I just received this message via email from Backscatter. I've been waiting for two strobes for almost two months.
"We want to touch base regarding your order # XXXX. Unfortunately, we just received word from Retra that they have stopped production on strobes. We will not be able to fulfill your order. We apologize for this disappointment. An announcement will be made by Retra regarding future plans in coming weeks. However, these plans do not include production of any strobes in 2018. "
Any comments? Do you know what happened or any info?
Hi, Everyone!
The positive response we received on the Retra Flash has empowered us to think bigger and better. We are very grateful because this would not be possible without extensive support and feedback from you - the community of underwater photographers. Although we are growing Retra is a small group and to achieve the best possible result we had to choose between production and sales or development. Our ideal is to make the best underwater strobe on the planet. This is why we want to take it a step further and decided to focus solely on development of a new Retra Flash. We will uncover the new product in July/August 2018.
Our heartfelt thanks for your support.
In the wake of false rumors spreading I want to further clarify our decision.
First and foremost, our goal is and has always been to make the best possible product. And secondly, we want to make our products available. Over the past 6 months we were focusing our development to improve our production process and shorten the delivery time. Unfortunately, this was not possible and until now our average delivery times for the Retra Flash were 10-12 weeks. This is not acceptable and ultimately is not fair to the photographers. After much consideration, we have decided to discontinue the production and focus solely on development and improve the availability.
Thank you very much for your support.
This has sparked my curiosity...where are these rumors?
We've been getting them to our emails.
OK, thanks for the reply.
I dont get it. If you stop production how will the availability increase?
Hi Gerard, thank you for your comment!
Over the past 6 months we were trying to streamline our production process and shorten the delivery time. Unfortunately, this had not worked and until now our average delivery times for the Retra Flash were 10-12 weeks. This is not acceptable and ultimately is not fair to the photographers. Having gained this experience we decided to focus solely on improving the producibility and availability of the Retra Flash.
Let me know if you need any further clarification, I am happy to explain.
Hi Oskar, since nobody else has brought up the elephant in the room, as a recent owner (since early March) of two Retra strobes, would like to know if Retra still has us covered in regards to warranty repairs should a strobe fail.
Hi Walt, thank you for your question!
We are continuing our service and warranty on all our products. We don't leave anyone behind.
If any further clarification is needed I am happy to explain.
So is it just me that now thinks if your discontinuing the strobes, then releasing a new product there must be a problem with the ones you are discontinuing?? Surly if it was a problem with production and waiting times you would just stop taking orders for a while to catch up?
As an owner of the strobes this does concern me.
Hi Bear35, thank you for your question!
The reason we are stopping for the moment is because it was not possible to maintain the production process we envisioned with the demand we encountered. Since we had planned this for a long time it was not possible to quickly change all our production processes to fulfil the orders. Making a high performance, high quality product with a lot of manual labour can be great if the deadlines are mostly flexible.
I hope this clears it up for you.
I think I get your point now. the focus up till now has been on developing a good strobe, without too much emphasis on how it will be produced. Now it is in production, it turns out to be a well build strobe, but the production is slow (maybe because it is well build). You are now looking into small ways to change the way the strobe is designed (while keeping all the plusses), or change the assembly method, so ultimately the mk 2 or whatever you will call it can be produced quicker.
Hi Oskar,
As early as it is, do you intend to product any of the new strobe this year or the release will be for 2019 ?
Clément
Hi Clement, we will announce the timeline in July/August.
I've read that the new Retra strobes will be HSS compatible. Is this true? Will it be possible to use high speed sync with the new strobes with existing Led Triggers? Will they be able to sync until 1/8000 like with HSS land flashes? I do not need 1/8000 but being able to use shutter speeds like 1/400 to 1/640 with slight strobe power loss will be amazing, and makes these strobes (even more) highly desirable.
Will it be possible to use high speed sync with the new strobes with existing Led Triggers?
Classic underwater strobe produces a mono pulse flash, and TTL trigger controls such mono flash. But HSS is flash flicker with frequency 40khz for a long time, this is absolutely another flash lighting.
If Retra underwater strobe change mono pulse to flicker for HSS, everything will change. The control will require firmware update for TTL triggers too.
But this is not a great problem. For example, UWTechnics company is ready to update previous boards firmware, for a small fee, if "Retra HSS" feature appears on the market. The new boards will include this feature as default.
Any word when UWTechnics will release any boards for Sony cameras?
