Field Test: Two Weeks in Lembeh with the Backscatter Atom Flash

When Backscatter Photo & Video announced the Atom Flash last year at DEMA, it promised to bring pro-level lighting in a compact, travel-friendly package. But as any underwater photographer knows, a strobe can look spectacular on a gear bench and still fall apart in the field.

To see how it actually handles, I spent two weeks putting a pair of Atom Flashes, lent to us by Backscatter, through their paces in the world capital of macro: Lembeh Strait, Indonesia. From Pygmy seahorses to elusive Mototi octopuses, here is how the new compact strobes fared in the field.

Note: I plan to test the Atom Flashes out in the Red Sea soon and will write a follow-on report on how they performed with wide-angle scenes.

Ergonomics and the Back Panel UI

Right out of the gate, Backscatter nails the physical user interface in several key areas. The layout on the back of the strobe is elegantly simple: on one side sits a Select button alongside a large red knob for cycling through the 11 available power levels. On the other side sits a Mode/Enter button and a sharp, circular LCD screen.

When you first power on the unit, you enter Manual mode. The LCD screen instantly displays your current power level, updating in real time as you click through with the red knob.

The Rotating LCD Screen & Radial Battery Gauge

The rear LCD screen is exceptionally bright, crisp, and easy to read even in less-than-perfect viz. One of its standout features is that the display rotates automatically based on your strobe's orientation. Whether you are shooting a vertical composition or repositioning a strobe directly above your rig for snoot lighting, you will never have to crane your neck or read upside down to check your settings.

Backscatter also built an intuitive battery gauge directly into the UI. Rather than forcing you to interpret vague color-changing LEDs, a bright green ring completely encircles the outer perimeter of the circular display at a 100% charge. As the batteries drain, the ring steadily recedes along the screen's edge. The number below the power level indicates how many shots remain if you left the strobe at that level. It is a massive improvement over traditional designs that leave you guessing as to whether or not you need to change batteries before your next dive.

Power Management: Battery Life

Speaking of power, the Atom’s power management is stellar. Each strobe takes two 18650 lithium ion batteries. Shooting a standard macro workflow, a single set of batteries easily lasted through three long dives a day. Even better: checking the power levels at the end of a full day of muck diving consistently showed the batteries were still more than half full. You can confidently skip the between-dive battery swaps.

Focus Lights and Tactile Learning Curves

The integrated focus light offers both white and red options across three power settings. Having a built-in red light is an asset for skittish subjects in Lembeh, allowing you to lock focus perfectly without scaring away nocturnal critters or sending an octopus retreating into a shell.

A quick press of the Select button toggles the light on and off, while holding it down switches the beam from white to red and vice versa.

Admittedly, it took me a few dives to build the muscle memory for which button did what; early on, I occasionally went to toggle the focus light and accidentally swapped the entire strobe mode instead. However, Backscatter included a subtle, brilliant design detail to solve this: the Select button has a distinctly convex (raised) feel, while the Mode button is slightly concave (indented). Once you notice that tactile difference, navigating by feel becomes second nature.

A Note for Cold-Water Divers: When I got home from Indonesia, I wanted to see how this interface would fare in harsher conditions, so I tested pushing the buttons and turning the red power knob while wearing thick drysuit gloves. While it is certainly possible to operate the strobe, it is noticeably harder. Crucially, you completely lose the advantage of those convex and concave shapes; the thickness of the material makes it impossible to differentiate between the Select and Mode buttons by touch alone. If you frequently shoot in thick rubber or neoprene gloves, you will need to rely much more on direct line-of-sight to verify your button presses.

Navigating the Menu Modes

Pressing the Mode button cycles you through a robust menu architecture: SC OM TTL, SC Macro OM TTL, HSS, REM Tx, REM Rx, Test, LPM, Menu, and back to Manual. There is a custom menu feature that allows you to just specify the modes you care about so that you only have to cycle through those modes.

