RETRA Strobe Thread

54 minutes ago, Redwing said:

After upgrading to version 3.4 firmware I am unable to test fire the strobes when in the "BATT/TEST" mode.  Is this by design?

No, test firing in batt/test mode works just the same after the update. If you are in bluetooth mode (blue light on the indicator) test firing does not work. Exit bluetooth mode by going to any other mode or turn the flashgun off and on.

1 hour ago, Oskar@RetraUWT said:

No, test firing in batt/test mode works just the same after the update. If you are in bluetooth mode (blue light on the indicator) test firing does not work. Exit bluetooth mode by going to any other mode or turn the flashgun off and on.

Thanks.  That worked.

Hi everyone,

New member of Retra family here! I just got one Retra Flash Pro X with the supercharger and LSD (will get a second one later). I dive primarily in the dark cold water of South California so macro is what I do most of the time. I am transitioning for a setup with Sea and Sea YS-D3 with S&S snoot. Today was my first dive with the new strobe/supercharger/LSD. Everybody talks about the steep learning curve, so I am prepared for that. In actuality it was not too terrible, I did get about 3 decent shots

The question I have is this: you take a photo, pilot light goes off, then comes back when strobe is charged and ready to shoot again, right? Only that in more than few instances, I got a black screen even with the pilot light on and illuminating the subject.

I appreciate any comments anyone can offer. My camera is Nikon D850 with Isotta housing, shooting in M mode (camera and stobes).

Thank you!

Hi Silvana, the pilot light always comes back on after about 0,5-1 second, it’s not connected to recycle time. There is usually a sound “beep” from the flashgun when it recycles and the indicator light changes color.

17 hours ago, Silvana said:

Only that in more than few instances, I got a black screen even with the pilot light on and illuminating the subject

Hi Silvana

Does this happen after you've taken the shot? If that is the case, I'd suspect it's under-exposure - nothing more complicated than that.

I do find that if you are shooting with the LSD into a non-reflective surface underwater (so, not sand but say a darkish colour of coral: red, orange, green) or a "hole" then  you need to increase the strobe output setting to about 50 or even higher. This is based on ISO200, 1/250, f18. This, I find, is particularly the case if you are using one of the smaller circular masks.

If you take a series of pics at that setting I do find sometimes that I'll still get an under-exposure if I don't give the strobe time to catch up recharging. I'm using a Pro-X too. 

Hope this might help a little.

Thanks Oskar. For Sea and Sea strobes I have been using, the pilot light would not come on until the strobe is recharged, so it's good to know that Retra strobe is different. However I must say I wish it was the same as I found the feature very helpful. I honestly did not pay attention to any sound, but I will run some tests on the land and be more observant.

Thank you for the reply!

29 minutes ago, TimG said:

Hi Silvana

Does this happen after you've taken the shot? If that is the case, I'd suspect it's under-exposure - nothing more complicated than that.

I do find that if you are shooting with the LSD into a non-reflective surface underwater (so, not sand but say a darkish colour of coral: red, orange, green) or a "hole" then  you need to increase the strobe output setting to about 50 or even higher. This is based on ISO200, 1/250, f18. This, I find, is particularly the case if you are using one of the smaller circular masks.

If you take a series of pics at that setting I do find sometimes that I'll still get an under-exposure if I don't give the strobe time to catch up recharging. I'm using a Pro-X too. 

Hope this might help a little.

Hi Tim,

Yes is after a shot. I started with 50% power, ISO100, 1/250, f22, hearing that this strobe has some power. But it was surely way underexposed and as such, all my following shots were at 100% power, 1/200 and f22. With these settings, I would normally get good exposure with Sea&Sea snoot (which btw is an empty tube with a prism inside to redirect pilot light from side to center). I would say I had similar exposure with Retra LSD, if not slightly less with Retra (certainly not more). I did not use any of the circular masks yet, perhaps next weekend I can put them to a test as well. Attached is one of my better shot of the day. I think some of the resolution got cut off but you get an idea about the exposure.

Thank you for your thoughts!

I like the pic, Silvana. Very moody. That looks about how many of my LSD pics would appear depending on the background.

I have found the masks really helpful - well the main two anyway that consist of simple circles. Usually I'd start with the widest and work toward smaller. 

27 minutes ago, TimG said:

I like the pic, Silvana. Very moody. That looks about how many of my LSD pics would appear depending on the background.

I have found the masks really helpful - well the main two anyway that consist of simple circles. Usually I'd start with the widest and work toward smaller. 

Thanks so much Tim!

On 7/28/2020 at 3:08 AM, Oskar@RetraUWT said:

Roughly speaking somewhere around 6-25% power should be used for those settings depending on the mask you are using, actual distance from the subject, subject color, etc. The LSD Ultimate snoot has a focus distance of about 175mm in water. Moving the snoot farther will give a softer edge with even light distribution but when the snoot is positioned too close it will reduce the light output and a dark spot will form in the center. See image below. The square mask is great for finding the focus distance because the corners can be clearly seen as sharp when the LSD is in focus.

Please note that smaller apertures on the mask also reduce the light output. 

The LSD Ultimate snoot for the Original Retra Flash has the same style bayonet mount and it can be mounted to the new Retra Flash PRO/Prime but optically it is not compatible and makes the effect above even worse. The difference is in the length and the diffuser: the Mounting module for the new Retra Flash is about 43mm long, for the Original Retra Flash it was about 33mm. 

Hi Oskar,

I am new at using this snoot for macro (I used others that are simpler), did one dive with it and just about to go for 2 more this weekend. Based on this illustration you presented, is it the Useful Range that we should aim for? I certainly won't want to be at the focus distance as the edges are harsh. I was hoping it was the Working Distance range we want as it seems to have stronger light, only that I see now the mentioning of the dark spot in the middle. Thank you for support through this forum!

