Anyone using (Calumet) Genesis AS250 or AS500 monolights?

Somersetman

Somersetman

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Greg
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I'm think of buying a pair, but I can't find answers to a couple of questions about the way they are triggered. If you are using them, do you know the answer to the following:

1) can you control the POWER of the strobe using the Genesis remote even when you have an external trigger plugged into the back of the strobe to fire it?

2) is the hole I can see on the Genesis remote a "sync out" port?

I ask because I want to know that I can use them as part of a more complex set up where the other strobes don't have a Genesis compatible wireless receiver.

Any other opinions on build quality, ease of use, reliability would also be gratefully received. Later this week I hope to get my hands on the kit to try these things out, but the experience of someone that's used them for more than 5 minutes would doubtless be better!

Thanks,
Greg
 
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I've had a play with them at Focus, and own several of their earlier models of their guns. Been impressed with those.

You can use external different brand triggers with them through the standard 3.5mm input, and just use the Calumet remote control off camera - it doesn't have to be in the hotshoe to work.

You'd better be quick if you want them though, what with Calumet USA going out of business. They must have been the lead instigator in sourcing them, as they were much more popular in the US than over here.
 
Thanks Kris, that's very helpful. I do hope that Calumet UK don't meet the same fate as their US counterpart, but I'm factoring in the possibility that spares/support might be hard to come by in the future! I think you're right about the popularity of them in the UK - I don't see any for sale on ebay that usually means that not many were sold new (or perhaps that they are so good that nobody ever parts with them!) Anyway, hopefully my local branch will have them in for me next week, and they're agreed to extend this weekend's special offer for me. I've generally found Calumet UK to be extremely good - I wonder where the business model went wrong in the US?
 
For the interest of anyone else considering buying these lights, I've had a brief play with them but have not yet used them in the studio. Build quality of the monolights looks great at the price. Disappointingly the LED modelling lamp does not have a proportional mode - only off/half/full - and to be honest it's rather feeble; definitely a retrograde step from the Genesis 200. The remote control is very neat for £35 - the display duplicates that on the back of the monolights, and is backlit. It can independently control up to 9 lights, and fires them all together when the test button is pressed or when sync is received from the built in hotshoe adapter or the 3.5mm jack input. The remote and lights can be set to "team" A or B, allowing two completely independent set ups to work alongside one another. I did verify that the remote control still fully works if you have an alternate trigger means plugged into the 3.5mm sync socket of the monolights (answers question 1 of my original post).

If you have any other questions, drop me a line and I'll do my best to answer them :-)

Greg
 
What is the flash duration? There's probably none on fleabay as they've only been available since about February owing to production issues. Back in February they came with a free remote.
 
Hi Mark - some figures from the user manual (I haven't verified these myself):
"Flash duration time" is given as 1/1000 - 1/8000th sec, with the slowest being at full power I assume, due to the Speedlite nature of their design.
There's a "high speed flash mode" where instead of the flash power being set the flash duration can be selected from 1/8000th, 1/7000th, 1/6000th, 1/5000th or 1/4000th sec. A very quick and dirty trial suggest that at the highest speed around 1/16th to 1/32nd of full power is acheived. I'll post again when I've done some proper measurements.
G
 
The AS 250w and AS 500w are in stock and have 30% off until 6th June.
 
Hi Mark - good spot on the offer - I believe it ends 1st June, rather than 6th so anyone interested had better be quick :-)
 
They are doing free delivery on everything as well, have to dig out the code when I get back.

Bought two century stands with 30% off Sunday night, arrived first thing this morning.

:)
 
Greg, so witch ones you went for? And as you have used them for a while know, what do you think?
 
Hi Jeeny, I bought a pair of Genesis AS250s new, and have since picked up pair of Genesis 200s (no longer in production) second hand.

I have to say that I prefer the old ones - mainly because they have a good old fashioned modelling lamp with a "proportional" mode, whereas the AS250s have a fixed brightness LED modelling lamp which is rather feeble in practice. All four of them fire totally reliably either on cell or with my cheap-as-chips Yongnuo RF602 triggers and at the price I'm very happy!

I did buy the remote controller for the AS250s, but can't honestly say that I've used it; and I haven't yet done anything that's really challenged the flash duration, so can't comment on whether the claimed higher speeds of the AS250s ones are actually achieved.

Hope this is helpful...
Greg
 
Hi sorry just been reading you post as have just brough two Genesis AS500 and the trigger, however I am looking to return them if I can get round the rather annoying problem I am having with them. I can't get that annoying beep to turn off. No matter even if I turn the audio off when I use the trigger and change the power I still get this annoying high pitch beep any idea how to get this to turn off as I have tried everything. P.s. I am not dumb and have just completed my photography degree and this is why something this simple is annoying me. If anyone could help I would be very greatful.

Hayden.
 
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