Cheap ring flash

hi owen, i believe it is an led unit which provides constant light, and is not a flash that is synchronised through the camera. The effective distance is very small, compared to a flash unit. If you are on a tight budget, i would recommend the marumi dedicated ring flash second hand for about the same price, if you are lucky enough.
cheers
Darryl.
 
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carper123 said:
hi owen, i believe it is an led unit which provides constant light, and is not a flash that is synchronised through the camera. The effective distance is very small, compared to a flash unit. If you are on a tight budget, i would recommend the marumi dedicated ring flash second hand for about the same price, if you are lucky enough.
cheers
Darryl.
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Ok thanks Darryl
 
This seller is a china member with 137 negs in 6 months.:nono:
 
owen said:
Hi just wondering if anybody used one these or similar and are they a waste of money...Tight budget and a novice...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Macro-Rin...ories_CameraFlashUnits_JN&hash=item45ff3e71ee
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If search this subject you would find many replies in the close up section.

Try this

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=369597&highlight=ringflash

My shots are all taken with this.

Img_5636.jpg

Pb090015.jpg


You will always find people say something they don't have or have never tried is rubbish.

Get it on Amazon then, Nikon or Canon. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Macro-Light-Olympus-Pentax-A380-A450/dp/B003LAGNSO

Oh and as for the "Marumi" i think it only fits to a max filter thread of 58mm the one above fits to 72mm threads and that make one heck of a difference. The Mirimi would not fit my 28-130 Canon lens.
 
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The marumi flash fits any size lens providing you have the necessary step up/down rings.
It comes supplied with 5 of the most common size lens adapters.
cheers
darryl.
 
carper123 said:
The marumi flash fits any size lens providing you have the necessary step up/down rings.
It comes supplied with 5 of the most common size lens adapters.
cheers
darryl.
Click to expand...

It doesn't fit "any size" and can not, if you placed it on a 72mm wide lens the hole/gap at the front would not be wide enough, as I said, just to 67mm, where as the one above fits 72mm filter threads, and for people with that size the mirimi is useless.

Also ringflash does not offer a constant and very valuable model light, which is superb for spending time setting up, setting focus with live view at 2,4 or 10x magnification.
 
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JSER said:
If search this subject you would find many replies in the close up section.

Try this

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=369597&highlight=ringflash

My shots are all taken with this.

Img_5636.jpg

Pb090015.jpg


You will always find people say something they don't have or have never tried is rubbish.

Get it on Amazon then, Nikon or Canon. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Macro-Light-Olympus-Pentax-A380-A450/dp/B003LAGNSO

Oh and as for the "Marumi" i think it only fits to a max filter thread of 58mm the one above fits to 72mm threads and that make one heck of a difference. The Mirimi would not fit my 28-130 Canon lens.
Click to expand...

Ordered one of these tonight thanks
 
JSER said:
It doesn't fit "any size" and can not, if you placed it on a 72mm wide lens the hole/gap at the front would not be wide enough, as I said, just to 67mm, where as the one above fits 72mm filter threads, and for people with that size the mirimi is useless.
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How many Macro lenses come with a filter thread of more than 67mm? I bought the marumi for use with my Nikon 105mm 2.8, which is 62mm. I have also used it with the 50mm 1.4. I wouldn't know why you'd put a ring flash on a tele zoom or wide angle, so I don't think the Marumi excludes much. Haven't tried the LED thing. Probably not a bad alternative, but just not a ring flash.
 
JSER said:
It doesn't fit "any size" and can not, if you placed it on a 72mm wide lens the hole/gap at the front would not be wide enough, as I said, just to 67mm, where as the one above fits 72mm filter threads, and for people with that size the mirimi is useless.

Also ringflash does not offer a constant and very valuable model light, which is superb for spending time setting up, setting focus with live view at 2,4 or 10x magnification.
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Well i use a MT-24EX which has a 58mm fitment with a siggy 150mm macro which has a 72mm filter using a stepdown ring without problem :shrug:
 
Quanosaur said:
How many Macro lenses come with a filter thread of more than 67mm? I bought the marumi for use with my Nikon 105mm 2.8, which is 62mm. I have also used it with the 50mm 1.4. I wouldn't know why you'd put a ring flash on a tele zoom or wide angle, so I don't think the Marumi excludes much. Haven't tried the LED thing. Probably not a bad alternative, but just not a ring flash.
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This isnt an argument I am simply stating that it doesn't fit every size, the ringflash/light fits more and my filter thread is 72mm, there are many people who do not want a macro lens, what we want are tubes, I use Canon tubes and a standard 28-135 Canon lens.

Also I want a modeling light which ring flash does not offer meaning you can accurately live view your subject at any distance, live focus at any magnification and take the photo, much more friendly than just flash..
 
JSER said:
This isnt an argument I am simply stating that it doesn't fit every size, the ringflash/light fits more and my filter thread is 72mm, there are many people who do not want a macro lens, what we want are tubes, I use Canon tubes and a standard 28-135 Canon lens.

