Battery Powered Outdoor Lighting

nigelbb said:
It would make more sense to start a new thread about these wonderful new flash triggers than tag it on to a thread entitled Battery Powered Outdoor Lighting.
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But then people would be beating Garry up for posting an "advertising" thread.

Personally I'm excited to hear about these new products in advance of Photokina but other people have been upset at such threads before.
 
One shot using a Lencarta Safari Li-On:

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Glenn Mather said:
I'm looking to purchase some form of out-door battery powered lighting for use mainly at wedding receptions, for evening bride and groom "atmospheric" shoots. Anyone any good suggestions?

Cheers Glennhttp://www.gmatherphotography.com
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For most of the outdoor stuff, towards the end of the day, we just use regular speed lights and a radio trigger. A la strobist.. http://strobist.blogspot.co.uk/

Carrying more than this about in a wedding environment is a ball ache, and thus you tend to park it elsewhere and then not use it. There are a range of accessories designed for off camera hot shoe flashes, and a range of light weight stands available

In the evenings, your main consideration is:
- ease of getting the gear in and out of position (if it is tucked up behind the band, then you have to wait till the band stops before you can get the gear out
- battery duration you may want to consider cheap mains powered flashes
- ease of changing the settings - some systems now offer radio controlled settings
- flash duration. If you want to freeze dancing, or bouquet tosses, then a regular battery powered or mains flash is usually not quick enough Speedlights can help a lot here
 
Originally Posted by Garry Edwards
What I'm talking about will light a motocross bike from several metres away
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mike weeks said:
Now that I would like to see as current methods require multiple flash guns, typically 4 or 8 to get enough power.

Mike
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Mike, it's in hand, a shoot has been organised with the Safari Li-on, the Mach 1N triggers and a competition rider, it's going to be in 2 weeks from now and this thread will be updated with the pics, including full exif data.
 
Richard King said:
For most of the outdoor stuff, towards the end of the day, we just use regular speed lights and a radio trigger. A la strobist.. http://strobist.blogspot.co.uk/

Carrying more than this about in a wedding environment is a ball ache, and thus you tend to park it elsewhere and then not use it.
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What Richard said. (And basically what I said back in post 5 of this thread...).

I'm lucky to have access to pretty much all the lighting kit I'll ever need. But time and again I'll drop back to speedlights because of their options for control and ease of setup.

I've used a Safari for wedding photography and it's mighty nice for a couple of set piece shots but in all the time I owned it I never used it for first dance, for example.

I used a pack light for pretty much everything at a wedding (from speeches to hawks to fire to B&G to first dance to formals) for the first time this week and it was excellent - but it was mainly because of the control options rather than anything else.
 
mike weeks said:
Where and when Garry i.e. do you want another tester to come along as I will just be back from doing Photokina in 2 weeks.

Mike
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I don't have any details yet Mike, it will probably be either in God's own county or Lancashire:exit:

Michael Sewell is organising it, please feel free to contact him.
 
Garry Edwards said:
I don't have any details yet Mike, it will probably be either in God's own county Lancashire or Yorkshire :exit:
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Dependant on main subject and availability, so it's a bit up in the air.

Thanks for the offer Mike, I will certainly bear it in mind ;)
 
DemiLion said:
Nope. A Pack and Head system, as opposed to a monobloc.

Think Quadra, Safari, 7B etc; ie what this thread was about! :)
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Thanks. I'm familiar with all the units, I have just never heard the term before :)
 
Richard King said:
Thanks. I'm familiar with all the units, I have just never heard the term before :)
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Think of a nation that can't spell honour, socks, colour or most other English words, can't pronounce alluminium and has to abbreviate terms such as generator and head systems, and you end up with pack & head:lol:
 
Ooops. Sorry. Didin't know I was using a colonialism.

I've always called them pack lights because they are a power pack + light. I guess if I was old I'd call a power pack a generator...... ;)

Yes like a Quadra, Safari or 7b. But for my purposes better.
 
Ah, 25 years ago when I was a young whippersnapper like you we didn't have this interwhatsits computer nonsense and used proper English words:)
 
Garry Edwards said:
Think of a nation that can't spell honour, socks, colour or most other English words, can't pronounce alluminium and has to abbreviate terms such as generator and head systems, and you end up with pack & head:lol:
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They can't pronounce aluminium but they do spell it correctly:)
 
From the copy on the lencarta site:

There is no loss of power when using our transceiver set*
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* Whether or not there is any loss of effective power depends on both the flash used and on the shutter speed selected, but generally there will be some loss of power because if you set a shutter speed that's faster than the duration of your flash then the shutter will be open for less time than it takes for the flash to discharge all of its power, which means that your shutter won't be open for long enough to use all the power produced by the flash.
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While you clarify it at the bottom... this is pretty confusing copy for the less technical reader.


I think that
Allows ANY flash to completely overpower the sun
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may be a bit of a bold claim to make - especially considering that there's a lot of very cheap very low power very slow duration flashes out there! Then again - the people buying these triggers may not be buying them!



I'm still not entirely sure that I understand how they work - I'd need to hook one up to a data logging oscilloscope to confirm my suspicions - but it must essentially be a timing trick. Kudos to lencarta if they really have nailed it - I'll be interested to see what people are saying about it when they hit the ground.