Silvana

That’s correct, from focus distance and farther away is the useful range that produces a uniform light spread. The working distance can produce a dark spot in the center and reduce the light output, especially with masks with smaller diameters.

7 hours ago, Oskar@RetraUWT said:

That’s correct, from focus distance and farther away is the useful range that produces a uniform light spread. The working distance can produce a dark spot in the center and reduce the light output, especially with masks with smaller diameters.

Thanks a lot for the quick reply, Oskar.

On 6/17/2022 at 9:45 AM, TimG said:

Hi Redwing

I've just done a 7-day  liveaboard in the Caribbean with 2x Retra Pro-Xs both fitted with Superchargers.

We did 4 dives a day evenly spaced during daylight hours. I tended to use a wide-angle lens and Retras with diffusers for the 2x morning dives; then 2x macro dives in the afternoon usually with one Retra with a snoot and one with Retra macro rings. Probably around 250-300 images each day. Superchargers were always fitted.

In general the 8-batteries needed for each Retra/Supercharger were enough for one day. There were one or two days when, if I expected I would use a snoot heavily, I would change one strobe battery set for, say the 4th dive. I find using the snoot makes quite a difference on battery life as I often have that strobe on maximum power especially if using the smaller mask openings. 

I had 2x4 AA chargers (EBL type) plugged into a USB charger with me and 32 batteries. In practice I never had a problem running out of charged batteries. I had thought about getting an extra x8 charger but really didn't need it.

Just returned from a Red Sea live aboard.  Using two 2x4AA LaCrosse battery chargers set to a charging current of 500mA was plenty for 3-4 divers per day shooting WA exclusively.  I had a fresh set of 16 batteries by mid day.  

It took me several dives to lock in the correct strobe position for my fisheye lens.  Overall I'm really pleased with this upgrade.  I did find that using the supercharger as a handle to reposition the strobes had a tendency to loosen the ball mount.  Have since added a lock washer which I think should remedy this issue.

29 minutes ago, Redwing said:

Using two 2x4AA LaCrosse battery chargers set to a charging current of 500mA was plenty for 3-4 divers per day shooting WA exclusively.

I found the pretty much same thing during a liveboard trip back in May. With a bit of juggling, 2x 4-battery chargers was enough and helped a bit with weight/volume reduction for the flight baggage allowance.

30 minutes ago, Redwing said:

I did find that using the supercharger as a handle to reposition the strobes had a tendency to loosen the ball mount.

I've not had that problem. Oskar told me some time back that the ball mounts can be really tightened using the provided Allen key and it won't damage the mounting. I do find the Supercharger really useful as a handle especially with the LSD snoot.

Diffuser question and battery charger update.

1. First, I will be taking a dive trip in January to a location where the water can be a bit greenish.  This is a first for me.  Wondering if there is a benefit to using the Retra diffusers in such a situation, or if it is better to leave the green or deal with it in post?  If taking a diffuser, is it worth adding the new  soft diffuser (if anyone knows yet) in place of the wide angle diffuser I already own?

2. I see there have been some discussions of chargers.  A few months back I added superchargers and thus had to ramp up my charger abilities.  I purchased and took an XTAR BC8 charger, available from Amazon and it worked well.  This is a small-sized charger only marginally larger and no heavier than the 4-cell chargers I already had.  It charges fairly fast and never seemed to get overly warm (which is bad for batteries).  They are not expensive chargers but seem to have a good "intelligent" charging program.

I have  added another for an upcoming trip.  That will allow me to charge all 16 cells daily, and I also like having more than one charger in case of a failure.  These things never seem particularly robust to me, so the idea of a backup is appealing.  Hope this helps someone.

17 hours ago, Draq said:

Diffuser question and battery charger update.

 

1. First, I will be taking a dive trip in January to a location where the water can be a bit greenish.  This is a first for me.  Wondering if there is a benefit to using the Retra diffusers in such a situation, or if it is better to leave the green or deal with it in post?  If taking a diffuser, is it worth adding the new  soft diffuser (if anyone knows yet) in place of the wide angle diffuser I already own?

2. I see there have been some discussions of chargers.  A few months back I added superchargers and thus had to ramp up my charger abilities.  I purchased and took an XTAR BC8 charger, available from Amazon and it worked well.  This is a small-sized charger only marginally larger and no heavier than the 4-cell chargers I already had.  It charges fairly fast and never seemed to get overly warm (which is bad for batteries).  They are not expensive chargers but seem to have a good "intelligent" charging program.

I have  added another for an upcoming trip.  That will allow me to charge all 16 cells daily, and I also like having more than one charger in case of a failure.  These things never seem particularly robust to me, so the idea of a backup is appealing.  Hope this helps someone.

I was out diving the Yukon in San Diego yesterday playing with my Retra ProX and had the wide angle diffuser. The water was very green (normal for the area) and had a TON of particulate matter in the water. Quite frankly, I'm a bit surprised at how the photos turned out given the conditions. Visibility was probably 6m / 20 feet.

The photos below have had a few adjustments in LR but nothing major and I haven't cleaned up any backscatter. I'm not planning to use them for anything other than I was just testing the strobes in those conditions.

Regards,

- brett

PS - Yes, I know it is an American flag on a Canadian destroyer. Don't ask me...

- brett

Thanks, looks good.  Would be interesting to compare to a shot without the diffuser...

3 hours ago, Draq said:

Thanks, looks good.  Would be interesting to compare to a shot without the diffuser...

Thanks. I have to make a small correction. I was getting my kit ready for a dive tomorrow and checked the diffuser and it is the "White Diffuser" and NOT the "Wide Angle Diffuser."

- brett

OK