Lencarta Question's

alpina

alpina

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Andy
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I am sorely tempted to push the button on one of these

http://www.lencarta.com/softboxes-umbrellas/sof001-120cm-4-ft-octa-folding-pro-softbox/index.php

I have a couple of questions that need answers please:thumbs:

I intend to use it for an upcoming shoot this week where I have to shoot various ladies against the Hilite unit for my location stock unit for college.

So the questions I have are

1: Would an sb800 be powerful to fill it with light? I reckon I will be shooting at f8-f11 to keep the hilite nice and bright.

2: I am looking at this particular size because I need full length shots, would this be perfect bearing in mind if I could save a few quid then I can put it towards another head etc.
 
alpina said:
I am sorely tempted to push the button on one of these

http://www.lencarta.com/softboxes-umbrellas/sof001-120cm-4-ft-octa-folding-pro-softbox/index.php

I have a couple of questions that need answers please:thumbs:

I intend to use it for an upcoming shoot this week where I have to shoot various ladies against the Hilite unit for my location stock unit for college.

So the questions I have are

1: Would an sb800 be powerful to fill it with light? I reckon I will be shooting at f8-f11 to keep the hilite nice and bright.

2: I am looking at this particular size because I need full length shots, would this be perfect bearing in mind if I could save a few quid then I can put it towards another head etc.
Click to expand...

I think you will struggle. the sb800 is a great unit (I have several) and the Lencarta softbox is superb (I have several) however the shape of the light produced by the sb800 is totally wrong for the softbox. Your only chance is wacking that plastic diffuser on the sb800. in this scenario, you will just not have enough power

What are you lighting the background with?
 
How are you planning to hold this up with an SB800 in it?

It's very big ( I have one) and you'll need someway to fix it, and the SB800 in place. Bear in mind that this is designed to be mounted on studio lights so it doesn't bolt onto a lightstand with a bracket (unless you've had one made up)
 
Jason, It looks like I will have to get another head then. The Lencarta 200w is the same price as the softbox:bang::bang:.

I will use the sb800 as a rimlight or something.

Do you reckon the folding action is worth the extra money?
 
I think you could do it with the hot-shoe gun, but you'll need the diffuser cap on and it will probably be flat out unless you can put it pretty close. Raise the ISO if you have to, and recyling will be slow. And turn down the HiLite a bit - I would shoot at f/5.6 with the HiLite just half a stop up on that.

But even if you can do it that way, it's hardly ideal. I would bite the bullet and get a studio head - they're not that expensive.

That's a nice softbox though, and yes I think easy-folding ones are worth every penny if you have to take it down after every session.
 
The folding action is well worth the cost, but only if you need a folding softbox...
The SmartFlash 200 should give you about f/5.6 at a distance of 10' (not that you are likely to use it that far away) @ 100 ISO. So your SB-800 should give you about f/2.8 - f/3.5 at the same sort of distance. If you want to achieve f/8 with the SmartFlash you can do so fairly easily just by increasing the ISO to about 200. To get that with your SB-800, you'll need to increase the ISO to about 800. The light won't as even with a hotshoe flash because it all goes forward instead of bouncing around the sides, but it will still be pretty good.
 
Garry Edwards said:
The folding action is well worth the cost, but only if you need a folding softbox...
The SmartFlash 200 should give you about f/5.6 at a distance of 10' (not that you are likely to use it that far away) @ 100 ISO. So your SB-800 should give you about f/2.8 - f/3.5 at the same sort of distance. If you want to achieve f/8 with the SmartFlash you can do so fairly easily just by increasing the ISO to about 200. To get that with your SB-800, you'll need to increase the ISO to about 800. The light won't as even with a hotshoe flash because it all goes forward instead of bouncing around the sides, but it will still be pretty good.
Click to expand...

Great stuff Guys, I hadn't considered the recharge time on the sb800, it would be firing on full power. I think the smartflash is ideal but.... I have looked at the elite pro 300 and for the extra few quid:bang::bang::bang::bang:

If only lencarta did a student discount like calumet..
 
alpina said:
Great stuff Guys, I hadn't considered the recharge time on the sb800, it would be firing on full power. I think the smartflash is ideal but.... I have looked at the elite pro 300 and for the extra few quid:bang::bang::bang::bang:

If only lencarta did a student discount like calumet..
Click to expand...
If Lencarta charged the same prices they could afford to...:)
 
Garry Edwards said:
If Lencarta charged the same prices they could afford to...:)
Click to expand...

Just thinking that too Gary, Its not really a discount when they seem to be 20% dearer than the rest, and the discount card gives me 20%:cuckoo:

Right here is my dilemma, in order to complete my assignment I need to by the end of tomorrow have placed an order for a head and a softbox and possibly a stand too.

I think the folding softbox is perfect for my needs as I will be taking it out and about to various indoor locations. So that £130 spent.

Next up is the head, the smart flash at £130 would be fine but I think the 300w/s might be a more intelligent purchase when thinking about the future.

The elite 300 is £199.95 from Lencarta and was settled on buying that but have now spotted this

http://www.fotosense.co.uk/interfit-int421-stellar-x-flash-head.html

A fair bit cheaper at £170 including delivery,its enough for a half decent stand.

However is it buy cheap buy dear, something I haver been good at in the past:cuckoo:
 
My take on this is...

Lencarta are free delivery in the UK, and it's next working day usually, so comparing apples with apples,you're only actually saving £21 (£12.99 next day delivery from Fotosense), which isn't even a night at a movie these days.

I don't think that the £21 difference is indicative of the actual difference in quality of the head. In reality it's much greater if they're of similar quality to the Safari kit I own.

Garry, who provides Lencarta support, is on the board, and as I've said elsewhere, responds very quickly to questions.
 
Yes, you'll save a few bob - is it worth it?
They don't tell you how many capacitors the head contains (AFAIK nobody except Lencarta does that)
They don't tell you the recycling time
The don't tell you what type of reflector is included (they only say that it's a spill kill, which it almost certainly isn't, because spill kill reflectors only give a a bare bulb effect) so you don't know whether the reflector supplied can be used with umbrellas or not or whether it can be used with honeycombs or not, and you don't know what size it is.
And they don't tell you the colour temperature variation at different settings.
And they don't tell you the guide number.

It's your money and only you can decide...
 
Order placed with Lencarta, Thanks to all that helped me decide.:thumbs:
 
Good decision. It's on it's way:)
 
Wow the softbox is huuuuuge, substantial kit:thumbs:
 
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