lighting equipment - DPChallenge Forums

08/10/2005 12:46:49 PM · #1

if i have a monolight, can i hook it up to any power pack?

i'm trying to do some outdoors portrait photography. any help would be great, thanks!

Gil P

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II

08/10/2005 12:48:28 PM · #2

??? a monolight? if your talking about a strob that is not self powered... NO you can't, it needs to be attached to it's matching PowerPack.

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

08/10/2005 12:56:10 PM · #3

Originally posted by Gil P:

??? a monolight? if your talking about a strob that is not self powered... NO you can't, it needs to be attached to it's matching PowerPack.

im still sort of confused on the different types of lights there are. what i need is a strobe that i can use with a battery. what lights do you use, Gil P?

Telehubbie

Canon EOS-40D

08/10/2005 01:03:57 PM · #4

Monolights are self-contained. They should have everything built into the housing behind the actual flash so they are usually bigger than a strobe, and they have the controls on the back or the side. You shouldn't need a separate pack for a monolight. Otherwise with a strobe, what Gil P said.

Telehubbie

Canon EOS-40D

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

08/10/2005 01:07:20 PM · #5

Originally posted by art-inept:

what i need is a strobe that i can use with a battery.

Something like this?

08/10/2005 01:11:10 PM · #6

Originally posted by Telehubbie:

Originally posted by art-inept:

what i need is a strobe that i can use with a battery.

Something like this?

ya i was actually looking at the JTL mobilights, but i think 300 watts are going to be a little bit low for what i want to do, which is high contrast night shots.

are the JTL's good, though? I could get that double 300 watt kit to give me a total of 600 watts.

or I could get the Bowens Gemini 500 //www.adorama.com/BZG500.html
With the Gemini, would I have to buy Bowen's powerpack? It costs about 600$, is there a cheaper alternative? thanks!

CalliopeKel

Canon EOS-5D

//alienbees.com/battery.html

08/10/2005 01:19:30 PM · #7

Telehubbie

Canon EOS-40D

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

08/10/2005 01:28:55 PM · #8

Well, on the Bowens, to make it portable you would have to get the battery pack with charger and all for $685 on top of the $616 for the monolight. So $1301 plus shipping for one light and that's not including a stand, umbrella, case etc. The quality looks better than the JTL however, but $739 shipped for two lights with batteries, stands, umbrellas and cases sounds better to me. -Just my 2 cents

08/10/2005 01:29:17 PM · #9

Originally posted by CalliopeKel:

//alienbees.com/battery.html

do i have to use that pack with alienbees? or can i use it with other brand lights?

Prof_Fate

08/10/2005 01:38:28 PM · #10

Most monolights (perhaps all) are designed for studio use 110v AC power source. Most can be powered from batteries.

All are set up for triggering via cord from the camera, using a PC socket on the camera or a hot shoe to PC cord adapter. Most also are set up for optical triggering (will flash when they see a flash, or a pre-flash! check your camera to see if it pre-flashes).

Modular lights, like the Lumedyne lights, are sold by the piece so yo can mix and match to get exaclty what you need. A complete lumedyne set up for one light (the flash head, bulb, reflector, power pack(control) and battery, with cables for $900-1300 depending on the WS and batterey size needed.

YOu can find some of this on ebay for less. I got a 200WS setup of lumedyne, plue the auto module for $300. includeing battery and charger.

It appears to take a 12v battery, so i suspect a car battery would work for a location shoot. RC car batteries have been adapter for lighting use, and al jacobs makes battery packs as well. //www.aljacobs.com/index2A.htm

08/10/2005 04:11:11 PM · #11

lol okay bear with me here...i always thought a strobe was just the opposite of a continuous light. so i always thought "strobe" was synonymous with "flash" or "monolight." So is a strobe like a flash unit, as in like a Canon Speedlite? Because that's not what I want. I want a monolight like the JTL or Bowens but holds a battery that I can take with me. Now, is a battery the same thing as a powerpack? I'm confused on that too. And what are some other good brands that I should look into?

edit: i forgot to say thanks to everyone for reading this and helping me out! thank you everyone!

