Architeuthis

I got the Backscatter Sony flashtrigger that is able to trigger the HF-1 in HSS mode and tested out by myself (with Sony A7R5): When the "drive mode" is set to "slow" (3 fps), only every 4th image is lit by the strobe and the other three are black... => This means that drive mode is not working with HSS. The flash fires after every (approx.) 1.3s ... For fast sequences one has to remain in the regular "manual mode", within the limits of the flash sync. speed.

My personal experience with strobe service is extremely bad with Sea&Sea (Europe; located in Netherlands), time span was approx. 2-4 years ago: I had four total losses (YS-D2) and it was not possible to contact them or get any response from them, nether by telephone nor by EMail. The service is(was?) practically non existing... Completely different situation with Backscatter (just now): Two HF-1 had their electrodes corroded. Very fast response, quick and kind handling (although at present there are problems in sending items between US and Europe and the repaired flashes are, at present, delayed in the customs; this is, however, not Backscatters fault)... Wolfgang

I did not test for FF, but made comparisons between Nauticam 140mm and Zen DP100 for MFT (the tread is in the old forum). If existing, the differences were minor. Maybe for FF there is some improvement with 140mm domeport. More important for sharpness in the corners is probably the correct extension and stopping down,.. A clear advantage of the 140mm dome is, that one can put the lens together with the hood into the domport, while with DP100 one has to remove the hood. I believe this can improve IQ substantially, as this minimizes the stray light from the flashes falling into the optics (together with the hood on the domeport)... Wolfgang

Eizo coloredge is probably the best, but also the most expensive... I cannot compare to other high quality monitors for photographers since this is my first monitor of this kind, but my BenQ SW270c does what is expected from a monitor in this class. Approx. 1 year ago the monitor failed and I had to send it in for repair. It turned out repair is too elaborated (more or less a total loss), but they send me a refurbished replacement monitor (same model) for free on goodwill basis, although the warranty was already over since > 3 years. I can recommend this brand... Wolfgang

With the 2x TC the 8-15mm fisheye will become a 16-30mm fisheye (not 50mm)... According to calculations for equisolid fisheye, 16-30mm will be 170° - 85° diagonal angle of view (AOV). According to Nauticam's portcharts, the FCP-1 with Sony 28-60mm will give 170° - 74°, i.e. pretty similar AOVs... => I would say that the Canon 8-15mm & 2x Sony TC is some kind of "poor mans FCP" (it does not seem from the reviews, however, that FCP provides better IQ) Wolfgang

Interesting that both are nominally 4500K. In your side by side photo the Retra looks clearly cooler (but maybe the Kelvin designation refers to the output at the end and the spectrum of the Retra strobe is different to the HF-1)...

The flat diffuser from Backscatter that is on the Retra strobe seems to be the 4500K one. What color temperature does the Retra dome diffuser, mounted to the HF-1, have?

Can you please give a link to the second review/comparison of the retra Maxi strobe (I cannot find it via google)? Thanks, Wolfgang

Did someone test out the maximum possible, blackout free, fps rate when the HF-1 is in HSS mode? Thanks, Wolfgang

I have a naive question on HSS generally: When camera and flash are operating in HSS mode, but one selects a shutter speed slower than the fastest flash sync. speed possible, is the maximal flash output still reduced, compared to manual mode?

Hi Michi, I normally use the Nauticam 35.5mm N100/N120 adapter plus the 25mm&35mm N120 extensions (totally 60mm) for the Nauticam 140mm domeport. When 8-15mm fisheye alone, I take just the 30mm N120 extension... User Dreifish made careful testing for ideal positioning with regard to entrance pupil and recommends 5mm more. I tested this also, but did not find a noticeable difference in IQ and often the raw files showed vignetting, probably due to sensor IS and unstable holding of the setup...

Hi Michael, I used Sony 1.4x, 2x, Kenko 1.4x HD Pro and Kenko 2x TCs with the Canon 8-15mm. One can use them all... It is difficult to predict how a WA fisheye lens will perform with a TC, as all TC were not designed for this use... I got best results, regarding IQ, with Sony 2x and Kenko 1.4x HD Pro, the other two TCs performed less good. Surprisingly, Sony 1.4x performed not better (maybe even a bit worse) compared to Sony 2x... With Kenko 1.4x HD Pro the extension is the same as with Sony 2x, so you can use the same zoomgear (at least one can use the same 3D printed extension ring for the "regular" Nauticam zoom gear, that I am using)... Wolfgang P.S.: I have both WACP-C/28-60mm and Canon 8-15mm with and w/o Sony 2xTC. On my last two trips WACP-C was left at home (Subjectively, I find IQ pretty comparable and prefer the 180° diagonal over the 130° of WACP-C (the Canon 8-15mm w/o TC can also be used on some dives and clearly performs optically better than both WACP-C or 8-15mm&2xTC variants (but is, of course, less flexible)))

A sachet of baking soda is easy to include in an emergency kit...

