smartflash with softbox, powerful enough?

[Dave Pickett]

As the title really. Trying to decide on a modest home set up, and the smartflash looks good, but I am concerned that it will be powerful enough. It seems the guide number with softbox is around 5o (ft) so at 5' (small rooms) an aperture of f10 should be achievable at 100 ISO.

This seems OK but can someone confirm my calculations please or share their real life experience of these (or the Elemental Genesis which are slightly more powerful but have longer recycling time)

 

[HarryL]

As the title really. Trying to decide on a modest home set up, and the smartflash looks good, but I am concerned that it will be powerful enough. It seems the guide number with softbox is around 5o (ft) so at 5' (small rooms) an aperture of f10 should be achievable at 100 ISO.

This seems OK but can someone confirm my calculations please or share their real life experience of these (or the Elemental Genesis which are slightly more powerful but have longer recycling time)

I use a Smartflash 3-head kit. It's more than enough for up to small portrait work. In fact I hardly ever need the full power.

If that's not enough, just crank up the ISO from 100 to 200 and you effectively double the power! IQ loss on modern DSLRs because of this will be minimal.

Hope that helps.

Harry

 

[Garry Edwards]

As the title really. Trying to decide on a modest home set up, and the smartflash looks good, but I am concerned that it will be powerful enough. It seems the guide number with softbox is around 5o (ft) so at 5' (small rooms) an aperture of f10 should be achievable at 100 ISO.

This seems OK but can someone confirm my calculations please or share their real life experience of these (or the Elemental Genesis which are slightly more powerful but have longer recycling time)

Like 3x as long, and not actually more powerful, exactly the same according to the test in Digital Photo (don't assume that the number of Watt Seconds, which is just the amount of energy stored in the capacitors, is an indication of actual power).

Not that we should worry too much about power anyway, the quality of the light, the recycling time, the flash duration, the build quality and having fan cooling are all far more important than raw power.

What sort of camera are you using anyway? If it's a compact with a tiny sensor then you really need to use it at a low ISO setting but if it's a modern DSLR then you can always wind the ISO up a notch if you really need to - not that you're likely to.

I take it you've seen the figures here and are basing your calculations on those figures? Those tests were carried out in my own studio, which is probably a lot larger than the space you'll be using and which has a black ceiling, so if you're using a smaller space you'll get less control but more light. Although it's intended to be an honest guide it isn't anything more than a guide.

 

[Dave Pickett]

Thanks guys, I have a Nikon D60 and Fuji S5 (on its way) and really the Fuji is intended for use with the studio flash coupled with either 50 f1.8 or 90 f2.8 tamron. For this camera I think 100 iso will be best but I guess if I get stuck I can go with the D90 at 200 or even 400 ISO.

I guess I can use a big enough softbox for a pure white background if I have enough space? (head and shoulder shots only)

Oh and yes Gary I did use the table on your web site, very useful........

 

[Garry Edwards]

I use a Fuji S5 Pro myself, don't worry about it - it will be fine at 200 ISO if you find that you need the extra 'oomph'