Portable powerful fast flash - what are my options?

[FlyTVR]

Looking to buy some portable lighting. Must be capable of stopping action shots e.g. badminton or similar.

What are my options?

Ta

 

[TG.]

Speedlights

Bare bulb flash http://www.lencarta.com/studio-lighting-shopfront/atom-barebulb-portable-flash

Portable studio Lighting http://www.lencarta.com/studio-lighting-shopfront/safari-li-on-portable-flash-system

 

[markmullen]

Elinchrom Ranger Quadra with the A head which offers higher speeds.

 

[treeman]

Speedlights

Bare bulb flash http://www.lencarta.com/studio-lighting-shopfront/atom-barebulb-portable-flash

Portable studio Lighting http://www.lencarta.com/studio-lighting-shopfront/safari-li-on-portable-flash-system

I don't know about the bare bulb option, but the Safari would be too slow to freeze a shuttlecock at full speed, reckon that thing moves pretty quick!

 

[Garry Edwards]

Yes, I think that the Safari Li-on is out for this purpose, which leaves you basically with either the Quadra with A heads or the Lencarta Atom. The Atom will give you much shorter flash durations than the Quadra, but only at lower power settings, so it really depends a lot on how much power you need - I believe that the Quadra produces the shortest flash duration of 1/2500th sec at 1/4 power, which is roughly equivalent to 70Ws. The Atom 360 would give you 1/3200th sec flash duration at 1/8th power, which is about 45Ws. The recycling on the Atom is dramatically faster, but this may or may not matter to you.

And another alternative is the Profoto Acute B2 AirS, which produces 1/3500th sec, but this is at minimum power.

Edit: Of course, the Lencarta SuperFast will give you 1/1200th sec at full power, increasing to 1/20,000th at minimum power. Not exactly portable, but can be used with a battery power supply such as the Innovotrix

 

[Durbs]

Depends on budget - but if shooting Canon, multiple Speedlights in HSS would sort you out.