camera in the other and thus no way to hold the buoy line and got blown off. So, I let the current take me, zipped my camera rig up to my chest as described earlier, intercepted her and then took her broken fin in one hand and grabbed her now free hand and swam her back to the boats tag line. The point of this story being that sometimes it is nice to be able to rig for hands free and know your rig is not flopping about. And that is when the two bolt snaps come into play, each one goes to a chest D ring.

No, not once in over twenty years. If having the loops on the outer arms bothers one then put them on the inside, the method works either way. With all of the stuff folks have hanging on their cameras like optical and electric sync cables those little loops provide little issue compared. And because they are 1/8 bungee if they were to ever get entangled my shears would make quicker work of them than the heavy electric cables on those Ikelite strobes!

The gap that is added is very small. However, I did make a suggestion as to how to deal with the void in the OE knobs filled with water by drilling a 1/8 or #30 hole to allow blowing the water out. I am confident that the tiny gap of my new "blue" knobs will not cause any more likelihood of breaking a shaft. I did not mean to start a what if scenario as I have never heard of a broken Retra strobe shaft. It is just that I was somewhat miffed by their being plastic, I would have thought them to be stainless steel. If the shaft were to break it would be where the shaft tapers down and is then relieved for the set screw to insert. That is where the turning force is applied and if the shaft were to snap off there the knob would fall off in your hand or Davy Jone's Locker. I am not really worried about it. I have been using for several years a rechargeable electric blower. It worked great and dries all the water off and out of controls without the high pressure compressed air of a nozzle on a scuba tank. Recently I got a corded blower to reduce battery count that really gets the job done and can probably serve as a hair drier 😆 because it even gets very slightly warm due to compression.

I got my bumpers and knobs! Super Nice!! About the standard Retra knobs. They have a cavity inside that could hold water and fit so close to the case that blowing out the water completely might be difficult. In replacing my knobs with the 3D printed Super Nice knobs, (1) I discovered that the shaft itself is Nylon, not stainless! Hmmm, I did not expect that on $XXXX strobes! (2) The cavity seems to serve no purpose and I took a 1/8 drill and put a hole in them into the cavity in exact alignment with the set screw hole such that it intersected the cavity at mid depth. (3) JFYI, the set screw goes deep into the plastic shaft and must be nearly completely backed out before the knobs will slip off the plastic shafts. I am quite certain that the added hole would allow complete rinsing and removal of any water and since all the parts are plastic I am not sure it matters. But who wants salt water left in their expensive gear, so add the "blow" hole or get some printed knobs that do not have the cavity and have a small gap at the interface to the back plate to properly drain. Hey, Retra, what is up with those plastic shafts, are those going to snap off? My Inons have plastic bodies and metal shafts, my Retras have metal bodies and plastic shafts, this is making my OCD hurt my head! On the first moon landing, Armstrong hit a CB switch accidentally and broke it off. If not for an ink pin inserted into the CB they might still be on the moon. The point being, if it is important and can break off, it will, exactly when you need it most. Plastic shafts? Are those going to break when I get that whale shark in my VF?

I understand, that is why I too have the clamps with a shackle. And lock my arms at the center pivots with bolt snaps and at the outer to inner pivots with a bungee loop, tight or loose, my strobes cannot flail about like I see so often and with damaging results. I also beach dive often enough and need to be able to walk and enter and exit hands free.

ULCS makes these or anyone handy in the shop could do something similar to convert a double or triple clamp to allow lanyard attachment to the center pivot. https://ulcs.com/product/ac-lhc2-camera-lanyard-holder/

On my Sony there is a lever on the housing that selects VF or screen. I bought a used 45 degree Nauticam VF and used it for a couple of years until one day I realized I care nothing about macro and prefer the screen. Yes, I agree, especially for macro, a VF allows more precise framing and focus check. But, I do not care. I sold the 45 degree VF and my new Canon rig is screen only. The VF also seems to use more battery, noticeably so on the Sony IMO. I do not have auto-review set on either of my cameras. I prefer to just press the review button. I may not review every shot.

I think they are 1/4 inch or M6 (the inside opening width is right at 1/2 inch). The pin needs to be made snug so as to put a spring load on the shackle loop and for extra security a bit of cave line to lash the pin to the shackle loop if worried.

I have another dive buddy who has decided to go off the deep end with minimalism. He wants to get rid of all strobes and lights and then use AI enhanced programs to edit his photos. Not getting any deeper into that (AI) discussion, my reason for bringing it up is we either think we need lighting or we think we do not. If you think you do, then there has to be arms and cables. We can do single arms, longer or shorter arms but if there be strobes then there be cables and joints and connections. Is there another way?

I like my carry handle to be on the center pivot with a "M" set up. So why do I have the additional bolt snaps? They lock the arms together at the upper pivot. The strobes are locked in at the outer pivot to the inner with bungee. Thus when folded up the rig is a secure package for handling especially when the crew has it handing off, no flailing about of the arms whacking the strobes about. I have at least two regular dive buddies that use TG cameras. Both have three strobes and two video lights. One of them has two YSD3 on the outer arms, two high power video lights, triple clamps and over the top an Atom strobe! They cannot even get their rigs into the rinse basin yet mine slips right in neatly. And they try to call me out for the "huge" camera rig and I repeatedly point out that mine fits in a Sams bag and theirs need a porter! One of their issues in addition to multiples strobes and video lights is that they are using a single arms which makes folding up compactly a challenge for them. Rigged as shown below your rig will not flop about. And I can set it up to clip off to my shoulder D rings and center crotch scooter ring. The two center pivot bolt snaps in such case go to each D ring, and the lanyard is wrapped around the lower grip intersection and off to the scooter ring. Configured so the rig is held flat to my chest and will not swing and flop about for beach entry/exit or even arms free climbing the boarding ladder with the camera still in my keep. I do not shoot video and have no interest in video at all. But, I did get my new strobes with the video lights (for potential resale). But for those who try to do everything, combo strobes with built in video lights might be one way to get rid of two video lights cluttering up the rig?