Nemrod

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?

Yes, the Retra Maxi strobes would be quite sporty with such lovely blue accesories! 😁

Prepping for a pool day to get the new strobes wet. Does not look outlandish! Getting the NA-6400 ready for Cozumel in a few weeks. You know, Nauticam, would you please offer silver anodizing! I am so sick of black. I bought a black 15" MacAir and it shows every finger print and scratch. Meanwhile my old silver MacBook Pro 15 from 2012.5 looks new. And while at, maybe do a little better job on the anodizing.

These PD bulkheads are double sealed, the inside is sealed and then there is a cap with an O-ring seal. Two seals would have to fail to flood the camera. LOL, Kraken stuff, Intova stuff, expect it to fail, I did get several years of use out of my Kraken focus light before it flooded through the lens. Same with my Intova light. I bought new ones recently, fingers crossed I get some years from them. My Nauticam PD bulkhead charges my camera fast enough. I have to use an adapter from C to mini anyways. Does the new Kraken PD have a plug on the bottom of the bulkhead or is the cable integrated and cannot be removed?

Which part number are you guys ordering please?

One of my D2000 strobes had the same issue after getting bumped pretty hard, after many years of reliable service. I sent it off to a well known repair service and he agreed to repair it. That was three years ago. Crickets chirping. I moved on to the S220 and now some Retras. That is one of the downsides of Inon (and that they now make only the S220) is that there are no parts, no support and no service. And really, the same with YS. Well, perhaps there is a little service for YS but they go TU more often so net, net. Basically, I feel your pain but can provide little hope.

Dave, If you could that would be great. I have used JawsTec with no real issues but I would rather send money to a fellow diver and you know exactly what they should be. And they are kinda slow, I have another trip June 22nd I think it is. Let me know, thanks, James

Thanks for the info. I looked at that site but do not understand, do I order from the site or download? What is meant by Plate 2? I have used JawsTec to print several dive related and other items in the past, most recently G250 bumpers. Edit, oh, I see, think I figured it out.

Does anyone have a file(s) for printing bumpers for the new Maxi strobes? As you guys coerced me into buying some Maxi strobes I find that currently Retra has not caught up with the Maxi product accessories, it needs bumpers! I assume that Retra will eventually produce bumpers? I think they told my wife that they were in work.

I assume you mean by "fiddly" that the knobs are too small for gloved hands? If so, these knob extension may fit the Z330. I had them on my Z240/D2000 strobes. But not sure they fit the Z330. Reef Photo & VideoH2O Tools Inon Optimization SetH2O Tools Inon Optimization Knobs for Inon Strobes This set includes two knobs. The image above shows an o-ring. The o-ring is not included. The knobs fit over Inon strobe knobs. These knobs are laI bet some smart person could design and print something for the Z330.

I got the Maxi strobes in just now. I am able to say that I am pleasantly surprised that my over worked imagination was wrong and these strobes are not as big as I had thought. They are not little but not too big either and that promises to balance well in the water. So I think I am glad that I did not go out and get the Max Pro IIs. I think that I will like the Maxi better in the end. For my purposes anyways. Thanks all.

Just going to say, having owned/used the old D2000, the Z240 and several other Inon strobes, the S220 is as powerful as the Z240 was. And folks considered at that time it to be an acceptable wide angle strobe. The S220 is so tiny and is rock solid in both manual and TTL. The S220 is not the S2000, it is a much improved strobe. I am sure now that I have invested in Retra strobes that Inon will dump five new models on the market to make me go nuts and shake my fists to the heavens, but, according to several photo stores, not going to happen.

Sad to see that resource go away :(.

And I did get the video lights option. Both for resell in that event and for utility in swim throughs or other similar need to light my way. Mostly for resell. I suppose if I go back to mounting a GoPro atop the housing the video lights would be useful there.

Oh well, I have Maxi strobes on the way with the WA diffusers. Boil water and fry fish!

The Apollo S strobes I used for several weeks did not have a pre-flash kill. The MTL mode is a continuous mode they suggest for that purpose but it fires on the preflash which is annoying to make two flashes when shooting manual. They perhaps have added that feature now, do not know. They are very nice strobes, the ones I used were missing a feature critical to my use and my camera. The manual reads no different for the S III. Back panel of S model and excerpt from S III model. Where do I set preflash kill on this strobe? When shooting in manual MTL mode with my Sony I got two flashes at the chosen power setting with the exposure flash diminished at higher power settings. Was it malfunctioning? I miss too many shots with the UWT trigger board, any strobe I buy must be capable of running from the pop ups. I do use the UWT board for macro. I have used a pair of the older Retras and they ran fine on the Sony in all modes from pop up and the UWT board in TTL and manual and did not fire on the preflash. As neither do the Inon Z and S strobes I have owned or used. To kill preflash on the Maxi the manual instructs the user to use the app to program the custom feature on the U position.