Boom for Citi600

WelshTony

WelshTony

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I recently purchase a Citi600 light from this site, and a great light it is.
I am now looking for an inexpensive boom arm to connect the light with my light stand, to allow more options when using the light.
I am concerned that some of the cheaper ones on eBay will just not support the weight of the Citi600, but I do not want to spend too much.
Any recommendations?
 
Recommend getting the extension head for boom use (£60). With 3-plus kilos up in the air it needs careful handling and strong locks to hold it in any angled position. The extension head at 1.3kg is so much easier and safer to adjust, plus all the other advantages of a two-unit head & pack system.

Lencarta are good, and Pixapro too. Though I know you're on a budget, I particularly like the look of their £300 jobbie with wheels and a remote geared adjuster for head angle position when it's out of reach (ie mostly) but lots of other options. Make sure you have sufficient counterweight - needs to be more than the weight of the head plus softbox.
 
WelshTony said:
I am concerned that some of the cheaper ones on eBay will just not support the weight of the Citi600, but I do not want to spend too much.
Any recommendations?
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One or the other, as hoppy says get the extension head and then the main body becomes part of the ballast, before recommending a stand the question is how far do you want to boom out the head?
 
WelshTony said:
I recently purchase a Citi600 light from this site, and a great light it is.
I am now looking for an inexpensive boom arm to connect the light with my light stand, to allow more options when using the light.
I am concerned that some of the cheaper ones on eBay will just not support the weight of the Citi600, but I do not want to spend too much.
Any recommendations?
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Please don't skimp on the boom. They're blinkin' scary things & exceedingly dangerous.

Of the half dozen or so I've used the Lencarta jobby is the cheapest I'd consider acceptable for use with people as subjects. I now have access to a much heavier duty vintage thing.

Do get a wheeled stand - moving a boom once it's up is a pain.

Parallelogram stands are exceedingly handy but the PixaPro one looks a bit flimsy compared to some I've used - I've no direct experience of it.
The other £300 PixaPro boom looks really nice.
 
simonbarker said:
You don't have to but it's worth remembering that a good stand, boom or similar will outlive any electronic equipment you have; it's a good investment in the long run.
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I wish I'd gone for something better all those years ago. I've added wheels and a proper sliding counter-weight, but would love a geared angle adjuster and still curse when the head needs adjusting and I'm on a step ladder leaning perilously over a table-top set :eek:
 
HoppyUK said:
I wish I'd gone for something better all those years ago. I've added wheels and a proper sliding counter-weight, but would love a geared angle adjuster and still curse when the head needs adjusting and I'm on a step ladder leaning perilously over a table-top set :eek:
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I once used an autopole connected to a full size Manfrotto wall boom holding up a 4kg head (without anything else fitted), I was constantly terrified it would fall over (even though correctly placing it made it 'relatively stable').

Even though nothing happened it's a mistake I learned from, I never want to waste time and energy worrying about something as basic/essential as a stand or boom and whatever they cost is small beer compared to losing any other equipment. I'm currently using a wind up stand (£250) with a Kupo steel telescopic boom (£70), a lollipop (£40) and some counterweights (£20), the boom isn't all that fancy but it works fine for my needs. Most importantly as long as I follow proper handling procedure (properly counter balance, righty tighty etc) it's one less thing to get in the way/worry about.

The op could do worse than the generic Chinese stand boom combo on Lencarta (and quite a few other sellers) for £100, more than enough when used with the Godox extension head as suggested by others.
 
juggler said:
Please don't skimp on the boom. They're blinkin' scary things & exceedingly dangerous.

.
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^^ This! I hate booms - and I'm pretty sure they're out to get me. :P I bought a fairly hefty but basic boom stand on wheels years ago (looks like the Lencarta one) and whilst there's nothing specifically dangerous about the design, just the very nature of what you're doing would work nicely as the opening scenes of a Casualty episode. Take the head off and forget about the counterweight? The whole lot heads for the floor/paper backdrop/walls, or worst case - the subject/model. Undo the wrong clamp on the pole? The light and modifier rotates on the pole. Plus any significant rotational force resisted only by the friction of a thumb screw on a round lighting spigot, means it probably will rotate to the bottom at some point. If I need to suspend a heavy light over head these days, I build a goalpost out of two heavyweight wheeled stands and a telescopic crossbar, and clamp the light to the cross bar with a SuperClamp. This is rock solid - but takes up a lot of room. In tighter spaces, I now use a C-Stand with a full size boom arm on it, with a sand (well bags of salt) bag counterweight and another 5kg clamp mass on the leg that is most likely to lift - determine this by holding and pushing the stand side to side to see which way it wants to go. I'll try and get it balanced, but sometimes it's not possible to get it perfect. I put another grip-head and pin on the end and mount the light to that so the head is upright (and use the joint on the head itself to gain the angle I need). I use the Lencarta Safari on this as the head weighs very little, and as Richard said, you can then use the pack to balance it.
 
