RETRA Strobe Thread

3 hours ago, Azurreal said:

Even with the Nauticam TTL Converter (D850) ?

Nauticam TTL-Converter #26308 (for Nikon) works with Retra Pro the same way as UWTechnics #11031-II, you can use the same settings. 

1 hour ago, Pavel Kolpakov said:

Nauticam TTL-Converter #26308 (for Nikon) works with Retra Pro the same way as UWTechnics #11031-II, you can use the same settings. 

Thanks Pavel !

I've been getting good exposure with the Z240 settings but I'll try the YS one.

10 hours ago, Azurreal said:

I've been getting good exposure with the Z240 settings but I'll try the YS one.

YS-D1 and Z240 TTL-profiles are rather similar. Probably Z240 profile also can be used.

@Oskar@RetraUWT Any news on when the next batch will be sent out? Would be good with another delay noticed, as the last one said "will be shipping before mid-January 2020". Really jealous of everyone already received theirs :). 

Patrick

We are getting near to the end of the first batch and everyone who hasn't received the tracking details should be getting theirs in the next few days. If you need an exact shipping date please contact my colleague at: sales@retra-uwt.com

In cooperation and with the support of Retra company,  UWTechnics has built accurate TTL-profile and HSS up to 1/8000, - for Retra PRO strobe support. New Converters are available for Sony, for other cameras it is in development now.

Good news (with a twist...)

received a notice from DHL saying my 2 (Nov. pre-ordered) Retra flash PRO's were being delivered tomorrow (here in California). Timing is good because I've got a trip coming up in about 4 weeks, so looking forward to getting these strobes wet.

The "twist" was also getting a "Duty owed" notice from DHL. $118 USD for the 2 strobes... no real heartburn on the amount, just more the notice itself.

Posting here so others are aware (I did see the previous post on "duty owed" as well - looks like it is a theme for strobes shipped to the US/Canada).

Dear All, 

I would like to inform you about the TRT-electronics and Retra Pro TTL characteristic.  

We updated the i-TURTLE, s-TURTLE, o-TURTLE software on the website to use the Retra Pro in TTL mode. 

We are working on the HSS possibility and the new orders will contain this function in manual mode. 

Best

Balazs

Thanks to all you guys who are working on the various software/firmware updates to be able to use the Retra to their max. Excellent!

I emailed Retra on Saturday to ask when strobes might be available for we non-pre-order people. I was surprised to get a quick reply saying if I ordered in the next few days, delivery would be within a week. 

So, sold my first-born, slapped in an order on Sunday.... and my Retra Primes arrived at my front door Wednesday evening (last night)! Sadly I'm not there to drool over them at the moment. But hey....

(Just to add to the joy of the day, Manchester City beat Real Madrid 1-2 at the Bernabeu last night).

What a great day!

As mentioned earlier, I had received notice form Retra back on Feb 2nd that my first two prime strobes were on their way, which arrived a few days later. In addition to purchasing two directly from Retra, I had also preordered two more through Backscatter around the same time. Happy to say they too are on their way to me now with the arrival this Friday the 28th., so Retra is getting them cranked out.

Oskar is there any news on the battery packs for the pro strobe? I am interested in swapping my originals for a couple of Pros but I would like to have the advantage of the quick recycling. 

29 minutes ago, bear35 said:

Oskar is there any news on the battery packs for the pro strobe? I am interested in swapping my originals for a couple of Pros but I would like to have the advantage of the quick recycling. 

We are working on the "Supercharger" for the new Retra Flash and plan to announce it soon. I can't give an exact date right now but it's at the top of our priority list. 

Any word on flashing updated firmware to the original Retra strobes, @Oskar@RetraUWT?

So, I've got my head wrapped around the HSS mode and it definitely seems like a good addition, but for the life of me I'm stumped as to what Smart SL mode is for and when I need to use it.

Anyone care to explain?

ian

From the Retra Manual:

Quote

Smart SL - Smart pre-flash cancellation mode

If the camera emits only TTL light with pre-flash and you wish to set the Retra Flash with manual exposure, this mode will automatically detect the number of pre-flash (1-10) and ignore them.

So I guess this would be useful with cameras where there is no manual flash mode, or where you cannot switch between manual and TTL underwater.

This enables switching between TTL and manual from the Retra flash without changing camera flash mode. It may be faster under water to do so.

Please write to develop@retra-uwt.com regarding firmware for Original Retra Flash.

The Smart SL mode is intended for cameras like the Sony RX100 which have no option of cancelling the TTL pre-flash. It might not work with TTL converters, at least on Nikon we have seen that the TTL converter gets confused and constantly changes the number of pre-flashes which makes this system unusable. With pop-up flash we have not had this issue.

Thanks for the replies

So, do I have this right? Smart SL is a means of switching between TTL and Manual flash mode (Nikon D850 and UW Technics TTL Nauticam) without changing the selector dial on the TTL board?

I have only ever shot manual before, so this is new territory to me.

ian

Smart SL is intended for cameras where it is not possible to disable the TTL pre-flash, which prevent the flash to operate in Manual.

It may therefore be used to operate the flash in manual mode, while the camera is shooting in TTL with pre-flash. However, this has to be tested, Oskar mentioned that some TTL converters change the number of pre-flash used, which prevents this feature to work.

When this feature works, it enables to switch the flash mode between manual and TTL without changing the camera settings.

Thanks Algwyn - that's really clear.

Normally on my D500 using a TTL trigger if I need manual, I switch the camera to Auto FP flash sync setting which "disconnects" the TTL element of the Subal  board. But this sounds much easier - although I guess it depends if the Subal board has that changing pre-flash characteristic.

One for Pavel!

Nikon performs pre/flashes by the following way:

Nikon camera emits the 1-st pre-flash of fixed duration, receives the reflected light by sensor. If received pre-flash light is enough for processor work, camera determines the concrete main flash duration and emits it.  

 But if the received pre-flash light is not enough, then camera emits the 2-nd pre-flash with increased duration (classic Nikon 2-nd pre-flash has 3 variants of duration dependently of camera decision for each shot, but in last modern Nikon cameras usually there is only a single duration variant).  After that 2-nd pre-flash reflected light rating, Nikon camera finally determines duration of main flash and emits it.

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UW Technics and Nauticam TTL-Converters (for Nikon) performs the pre-flashes accordinly Nikon camera decision for each shot. Pay attention: Number and duration of pre-flashes there depends on camera decision only. And of course, TTL-Converter has possibility to cancel those pre-flashes totally, when user needs. Another words, user can switch On "M" mode, with only a single main flash. There are 2 ways to perform it by the TTL board capabilities:

1) Switch On the M mode by camera menu specially assigned command, - "Auto FP" marked sync speed. This way is available underwater.

2) Switch on the M mode by onboard rotary switch. - position "0". This is available on air only.

       The other way , - do it by the strobe knobs (available underwater):

3) Switch on "M mode with pre-flash canceling", by the strobe knob. This case, uw strobes of different construction work in 2 different variants: Most of them, produce the time window, inside this window all pre-flashes are ignored. But some strobes perform another algorithm, - ignores a concrete number (1,2,3 etc.) pre-flashes, without any timing. The second algorithm does not work for Nikon normally, because pre-flashes quantity are variable, dependently of Nikon camera decision for each shot.