Retras in the water

My pair of new retra strobes arrived this week and I got out for a dive locally yesterday. I own 6 inon Z240s and have been using them since 2010 so this was a bit of a change for me. Some thoughts and observations:

- Of the two diffusers received, one fits well and the other wobbles. It fell off in the car on the way to the dive site so I tied it to the strobe arm for the dive.

- The retras are bigger than the inons

- The only way to put the battery cap down while inserting batteries is on the contacts or on the o-ring, risking picking up dust

- There is no serial number on the strobes. Luckily my insurance company is prepared to add them to my policy anyway

- The recycle time occasionally becomes really long. Camera times show dark photos after a 25 second pause in one case, and after 3-5 seconds in other cases. This is on 75% and 100% power and I wonder if it is the overheating protection kicking in. Water temperature yesterday was 15 degrees.

- The pilot light is very diffuse, and I image could be difficult to see with in bad vis. It's nice to have two power levels and the button doesn't get knocked on/off like the inon aiming light and pre-flash buttons

All that said, I was very happy with the power, coverage and light quality of the strobes. The vis was good and I don't think my strobe positioning was optimal, so hard to judge backscatter potential. The colour temperature and brightness of the images was excellent. After 170 shots, the strobes were still showing three green lights out of four on the face plate. Here are a few comparative shots all on my Canon 5D4, 14mm lens and 8" dome, uncropped.

2 x Inon Z240s, full power, one warm diffuser, one standard diffuser, f8, 1/40, iso400

Kelp with the retras, full and 75% power, f13, 1/50, iso800

Taken after a 4 second interval, would have been nice with strobes:

Fish on the run, f10, 1/50, iso400

Eyes in the roof, f10, 1/200, iso400

Overall I'm happy with them and looking forward to taking them in the caves. I'll be interested to see how they perform off camera and in warm water.

Nice report! Were you using Eneloops?

I guess one will have to learn how to hold the battery cover in one hand while swapping out the batteries - maybe wedged between fingers or cupped in palm with one finger allowing use of the other fingers? I have done this while swapping out batteries with rig in very cold (barely above freezing) stream (strobe was above water allowing for battery swap).

Backscatter has posted a video:

Yes, eneloops. I suspect I am supporting the brand, I'm on my fourth batch of 80 batteries at this point. I just wish they would make the sparkly ones again

Field battery changes for me normally involve damp hands, wet hair and a very dusty or muddy rock to balance everything on. I can see holding the battery cover in my teeth for the retras might be the best option. At least it stops distracting chit chat while prepping for the next dive!

I think you need to learn the Nikon F film loading technique - One had to put the back somewhere when reloading film (back was not hinged but came off along with the camera bottom). Holding between the fingers worked well. See pic with one of my Retras which just arrived. That is snow in the pic.

The nice thing about cave diving is that there is rarely snow underground. That looks cold!

Hi Liz, thank you for posting your impressions!

Regarding the diffusers: They have lock/unlock positions indicated on the dome which correspond to a black dot on the strobe. You should get a *click* when they are locked. All diffusers produce a slightly different sound and feeling as they have slightly different thickness on the edges but should be locked securely. If you aren't getting that please let us know.

Regarding the recycle time: The heat protection circuit sounds an alarm and turns off the strobe to prevent further usage, it does not slow down the recycle time. If you experienced a slower recycle time this could be simply because the batteries could not provide the "juice" needed to power the strobe. This could be a combination of water temperature and battery age.

Thank you very much!