Thank you all again for this great advice...👍 I will take the fiberglass stick plus isopropylalcohol as first treatment and, if this is not enough, antioxidant cleaner and even coca cola... (I should add that Backscatter definitely does not recommend to use contacts cleaner and/ore coke, but what can we do when the milder treatments fail (Sevag from BS service department writes: "...I would strongly advise against using Coca Cola or anything other than either pure fresh water or isopropyl alcohol on any strobe equipment...")?)... The DeOxid Gold, recommended by Dave, is very expensive here in Europe (about 50 Euros), I found a cheaper product (produced in EU), I hope that it will work equally well: https://www.amazon.de/Kontakt-Chemie-KONTAKT-70004-AA-Kontaktreiniger/dp/B004SGL2T0/ref=ast_sto_dp_puis

It seems to be a great lens, but it will remain a "nice" product, useful only for Canon mirrorless users... It is really a pity that it comes in the mirrorless RF mount. The old Canon EF mount was, besides beeing the mount for Canon, some kind of "universal" mount, easily adaptaple to RF, Sony FE, MFT and even to Nikon Z. One could see a lot of EF lenses on camera bodies other than Canon... (beeing a user of Canon 8-15mm f/4 EF on Sony, I have no urge to switch, at present, to another lens with similar properties, even if it would be compatible (RF is certainly not))...

Hi Warmuth, Is this observed decrease in IQ, when you compare the lens behind flatport to the lens in air? Or does IQ decrease when using domeport and compare to IQ with planport? Or is it MFO-1 & planport vs. plain planport? Thanks, Wolfgang

As far as I understand, the MFO-1 lens corrects for the optical aberrations introduced by using macrolenses behind planports and should have similar IQ to a macrolens behind domeport (?). For longer focal length (e.g. 90mm on FF), however, these aberrations are pretty small and neglectible. For shorter focal length (e.g. 50mm or smaller for FF), a domeport may increase IQ noticeably... Anyone can confirm this from real life experience? P.S.: I am using Sony 20-70mm (FF) and was using Zuiko 12-40m (MFT) behind Zen DP170 domeport (not for real macro, but for fishportrait). At the short end IQ is very good and certainly better compared to planport, but I am not shure whether the domeport brings improvement at the long end...

So far I never did experience problems with corrosion of electrodes, but on my recent trip to Mafia Island/Tansania in November, two HF-1 strobes almost simultaneaously let me down for most of the time of the stay (it turned out later the reason was corrosion of the electrodes)... I was using them for approx. 2 years, never flooded them and cannot remember that I ever dropped a single drop of (salt)water into the battery compartment. I fear that this problem will come again and plan to put together some kind of "emergency kit" that I can use when I am abroad. The strobes had the electrodes replaced at Backscatter (kind, quick and labour as a goodwill case), are now on their way back and I asked Sevag (the Service Manager), what components he would suggest for such a kit. I think his suggestion may be of interest also for others here: "...The best tools to have with you are some alcohol wipes, liquid isopropyl alcohol if possible (90-99% is best), a brush to help reach the contacts at the base of the strobe, and a fiberglass cleaning tool like one of these: https://www.backscatter.com/Hama-Contact-Cleaner-CAUTION-Fiberglass ..." What is the opinion of UW- photographers, who have had problems in the past with strobe electrodes, about such a "kit"? How did you deal with corroded electrodes? Any additional suggestions? Thanks for the input, Wolfgang