Also I want a modeling light which ring flash does not offer meaning you can accurately live view your subject at any distance, live focus at any magnification and take the photo, much more friendly than just flash..
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As other people have stated, there are always step-up/step-down rings.

I'm sure those LED ringlights are great, but they aren't necessarily 'better' for all applications. I'm sure having a modelling light is great in some cases, but I'm also sure that a lot of insects won't sit still for long if your light forces you to get much closer than the flash would.

For people mostly shooting inanimate objects, I'd probably say don't bother with a ringflash and go for the light. Aside from that I find the ringflash a lot more flexible.
 
Quanosaur said:
As other people have stated, there are always step-up/step-down rings.

I'm sure those LED ringlights are great, but they aren't necessarily 'better' for all applications. I'm sure having a modelling light is great in some cases, but I'm also sure that a lot of insects won't sit still for long if your light forces you to get much closer than the flash would.

For people mostly shooting inanimate objects, I'd probably say don't bother with a ringflash and go for the light. Aside from that I find the ringflash a lot more flexible.
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As many people don't shoot insects then that is not an issue, also, it has "flash" as stated, this is the first and last one I took as I am not interested in insects.

spider.jpg


Also I find it amazing that people still talk about step rings which have no bearing on the comments about these ringlight/flashes.

I have made it simple to understand.

Lenses such as mine have a 72mm aperture or opening, if the aperture of the ringflash is not great enough to not fully "clear" the lens then it is pointless talking about steprings.

The aperture of cheap ringflashes such as the Mirumi is not enough so blocks the lens.

72mm.jpg

opening.jpg


The only way then would be a decent ringflash such as a Sigma, which I am not interested in, therefore as I have said here many times horses for courses
 
JSER said:
The aperture of cheap ringflashes such as the Mirumi is not enough so blocks the lens.
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I've had absolutely no issues using it ons my 62mm Nikon 105mm f/2.8 VR. I've had no signs of 'blocking' or vignetting. Sure looks like that could be the case, but it isn't.

The build quality isn't amazing (but then I doubt that's much different for the LED ones), and if anything the Marumi is a bit fiddly and flimsy, but for under 120 quid it's a ring flash, it does the job. I'm sure the Nikon system or the Sigma would be better, but as much as I love macro photography, I prefer to invest more in equipment that I can use commercially (portrait lenses, etc).
 
JSER said:
As many people don't shoot insects then that is not an issue, also, it has "flash" as stated, this is the first and last one I took as I am not interested in insects.

snip...

Also I find it amazing that people still talk about step rings which have no bearing on the comments about these ringlight/flashes.

I have made it simple to understand.

Lenses such as mine have a 72mm aperture or opening, if the aperture of the ringflash is not great enough to not fully "clear" the lens then it is pointless talking about steprings.

The aperture of cheap ringflashes such as the Mirumi is not enough so blocks the lens.

snip

The only way then would be a decent ringflash such as a Sigma, which I am not interested in, therefore as I have said here many times horses for courses
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Not entirely true-

Sigma 150mm - 72mm filter with step down ring

72-58.jpg


with MT24-EX fitted

stepandmt.jpg


and image

1-12.jpg


and with i can use a hood which has an aperture of 34mm

hood_comp.jpg


and still get an image

1-1_hood.jpg


so you can use step down rings without issue on some lens without issue
 
scottthehat said:
Hi jeremy,are you saying the meike works like a proper flash, so you dont have to have the light on all the time.
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Yes you have a choice of 7 power levels in ALL choices of flash, half the lights on on the left or right, all lights or constant light, do THAT with flash
 
Dogfish_magnet said:
Not entirely true-

Sigma 150mm - 72mm filter with step down ring
Click to expand...

The murimi or whatever it is has a ........

Hello Jeremy,

The Marumi Ring Flash DRF14C comes with four adaptor rings 55mm, 58mm, 62mm and 67mm which should give you some options.

Yours sincerely,

Pete

London Camera Exchange

67mm you can NOT deny that fitting that to a lens with a larger front ap WILL block part of the front element, sorry its basic physics.
 
JSER said:
The murimi or whatever it is has a ........

Hello Jeremy,

The Marumi Ring Flash DRF14C comes with four adaptor rings 55mm, 58mm, 62mm and 67mm which should give you some options.

Yours sincerely,

Pete

London Camera Exchange

67mm you can NOT deny that fitting that to a lens with a larger front ap WILL block part of the front element, sorry its basic physics.
Click to expand...

Not necessarily. 67mm is just the size of the filter thread. If you have a larger size than that and use a stepping ring to get it down to 67mm or whatever, then you will probably have a problem with the Marumi ringflash at shorter focal lengths, but not at the longer settings you would almost certainly need for macro in any case.

At longer focal lengths the lens doesn't 'look' out of the whole of the front element, hence why other posters above report no problems.

Those little LED jobbies are okay if you're very close, but you need to ramp up the ISO to get a high enough f/number for sufficient depth of field. Flash has much more power.
 
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