While the Atom Flash has support for TTL mode with both OM and Sony camera systems, as well as support for High Speed Sync, my two weeks of field testing focused strictly on Manual, REM Tx (Remote Transmitter), and REM Rx (Remote Receiver).

Easy Snoot Attachment

Attaching the optional OS-2 snoot is extremely easy. It clicks into place smoothly and stays secure. I’ve been using a Retra snoot on my Retra Pro’s and it’s always a fight getting it on and off. The OS-2 snoot attaches with an effortless bayonet style mechanism.

Off-Camera Strobe Work

If you enjoy dramatic backlighting, creative side-lighting, or advanced snooting, the Atom's wireless remote capabilities completely steal the show.

During my testing, I periodically stripped one Atom Flash off my camera arms to position it behind or to the side of a subject as a remote slave, leaving the other on my rig as the master controller.

How the Remote System Works:

1. The Receiver (REM Rx): Take the remote strobe off your rig, switch its mode to REM Rx, and plug in the included light pipe where your fiber optic cable typically goes.

2. The Transmitter (REM Tx): Switch the strobe remaining on your camera to REM Tx. When you fire a shot, it sends an optical signal to the remote light pipe, firing the slave instantly.

3. Taking your shot: If you want pure backlight without front-lighting your subject from the camera, simply position your transmitter strobe aimed away from the critter, but at an angle where its beam still hits the receiver's light pipe. If remote strobe work is something you plan to do frequently, Backscatter makes an IR diffuser which you attach to your on-camera strobe preventing any unwanted light from spilling onto the scene.

The ultimate luxury here is remote power adjustment. You no longer have to swim back and forth across the muck, disrupting the critter to manually twist a knob on your slave strobe. To change the output of your background light, you simply adjust the power setting on your transmitter strobe and hit the Select button. The master sends a rapid sequence of flash signals to the receiver, adjusting its power instantly while you stay completely still.

Close Focus Wide Angle

While the Atom Flash is lightweight and compact, it shouldn’t be mistaken for a strict macro-only tool. I tested them on a few close-focus wide-angle (CFWA) setups in Lembeh, and they performed beautifully. I spoke with James Emery, Marketing and Media Manager at Backscatter, and he informed me that the Atom is designed to be a "do-it-all" versatile travel strobe capable of handling everything from Florida springs to sweeping reef scenes. In fact, power-wise, the Atom packs a serious punch—matching the larger Hybrid Flash (HF-1) turned down just two clicks. However, if your primary goal is maximum raw power to illuminate massive, wide reef vistas, or if you need an integrated high-output video light, that is where the HF-1 big brother truly steps in.

The Catch: Real-World Functional Challenges

No piece of gear is perfect, and two weeks of intensive diving highlighted a couple of functional challenges.

The Sun vs. The Snoot

While the snoot is a joy to attach, using it in bright, shallow daylight can be frustrating. When the ambient sunlight is high, seeing the aiming light through the snoot to pinpoint your target becomes very difficult. It’s a tool that shines on deeper dives, overcast days, or night dives, but demands patience in the shallows.

The Missing Reduction Rings

When photographing subjects in Lembeh, it’s really helpful to reduce the beam angle from your strobes. Backscatter does not currently make native reduction rings for this system. While third-party options or DIY solutions exist, having native reduction rings available out of the box would be a big improvement.

The Verdict

The Backscatter Atom Flash is a formidable tool for the macro photographer. Its compact footprint, rock-solid battery life, and effortless snoot attachment make it incredibly fun to shoot. While the shallow daylight snooting requires an extra dose of patience, the remote power adjustment, all day battery life and rotating screen more than make up for it.

In fact, I enjoyed shooting these strobes so much that I kept them on my camera rig for the entire trip, only parting with them a handful of times to let other guests test them out.

If you are looking for a serious macro strobe, the Atom Flash deserves a serious look.

• Check out the Backscatter Atom Flash

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