On 3/18/2023 at 2:17 AM, oneyellowtang said:@Jcro22
I can only address half your question. I spent last week in the Philippines shooting macro for much of week. As part of my rig I brought along the MF-2 (w/snoot), and used it on a number of dives.
In short - the MF-2 had plenty of power for snooting most critters (used it with frogfish, nudis, seahorses), was fairly intuitive to use (as much as snooting is ever "fairly intuitive"). It did take some experimenting to get used to, but never got truly frustrating (like my Retra LSD).
You can trigger these remotely, but the strobe has to be off the substrate (the light sensor sits on what would normally be the bottom of the light, on the opposite side of the controls). I did try turning the light upside down and putting it on the sand, it worked - but not always. Backscatter sells a muck stick with a mount or the MF-2 specifically for remote triggering and off camera placement.
When the strobe was hand held, it rarely failed to be triggered remotely (it may have once or twice, but that may have been due to how I was holding it).
A person I was diving with was diving with the SOFT. It's a cool piece of gear, and worked like a charm (makes snooting much easier)... however it's larger and heavier (~45% heavier) - reminds me of why I didn't love the size/weight of the Retra LSD. For me, I'm bringing a strobe/snoot combo along for certain types of images (as an add on), not to weigh my rig down even more.
When using the remote feature make sure to use the included light pipe, can't tell from your post if you are using it or not. It is pretty directional so the angled end of the pipe needs to be pointed at the main strobe sending the signal. Any time I've been using it and it doesn't trigger I look over the top of the camera and the main strobe and light pipe weren't lined up.