Hi Dave, I copied now your image with the photograph (hope the inage is unprocessed from raw), reduced the resolution to 120 pixels (long side) and measured now with the eyedropper tool in Pgotoshop the luminance of these big pixels (average from the four pixels, diagonally adjacent to the center, since there seems to be an arrow in the center and above and below the arrow there are some enhanced regions)... Here is the result in numbers (luminance), arranged in the your order: Indeed the luminance values go into some kind of saturation at higher intensities (Retra Maxi above +3/+2.5; Backscatter above Full/0.5) and this completely supports the impression that I get by direct inspection of your photographs... => Since this is not in accordance to my observations that I got from 2 years of using the HF-1 UW (switching the power button from Full to +1 and further to +2 brings substantial improvements in strobe power, not just few percent (almost within experimental variability)), I conclude that the experimental setup used is not suitable for assessing the strobe power at high settings (Retra Maxi above +3/+2.5; Backscatter above Full/0.5) => There may be numerous factors responsible (only you can check and find out). One likely one could be that the pixels on the sensor got oversaturated at these immense light intensities (flash positioned 65cm from the wall)... Wolfgang P.S.: Here the coarsened image of your results, in order to make the eydropper readings more representative: RetraTest.tiff

How are you measuring the brigthness by means of LRc histograms? I know one can measure the brightness in individual, representative, pixels with the cursor after right clicking the histogram and selecting "Show Lab color values" and takijng the "L" value for "Lightness (but there are millions of pixels). This could become more representative by downsampling the image to e.g. 10x10 pixels and measuring brigthness in these big, averaged, ones (maybe you do this aready?)... A big problem may also be that many pixels are oversaturated at the high intensities when photographing a wall flashed at a distance of 65cm, even when ISO50 and f/25 are used. Then the brightness measurements are certainly in error and will not make sense... I am asking, beacuse the measured values for HF-1 (98% vs 96% vs 91% at +2 vs +1 vs Full) do not match the reality. When I use my HF-1s UW, the brigthness differences are much bigger in real life... Sorry that I write this, I really greatly apprechiate your testing, but there is a mistake in your measurement method that needs to be fixed... Wolfgang

There must be a problem with the measurement of brightness at the very high power levels: 99% vs. 98% for the Retra at booster vs. full power, 98% vs 96% vs 91% for HF-1 at +2 vs +1 vs Full. This would mean almost no difference in real world and this is not what my practical experience is with HF-1... With lower intensities the measurements look more reasonable... Could it be that many pixels are already in saturation at these very high intensities? How is the brightness quantitated by means of the histogram in LR?

We need an article that classifies and sorts the different products into categories, with link to serious reviews (In case I would have to acquire a strobe now, I would not even know what, exactly, is at present on the market)...🙂 The adjustable beam diameter of the AOI snoot looks phantastic...

"The fall-off of light is similar across all three strobes at around 1 f-stop 50 degrees from center. The Maxi has the greatest fall off at 1.22 f-stop reduction from center. The HF-1 @ 11 has the least at 0.92 f-stop reduction." #1.: Would this fall-off be similar when the (dome)diffusers are attached, or would it become smaller (towards more even spread of light)? #2.: Is it possible to say how this compares to the very best strobes, with repect to even spread of light?

Thank you very much for this interesting comparison...👍 Concerning the bursts at 3fps, could one say that, at reduced, but comparable output levels, the performance of the three strobes is good and pretty similar? I mean that the Maxi at 1/4 power and both HF-1 and Atom at 1/2 power deliver similar output and provide stable exposure during the 3fps burst for 10 exposures... (when higher output is selected, all three strobes become unreliable (reduced output with Retra, dropouts with Backscatter)

I think the strobe would be the Backscatter HF-1: plenty of power, warm temperature with 4500K diffuser and wide beam (even wider with the dome diffusers (that I never use, even not required, when 180° fisheye)). Also a snoot (Backscatter OS-3) is available... I, personally, use two HF-1s since two years for WA and macro with Sony A7R5 and the peformance is great. Since two HF-1s are pretty big for macro, I have acquired two MF-2s plus OS-1 snoot a year ago. A single MF-2 & OS-1 is great for snooting and easy to use. In my hands, the bare MF-2s (without snoot) work only well for macro (up to the size of an intermediate fishhead, e.g. smaller muraena eel), when I aim the strobes directly at the subject. I find them unusable for other lighting techniques, e.g indirect, because they are too weak. At present I keep one MF-2 & snoot (the other MF-2 is available in classified here), but have ordered a snoot (OS-3) for the HF-1s. In case the snoot works well, I will also sell the second MF-2 and the snoot... A new strobe, the Retra Maxi, came out that sits in the same niche. I do not know the performance of this strobe (evenness of light, temperature, snoot available?), but reviews by others are right on the way... I also must say that I got problems with both HF-1s after two years of use, because in both flashes the contacts corroded (no water inbrake, just moisture). They are right now, out at Backscatter for repair. It may have been an individul case, however (N=2)... Wolfgang