Never seen Lencarta in professional use?

jamesoliverstone said:
I shoot with my safaris 90% of the time and I would recommend them to anyone best bang for the buck I could find and they just work... Again and again and again...
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I want the ringflash now...

I want a third light but not sure if I should get another safari plus the ringflash (which with the battery is quite a lot of dosh). Or get a twin light Elitepro setup and swap one of the mains lights for a ringflash and the battery transmitter/receiver for a mains one. Then I will have a couple more stands too. I suppose I am unlikely to be using 3 lights outside.

Loving the 95cm octo box I got off TG
 
cowasaki said:
I want the ringflash now...

I want a third light but not sure if I should get another safari plus the ringflash (which with the battery is quite a lot of dosh). Or get a twin light Elitepro setup and swap one of the mains lights for a ringflash and the battery transmitter/receiver for a mains one. Then I will have a couple more stands too. I suppose I am unlikely to be using 3 lights outside.

Loving the 95cm octo box I got off TG
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If I need more lights On location where there isn't any power I just break out a couple of sb900's... Those with the safaris give me all the light I need ;)
 
jamesoliverstone said:
If I need more lights On location where there isn't any power I just break out a couple of sb900's... Those with the safaris give me all the light I need ;)
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I have an SB800 and one of FITP's softboxes so I should be ok really! This Safari kit does look really good quality although describing the plastic case as Peli style is a tad optimistic ;) I looks like it would break from the weight of a mug of coffee :lol: Still the stuff inside it is the main thing and it is REALLY nice kit. Only critism I would have so far is the inability to change the power of the lights individually so I will need to use an ND grad/move them etc.
 
Rough Edges said:
You could also use a honeycomb fitted to one of the standard reflectors if using bare heads..
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Yes, there are a lot of different things that can be done. Equal power only really becomes a potential problem if both heads are fitted with identical modifiers at identical distances, which is highly unlikely.
Very few generators have genuine assymetrical adjustment, i.e. very few can be adjusted as required, and the ones that can are incredibly expensive because that design really involves having two separate generators in the same box.
Most of the so-called assymetrical generators just have a fixed ratio of power going to different outlets, for example 2/3rds - 1/3rd, which IMO is more of a sales feature than a real world benefit.
 
Thanks Garry, lots of excellent tips as usual. So much creative potential... One thing I haven't seen anywhere is the standard cable length on the Safari heads.. So not sure how far they can be aprt and at a given heights etc..
 
The cable length is 2.6m, and you can also get a 5m extension
 
Rough Edges said:
Thanks Garry, I had seen the extension on the Lencarta website. I assume two would be needed if two heads are in use to keep colour temp etc or is one OK?..
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There's no measurable shift in colour temperature, so either one can be used on one head or one can be used on each head.
The power loss is just 1/3rd of a stop.
 
ding76uk said:
Garry T1 times, do they go up or down as you lower the flash output? I really need the times as I shoot action sports, and need high flash speeds.
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That's a difficult question to answer, because it varies.

Turn it down to half or quarter power and capacitors are switched out, which makes the flash duration shorter.
But turn it down to an intermediate point and the flash duration will lengthen, because the flash energy will be reduced by reducing the voltage.
In practice, unless you turn it down to the minimum it will be more or less the same because the flash energy will be reduced partly by switching out capacitors and partly by reducing the voltage.
 
ding76uk said:
Thanks for that Garry, this unfortunately means that Safari is not an option for my needs. Pricing was where I wanted to be, but need the fast duration, which means more expense.
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1 head and battery:

safari : £700? for a normal head, and the joint cheapest mods of any of the below.
ranger quadra 2 batt + head = £1145 for one head
bowens 500ws 'pro' head + travelpak = £1060
profoto acuteb generator + free head = £1300
hensel portyb special offer = £1500

and doubtless others, and a load of cheaper and slower alternatives too.

numbers speak for themselves really :/
 
Yeah, their is a definite market for a lower cost action head. I was hoping on Einstein, but some bad things being said and the Paul C Buff Europe pricing has put me off that idea for good. Looks like more saving time will be needed.

Not wanting to hijack your thread Garry, so if anyone knows of a good action head/battery system more reasonable than those mentioned above, pls pm me.

Once again Garry thanks for getting back to me.
 
Garry Edwards said:
That's a difficult question to answer, because it varies.

