Another SB8/900 or Lencarta smartflash

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yoshi

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Lee
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Hi,
I have a backdrop, umbrellas, stands etc, an SB900 & SB800 but would like to get a more seamless white backdrop.

I am considering either buying another SB800/900 or a lencarta smartflash kit with umbrella and softbox.

I guess my question is should I stick to using SBs or go for the smartflash?

Can you mix using the smartflash kit with the SBs as the key/high lights or visa versa or should the two never be mixed?

Any advise is most welcome.

Cheers
Lee
 
Had similar issue a couple of months ago. Went for Lencarta and very glad I did!

2 light setup is similar in cost to a SB900 - you can have the flash on camera and that will trigger the lights. Lights are very powerful and so quick to recycle compared to flash.
 
Flash heads and hotshoe heads are interchangeable (light is light), but the power difference/recycle times/mounts might drive you nuts.

Full body portraits using Studio flash is the only way to go if dont need the portability and have access to mains.
 
Get the Lencartas and use the Speedlights for the background.

That's how I generally do it and I can get a nice even white background using two Canon 580 guns on quarter power easy, so recycling is fast :thumbs:
 
Thanks HoppyUK,
I was wondering which way around would be best but I thought the Lencartas woudl be best suited to lighting the background (but I know nothing)

Is this due to colour temp or some other reason that I am yet to understand ;-)
Cheers
Lee
 
yoshi said:
Thanks HoppyUK,
I was wondering which way around would be best but I thought the Lencartas woudl be best suited to lighting the background (but I know nothing)

Is this due to colour temp or some other reason that I am yet to understand ;-)
Cheers
Lee
Click to expand...

I use hot-shoe guns for the white background because I can get f/8 at quarter power over 6ft-ish wide no probs, so fast recyling, and one either side gives even light when they're set up properly. Plus I don't need modelling lights there. Basically the advantages of studio flash are not necessary, so why buy two more of those when I've already got a couple of hot-shoe guns I can use.

Don't worry about colour temperature differences, really not a problem. Experiment with your two Nikon guns, get the power exactly balanced, the zoom setting, distance, angle (45 degs), note the settings and it'll be dead easy to replicate that any time pretty much by eye. When you're testing, do one light at a time and use blinkies (highlight over exposure warning) to moderate and balance the exposure.

I don't shoot portraits at high f/numbers, f/5.6 usually, the background doesn't have to be any higher than f/5.6 plus a half stop. If I was shooting bigger groups over a wide background and needing a higher f/number for depth of field, then hot-shoe guns would quickly run short of power and I'd be forced to crank them right up. Not good, slow recycling is death to a good portrait session, and then you start having to push the ISO or get a booster battery pack etc and then you'll be better off with studio lights. But if you can keep within the limitations of hot-shoe guns, they work great.

For the front key lights, that's where you want the control, nice reflectors/ modifiers, modelling light etc. You'll find they'll probably be turned down pretty low for f/5.6.

Anyway, the answer to your question is that studio lights are always better if you have mains power. Given the above, you may be able to get a way with hot-shoe guns as I do for the background, if you remember the limitations. On the other hand, a 3-head Lencarta kit is not a huge amount of money and then you have the best of all options. You can still work in the hot-shoe guns for an effect light or hair light or something, as and when.
 
You're right, that particular flash head is sold under a lot of different names. It's made by a small Chinese firm that makes products for rebadging. Build quality is OK but the statements about flash duration, colour temperature & flash energy consistency aren't supported by the tests that I carried out on them. Maybe my test equipment is way out:)

I think you'll find that the review you linked to is for a much better light.
 
cheers Garry,
Now if you can sort out your webmonkeys on the lencarta website I can continue my 'research' ;-)

Something very strange (and off putting) going on with the 'store'
 
I've passed this on to the webmaster.

What's happening is that the website is being completely redesigned and it seems to me that for some reason it's showing random pages instead of the Lencarta store. I'm sure it will be fixed within minutes
 
It's fixed. It was a very unlucky SEF re-writing issue, which re-routed the link for the real store to the wrong URL. Appologies for the inconvinience - We are doing a very big update, and the front end integration for it is happening over the next few days and nights

We have kept disruption to an absoloute minimum... it seems you came in in the middle of us dealing with one aspect of it. Unfortunatally with these things, when you have 200 settings to get right, and you are working on a live site, the odd user is going to see something unusual, or unplanned

Richard
 
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