Worth noting another feature:
I have studio flashes that have built in radio triggers. Will I need to buy one of your new transceivers?
It’s just possible that the radio receiver built into your flash head operates on the same radio channel, but it isn’t likely and you will probably need to plug one of our transceivers into one of your flash heads.
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presumably this means the conon flash triggers and flash heads with built in receivers? Might want to clarify this, rather than being coy about it - even if it does mean naming your competitor!


One thing is for sure simply because of the nature of shutter speeds and flash durations - you're going to be doing some mental arithmetic and juggling shutter speeds and flash powers around if you're trying to balance flash and ambient with this trigger.
 
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Garry Edwards said:
Ah, I didn't know that you had a proper camera, in that case I may be able to let you have my set for the Nikon earlier, then you can see for yourself whether it really is a game changer or whether it's just another bodge.

I have some more testing to do first, because although it works with every flash head I want to do some much more detailed testing, and try to push the limits on a very short duration IGBT flash at low power settings (yes, I've got one of those too) and I also want to carry out some more detailed tests on some other equipment that has extremely short flash durations.

I take it you accept my point about apparently uneven illumination being caused by different angles of reflection from different positions of fan blades? If not, I can post the images that demonstrate it.

The fact that there isn't a huge loss of effective power at very short flash durations does indicate that there may be a technology that's completely new...
IGBT technology is pretty useful, but it has inherent bugs that limit the maximum rated power, and which then effectively cut that power in half, so it's not quite there yet - or at least, not on the ones that are currently on sale.
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I have a Nikon D700 Garry, and the offer to test is still open.
 
HoppyUK said:
I have a Nikon D700 Garry, and the offer to test is still open.
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Richard, you'll be getting one. And so will David Hobby.
 
I still can't see how this can sync at 1/8000th AND retain full power. Can someone (Garry) just explain how without the smoke and mirrors sales blurb how this works? Convince me it works and I'll purchase, but I don't buy snake oil.
 
I was wondering has anyone tried and use a 1/4 or 1/2 cto gel on the Li-ion's modelling light to use for first dance? Helping to light and focus but without blowning out all the ambiance. I know it becomes an expensive video light but if you got the kit then why not try use it!
 
Interesting thread, I'm after battery light for workshops in Ethiopia, I will keep and eye on this section :)
 
150 threads and no mention of Qflash?

Loads of power, light and portable, 1/8000th shutter speed, reliable, wonderful quality of light and most importantly stands up to every day use :)

I've hammered mine for years and they just keep working :)
 
Edtog said:
150 threads and no mention of Qflash?

Loads of power, light and portable, 1/8000th shutter speed, reliable, wonderful quality of light and most importantly stands up to every day use :)

I've hammered mine for years and they just keep working :)
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You mean Quantum?

Not as powerful as claimed, significant colour shift and inconsistent power output at lower settings, clunky design and interface, exclusive modiers, expensive. Maybe not deal-breakers in practise for everyone, but still factors.

Quantum's concept of radio auto-TTL control and potent IGBT output is great in theory, but the execution lets it down a bit.
 
HoppyUK said:
You mean Quantum?

Not as powerful as claimed, significant colour shift and inconsistent power output at lower settings, clunky design and interface, exclusive modiers, expensive. Maybe not deal-breakers in practise for everyone, but still factors.

Quantum's concept of radio auto-TTL control and potent IGBT output is great in theory, but the execution lets it down a bit.
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+1
 
Something I've never noticed, used them on location for the past few years and clients seem to be happy, which is the main thing :)
Where is the significant colour shift? I don't shoot tranny, there may be one, but not one that has ever caused any problems.

Sorry I'm not techy, I just use whats best for my job and Qflash ticks every box.

As for price, there are loads of bargains to be had, if you look hard enough.
 
Edtog said:
Something I've never noticed, used them on location for the past few years and clients seem to be happy, which is the main thing :)
Where is the significant colour shift? I don't shoot tranny, there may be one, but not one that has ever caused any problems.

Sorry I'm not techy, I just use whats best for my job and Qflash ticks every box.

As for price, there are loads of bargains to be had, if you look hard enough.
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If you go looking for problems, then you'll usually find them. So don't bother if they work well for you ;)

Shoot a plain wall, fixed white balance, at full power (note the slow recycle time) and then at min. Compare colour. Fire off half a dozen frames at min and compare brightness. If you have a big hot-shoe gun, see how exposure levels measure up at full output. It may be closer than you think.

A few years ago, we'd all have been thrilled with what Quantum delivers, but things move on.
 
HoppyUK said:
If you go looking for problems, then you'll usually find them. So don't bother if they work well for you ;)

Shoot a plain wall, fixed white balance, at full power (note the slow recycle time) and then at min. Compare colour. Fire off half a dozen frames at min and compare brightness. If you have a big hot-shoe gun, see how exposure levels measure up at full output. It may be closer than you think.

A few years ago, we'd all have been thrilled with what Quantum delivers, but things move on.
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Had one for three weeks, sold it for the above reasons.
Shame, because the potential was enormous.
 
tiler65 said:
I am looking forward to see how these perform.

http://www.lightingrumours.com/lith...oks-like-a-nice-self-contained-monolight-3417
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It's a nice idea and something a number of people have been trying to get right for a while. But it looks a little underpowered to me. OK if you want low powered studio lights without accurate modelling lights but pretty useless outdoors.

re the underrepresentation of QFlash, I don't think there's a Quantum rep on the forum is there?
 
JonathanRyan said:
re the underrepresentation of QFlash, I don't think there's a Quantum rep on the forum is there?
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LOL there isn't a Yongnuo one either but they're well favoured.
 
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