Turn it down to half or quarter power and capacitors are switched out, which makes the flash duration shorter.
But turn it down to an intermediate point and the flash duration will lengthen, because the flash energy will be reduced by reducing the voltage.
In practice, unless you turn it down to the minimum it will be more or less the same because the flash energy will be reduced partly by switching out capacitors and partly by reducing the voltage.
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The Safari packs feature switching capacitor banks ?

If this is so, then at what power is the quoted t.5 time on the website? Can anyone provide timings at 1/1, 1/2 and 1/4 ? (t.5 or t.1) ?
 
Yes, the Safari utilises capacitor switching, that's the norm for generators. The t.5 time was measured at full power.
Sorry, I can't provide timings at reduced power settings at the mo because the oscilloscope that measures the duration and plots the bell curve has died, it will be replaced with a brand new shiny one but I'm stuck until the new one arrives.
 
Garry Edwards said:
Yes, the Safari utilises capacitor switching, that's the norm for generators. The t.5 time was measured at full power.
Sorry, I can't provide timings at reduced power settings at the mo because the oscilloscope that measures the duration and plots the bell curve has died, it will be replaced with a brand new shiny one but I'm stuck until the new one arrives.
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Well, a brand new shiny singing & dancing oscilloscope is now on its way, so once it's here and I've learned how to integrate it with the graph creation software I'll be able to prove the Lencarta flash duration figures again;)
 
you should do competitive evaluations Garry, that should be able to show various differences between brands.
 
matty said:
you should do competitive evaluations Garry, that should be able to show various differences between brands.
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That sounds good to me and I'll be happy to do it, over time we could build up a database of actual flash durations of various makes and models at different power settings, this will help people to make informed decisions before buying, which they can't always do just by relying on the published figures.

But people will need to bring the different brands to me by arrangement, because pretty well the only ones I have available to me apart from Lencarta is a few of the pro Elinchrom models (none of the consumer ones) and when it comes to the rebadged products it will be necessary to test every single model, because different models often come from different manufacturers. This doesn't necessarily mean that they are a poor choice, but what it does mean is their worth can only be assessed by objective testing - oscilliscopes and colour temperature meters provide accurate info.
 
Garry Edwards said:
That sounds good to me and I'll be happy to do it, over time we could build up a database of actual flash durations of various makes and models at different power settings, this will help people to make informed decisions before buying, which they can't always do just by relying on the published figures.

But people will need to bring the different brands to me by arrangement, because pretty well the only ones I have available to me apart from Lencarta is a few of the pro Elinchrom models (none of the consumer ones) and when it comes to the rebadged products it will be necessary to test every single model, because different models often come from different manufacturers. This doesn't necessarily mean that they are a poor choice, but what it does mean is their worth can only be assessed by objective testing - oscilliscopes and colour temperature meters provide accurate info.
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I'd be happy to let you have a stable imaging light to test so you can show what the bottom of the pile lights do too (it would be an interesting comparision) :)

Talking of Stable Imaging lights I was at Sainsburys today and they have a professional photographer located in a booth at the store offering portraits, prints, canvasses etc. I had a nosey as I walked past and he is using the cheap £200 set professionally with the 40cm x 60cm softboxes :)
 
I think if other manufacturers are confident of their products published test data then they will lend them for testing Garry...its a good way of showing what your products are all about.
 
Garry Edwards said:
That sounds good to me and I'll be happy to do it, over time we could build up a database of actual flash durations of various makes and models at different power settings, this will help people to make informed decisions before buying, which they can't always do just by relying on the published figures.
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Garry this would be wonderful if you could get this rolling! T1 speeds would be great to have with this. Be a really good way to get accurate info from one source.

Thanks in advance for doing this Garry, i think this would be really useful to a lot of us.
:clap::clap::clap:
 
ding76uk said:
Garry this would be wonderful if you could get this rolling! T1 speeds would be great to have with this. Be a really good way to get accurate info from one source.

Thanks in advance for doing this Garry, i think this would be really useful to a lot of us.
:clap::clap::clap:
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I think this will be a useful resource, as long as suppliers are happy to take part - it will be in their interest to get objective test results as long as they match their own published figures, and it will be in the interests of potential buyers whether they do or they don't.

I should have the equipment up and running, with a testing protocol established, in a few days. I'll contact various manufacturers/importers and invite them to take part, we'll just have to wait and see who wants to take part.

As I'm involved with Lencarta there might be some cynical souls who could be unsure about my objectivity, but that isn't going to be a problem because the tests will be carried out in front of the owner.
 
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