Retra has announced that they have developed full voice control for their Retra Pro Flashes in a significant technological leap forward. With the new firmware, photographers can now adjust the flash’s output by simply talking to it, or by asking it questions.
Retra is celebrating 10 years since its original launch. Adam Hanlon sits down with founder and owner Oskar Zupančič to discuss their first 10 years and how the company has progressed over this time. During the conversation, Oskar lets slip that they have released new products to celebrate their anniversary, and goes on to chat through their key features with Adam.
Retra has announced a free extended warranty period and a firmware update for its Retra Pro and Prime flashes. If you received your strobe before 1 December 2020, the warranty is valid from 1 January 2021. Firmware version 3.6 offers a range of improved performance features and bug fixes and is recommended for all users.
Retra kindly supplied Wetpixel with a prototype of their new Supercharger battery compartment that can be attached to their Prime and Pro Flashes to increase their recycling speeds and longevity. We have been hard at work testing it and present the results as a short review.
Retra is accepting pre-orders for their Supercharger battery pack. Featuring double O ring seals, and a robust attachment mechanism, it reduces the Retra Pro Flash’s recycle time by about half and more than doubles the battery life.
Retra is shipping their Retra Flash. Available in two versions, the Pro offers 150 Ws while the Prime has 100Ws. Both have circular flash tubes and a color temperature of 4900°K. Triggering is via fiber optic only, although Retra offers an external electro-optical converter.
Retra UWT has announced two new strobes. The Flash Prime has a 100Ws output, controllable over 13 steps with a 130° beam angle and a color temperature of 4900°K. The Retra Flash Pro shares most of these specifications but has a 150Ws output. Both strobes offer electrical connection via an optional converter, with fiber optic triggering as the standard.
Retra has announced that they are ceasing production of their Flash. The company cites problems with production times causing availability issues and so have decided to concentrate on refining their production process before releasing a new product in July or August 2018. All and any servicing requirements along with existing warranties will continue to honored.
Retra has produced a mounting kit to allow their LSD to be used with the new Inon Z330 strobe. It is available either as a complete unit or as a user installed upgrade kit/mounting band for LSD owners that are currently using the Z-240/D2000.
Further to Alex Mustard’s preview of the new Retra Flash, the company has released details about it too. The new strobe offers electrical or optical triggering with the latter having S-TTL available. Crucially, Retra have attempted to provide a smooth even light source, emphasizing the quality of light that it produces.