Message edited by author 2005-08-10 16:11:40.

Gil P

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6

08/10/2005 04:44:31 PM · #12

Like you intend,I do a lot of Night glamour shoots and I use a Broncolor (www.broncolor.com) system, where up to 4 different 800w/s heads can be attached, it can run on 110v or on it's internal batteries and if I use only 1 flash it will have an autonomy of +- 600 fires before it drains.

however, battery operated master units are quite expensive

Message edited by author 2005-08-10 16:45:51.

singe

Canon EOS-300D Rebel

08/10/2005 04:46:03 PM · #13

I'm so confused.

Someone should write a lighting 101 tutorial.

Gil P

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II

08/10/2005 05:21:15 PM · #14

Originally posted by singe:

I'm so confused.

Someone should write a lighting 101 tutorial.

Many people get confused between HOTLIGHTS (continously on like theater lighting) and FLASHES (like your camera flash but more powerful and separate).

There are also many different types of Flashes, like Monoblocs and Master-powered. Monoblocs have their own powersupply and work right off an ac outlet. and Master-powered work off a "master power supply"..they are generally much more precise and offer the advantage of being able to individually control many lights at once without having to walk around and adjusting each light individualy during lighting tests...these systems are generally much more expensive (5x) than monoblocs.

So...most people will buy monoblocs...and in the world of monoblocs...there are as many different qualities and powers as there are manufacturers. a generaly concencius is that anything under 250w/s is not a very good choice...especially if you intend on diffusing the light... and this brings more confusion as many companies will introduce missleading numbers in their products.. for example, Alien bees will call their lights AB400... so we would assume 400w/s... when in fact it is 160w/s and their AB800 is 320w/s ect...

Chosing the right system is very confusing and more often then not, people will buy the wrong thing.

Prof_Fate

08/10/2005 05:52:47 PM · #15

Continous lights are just that. always on. also called hot lights, studio lights (as in tv studio), halogen lights, spot lights, ambient light, etc.

flash and strobe - the same thing.

to me a power pack would be a battery, but Lumedyne thinks diferently. You kinda hafta look at what each company has to offer, as each has it's own theory on what is best and names for things.

on-camera shoe mount flashes are rated in GN - Guide Number. This is the maximum distance the flash works at ISO 100 with a 100mm lens...in theory. Hopefully all the companies use the same measurement, and if so then you can compare one to the other. The Canon 420 has a GN of 42 meters. The 550, 55 meters, etc. The Metz line has the 54, 70 and others, and again, those a re the GN numbers in meters. You can use GN to calculate the expousre (F stop) for a photo, or at least for how much light the flash will contribute or its effective range (depends what you are tying to do / measure). Most hot shoe flashes can operate in TTL or ETTL mode - it is then called a dedicated flash - meaning totally automatically, and you get the proper exposure (in theory...a whole nuther post on the reality of that is needed).

Then there are flashes often have Auto modes - NOT TTL (TTL= Through The Lens meaning the camera brains meter the light and adjust accordingly). Auto means you tell the flash your ISO and aperture and it puts out what it thinks is the right amount of light. This works very well for some flahs units (quantum, metz, vivitar). Not sure if hte canon or sigma units do this mode or not.

Studio type strobes - as in non-camera mount - are measured in WattSeconds (WS). There are True WS, effective WS, etc. Good luck. THere is no true conversion from GN to WS. THe proper tool is to use a Light Meter than can read flash. Or take a shot and look at your histogram. THere is no real way to do auto exposure with off camera lighting. Supposedly a bunch of 550EX or 580EX can be made to do it, and quantum and metz and lumeduyne using metz or quantum parts can do it, in theory.

here are some websites that get into more detail
//www.chem.helsinki.fi/~toomas/photo/flash-faq.html
//dpfwiw.com/c-2000z/flash/index.htm
//photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/
//multipart-mixed.com/photo/external_flash.html

PhotoRyno

Canon EOS-5D

08/10/2005 07:16:45 PM · #16

Prof Fate, I just want to say what an excellent job you have done taking the mystery out of lighting. What you have just described explains a great deal of basic info. someone can build upon.

Thanks for the post.