Scooter said:
If I need to suspend a heavy light over head these days, I build a goalpost out of two heavyweight wheeled stands and a telescopic crossbar, and clamp the light to the cross bar with a SuperClamp.
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Me too. Time consuming but works well.

There are so many different failure modes for even a well made boom. I know of one studio where a model was lucky to get away with a broken ankle.
 
I can only repeat what others have said - it doesn't pay to skimp on something as safety critical as a boom arm, the consequences of it crashing down and injuring someone are far too serious to risk - and anyway, is it worth risking damaging an expensive flash head by using a cheap boom arm?
I've just looked at the Lencarta site, they used to have a heavy duty boom arm that was excellent, no longer there but they do have their standard boom arm, which I've used for years, complete with wheels, and it's excellent for the price https://www.lencarta.com/all-products/light-stands-boom-arms/studio-boom-arm-with-casters
This, to me, is the minimum that I would consider.
They also have their wall mounted boom arm, much safer, much more stable and even cheaper, but with the big disadvantage that it needs to be bolted to the wall or ceiling, and not only does this make it a permanent fixture, it also restricts lighting arrangements https://www.lencarta.com/all-produc...s/wall-mounted-telescopic-heavy-duty-boom-arm

The ones with a worm drive, for easy adjustment of the angle, are great in theory but the ones that I've seen are very badly designed from poor materials, and in my view are not fit for purpose.

And finally, there are the C stands, popular but again in my experience, a poor choice. Their footprint is far too small for rigidity and anway, who had the bright idea of making a stand with a chrome finish, that reflects unwanted light everywhere?
 
Garry Edwards said:
And finally, there are the C stands, popular but again in my experience, a poor choice. Their footprint is far too small for rigidity and anway, who had the bright idea of making a stand with a chrome finish, that reflects unwanted light everywhere?
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They do them in black too but for whatever reason importers seem to prefer the chrome ones.
 
simonbarker said:
They do them in black too but for whatever reason importers seem to prefer the chrome ones.
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The reason is that the black ones cost more, and the public today are constantly looking for the cheapest, not the best.
 
Garry Edwards said:
The reason is that the black ones cost more, and the public today are constantly looking for the cheapest, not the best.
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That might be true of the Chinese clones but the main brands seem to be the same for the chrome or black versions.
 
simonbarker said:
That might be true of the Chinese clones but the main brands seem to be the same for the chrome or black versions.
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Most (not all) of the "main brands" are made in a Chinese factory. This factory offers a black option at a slightly higher price. Re-sellers who offer this are making very large margins and so can afford to offer black at the same price.

Most (not all) of the cheaper brands (which you call Chinese clones) are made in a different Chinese factory. They also offer a black option, but at a substantially higher price, probably offered because they feel a need to offer the same options but want to control sales and push them towards the chrome version. As a result of the higher price, the black version doesn't sell, which means that the factory doesn't need to hold them in stock.

None of this changes the validity of my point - these C stands are unstable, because of their small footprint..
 
Garry Edwards said:
Most (not all) of the "main brands" are made in a Chinese factory. This factory offers a black option at a slightly higher price. Re-sellers who offer this are making very large margins and so can afford to offer black at the same price.
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It was a reference to the poor design of the unbranded Chinese models as they tend to have wrong sizes and dubious materials/finish compared to the well known brands, as an example I've got an Interfit branded one that has a weird gun metal colour finish and springs which prevent the sections from fully collapsing and a sliding foot which is all over the place. Calumet branded ones you can't share the turtle base with other brands as the diameter is too narrow (or too small, can't recall which) etc.

Garry Edwards said:
None of this changes the validity of my point - these C stands are unstable, because of their small footprint..
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No one was arguing with that point, although you shouldn't be relying on footprint alone.
 
It's worth mentioning that all boom arms, regardless of make and quality, need to be set up correctly.
This involves balancing the weight of the light etc with the weight of the counterbalance and the effective length of the arm so that the weight is balanced WITHOUT clamping it - the clamp must be used ONLY to stop slight movement, not to stop either the light or the counterbalance hitting the deck - whenever this isn't done the whole thing becomes very unstable, and dangerous.
Also, one leg must be in line with the light.
 
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