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Choosing a camera and housing is only half the battle when it comes to putting together your dream underwater imaging rig. In an increasingly cluttered strobe market, getting the right flashes for your purposes isn’t the simple proposition you might think it is. While there are well-known brands like Ikelite, Inon and Sea&Sea, there are also plenty of lesser-known strobe makers—AOI, Kraken, OneUW—that have been making a splash in recent years, complicating things further.

Enter Backscatter, your trusty purveyor of all things underwater imaging, with their latest gear article: “Best Underwater Strobes & Flashes of 2021,” a very handy roundup of (pretty much) every strobe out there at the moment. Whether you’re on a tight budget, prefer a strobe specially suited for macro, or need an all-rounder that can handle any situation, Backscatter has a recommendation for you. And with a wide range of prices—$300 to (gulp!) $2,200—you should be able to find a flash that won’t upset your accountant (too much).

For DPG’s recent detailed reviews of some of the strobes featured in the roundup, check out:

• “Review of the Backscatter Mini Flash and Optical Snoot” by Ron Watkins

• “Shooting Blue Heron Bridge with the Backscatter Mini Flash” by Suzan Meldonian

• “Wide-Angle Underwater Photography with the Inon Z-330 Strobe” and “Macro Underwater Photography with the Inon Z-330 Strobe” by Simon Lorenz

• “Review of the Retra Flash PRO” by Dan Norwood

• “Review of the Sea&Sea YS-D3 Lightning Strobe” by Mike Bartick

The Backscatter Boys: They test everything they sell—and they look awesome doing it!