RETRA Strobe Thread

[TimG 62]

Others with more detailed knowledge will, I'm sure chip-in - but 2018 was pretty early days for HSS on the Retras. I'm not sure the strobes at that stage had HSS so the likelihood is that the trigger didn't either.

That said, you can't go far wrong just by trying it.

I've got a UWT board in my Subal housing that let's me use HSS on Retra ProX. It's a really great feature especially for those heavily backlight or sunball shots.

[Redwing 8]

45 minutes ago, TimG said:

I've got a UWT board in my Subal housing that let's me use HSS on Retra ProX. It's a really great feature especially for those heavily backlight or sunball shots.

That's the issue I'm trying to address.  I've taken this system to the limit and need to push ahead.  That said, I was hoping this would be the year where I don't need to spend more on gear.

[TimG 62]

10 hours ago, Redwing said:

That said, I was hoping this would be the year where I don't need to spend more on gear.

Hope springs eternal eh? 

[Redwing 8]

13 hours ago, TimG said:

Hope springs eternal eh? 

For sure.  And in this case hope is going to cost me $500 USD plus shipping.

[Jean Raphael 0]

On 09/06/2022 at 23:15, TimG said:

Hum, bizarre.

J'ai des Pro X avec un D500 et le convertisseur UW Technics pour le Subal. Normalement je fais d'expositions sans TTL, mais je peux vérifier avec TTL ce week-end.

Have you tried TTl? Are they reliable and accurate

[Yehia 2]

Hello, 

I am planning to purchase pair of Retra Pro X with supercharger to use with my Sony A1 camera in Nauticam housing. I wanted to ask the experts here what exactly do i need to purchase to use TTL and HSS on the camera? i have heard some limitations with Nauticam housing and wondering if there are workarounds? I am interested to know what would be the final setup look (TTL converter, tigger, cabels, etc..) would appreciate your advises!

[Barmaglot 228]

1 hour ago, Yehia said:

Hello, 

I am planning to purchase pair of Retra Pro X with supercharger to use with my Sony A1 camera in Nauticam housing. I wanted to ask the experts here what exactly do i need to purchase to use TTL and HSS on the camera? i have heard some limitations with Nauticam housing and wondering if there are workarounds? I am interested to know what would be the final setup look (TTL converter, tigger, cabels, etc..) would appreciate your advises!

I use a pair of original Retra Pros with a UWT converter in a SeaFrogs housing with an A6300 camera. HSS works, TTL is hit or miss - I find that it underexposes on wide-angle, but works well on blackwater, so I generally shoot manual, but use TTL during blackwater dives to avoid blowing out shiny subjects. For cables, I used a pair of Howshot multi-core cables for a few years, but one of them eventually broke - it would trigger the strobe when shooting off pop-up flash, but not from the LED; I assume there's a break somewhere inside the cable that degrades its light transmission capability - so I spent the money on a pair of Sea & Sea cables which have much thicker cladding. Only used those on a single trip so far, I''ll see how they stand up to continued (ab)use.

TRT Electronics s-TURTLE would be another option, and I've seen it used successfully with Retra strobes, but I have no personal experience.

[TimG 62]

Hi Yehia

Ive been using Retra Pros for just over 2 years and love them. I’ve no experience of a Nauticam housing but with my Subal and a D500, I use the UWT trigger and homemade 712 strand. fibre optic cables with Howshot  connectors. 

I shoot mainly in Manual, HSS quite a bit but seldom TTL. It all works really well. The UWT trigger is very good and support, from Pavel, who is a regular contributor here, is excellent.

The Superchargers are a great edition. I can usually get at least 4 dives from a set of batteries, say 350 shots, with the battery indicator still showing Yellow. 

[stuartv 32]

8 hours ago, Yehia said:

Hello, 

I am planning to purchase pair of Retra Pro X with supercharger to use with my Sony A1 camera in Nauticam housing. I wanted to ask the experts here what exactly do i need to purchase to use TTL and HSS on the camera? i have heard some limitations with Nauticam housing and wondering if there are workarounds? I am interested to know what would be the final setup look (TTL converter, tigger, cabels, etc..) would appreciate your advises!

There is not a limitation with a Nauticam housing. There IS a limitation with a Nauticam trigger.. The Nauticam trigger only does Manual. It does not support TTL or HSS (as far as I know).

You need an optical trigger and 2 fiber optic sync cables.

Your options for the trigger are UWT and TRT (Turtle). 

You need to verify for UWT and TRT that they do specifically support HSS for your model of camera. They both most likely do, but you should still verify before purchasing.

UWT and TRT have pros and cons.

UWT (which I use with a Sony a7rIV):

Pro: Good service and support.
Con: Does not have user-updateable firmware. It only supports certain specific models of strobe for TTL and HSS. If you get new strobes in the future, you would have to wait for UWT to update their firmware to support it - something that has seemed historically very slow on UWT's part - and then send your trigger back to them to have updated firmware installed before the TTL and HSS functions of the trigger would work correctly.

TRT:

Pro: User-updateable firmware. I think they even have a smartphone app you can use to change settings on the trigger. E.g. you are using it with one type of strobe, so the trigger is set for that. Then you have a strobe failure and want to switch to your backup strobes which are a different type. I think you can do that with the TRT without even opening the housing. With UWT, you would have to open the housing and turn a very small dial on the trigger board - if the board even supports your other strobes.

Con: I bought a TRT trigger. They sent me the wrong one. Their factory support to even determine whether I had the correct part or not was horrible. I ended up returning the trigger without ever using it and am not inclined to buy another one simply because of how awful the factory rep was.

[Jean Raphael 0]

Hello everyone. Despite the new Retra Strobe Pro X firmware 3.11; I still can't get a valid TTL with a Nikon D7200 and a TRT I Turtle Smart trigger regardless of the strobe chosen.
Does anyone have a solution to get a real TTl.