Midwest Photo Exchange unveils new LumoPro flashes

[dmcantrell]

I don't know if any of you follow the strobist blog, but they have an agreement with Midwest Photo Exchange and together they provide "kits" for sale.

MPEX produces these manual flashes under the brand LumoPro. I have a set of the LP120, and they just released a new version the LP160.

LumoPro LP160 Manual Flash

[brewercm]

How did you like the LP120. I'm interested in getting the LP160 and see if it works as good as my Sigma 530 Super.

[dmcantrell]

Originally Posted by brewercm

How did you like the LP120. I'm interested in getting the LP160 and see if it works as good as my Sigma 530 Super.

It works well I think. It's a full-manual speedlight, but it seems to do exactly what it says. I can't comment on the "quality" of the light, because I haven't really done an extensive test. The optical slave works well -- I haven't had it fail on me yet. The speedlight itself is quite large -- larger than my SB-800. It has all the features that I'd expect : PC connection, optical slave, manual power settings, hot shoe mount, adjustable angle, adjustable zoom (manual). The only thing it doesn't come with is a little foot that would allow it to stand on its own. It looks like the LP160 has that though.

I use these in times when I just need some slave lighting -- say for some fill or some background lighting -- where I can set it and forget it.

[brewercm]

That's exactly what I was thinking about using it for myself. Do you know if it works with the Nikon CLS system? It doesn't specifically say on the site so I doubt it would. That would be a nice bump to the Sigma over this depending on how I'd use it.

[groovyone]

Nice. I considered the 120 when I got my cactus triggers from them. The 160 looks pretty good.

[Tom]

Do you know if it works with the Nikon CLS system?

It is strictly manual, so no. CLS is based on the ittl.


Two issues I see:
4 seconds to recycle
looks like they only have full stops instead of 1/3rd stops.

The optical trigger is a very nice feature. I wonder if the DJ lights would set them off at a wedding.

[brad]

Originally Posted by Thomas Campbell

It is strictly manual, so no. CLS is based on the ittl.


Two issues I see:
4 seconds to recycle
looks like they only have full stops instead of 1/3rd stops.

The optical trigger is a very nice feature. I wonder if the DJ lights would set them off at a wedding.

Still, for the money.. I'm excited about them.

And if the DJ fires strobes, it would set them off, but probably not just flashing lights.

[dmcantrell]

One of the new features of the LP160 is that the optical slave ignores the pre-flashes that are inherent with iTTL use of Canon / Nikon speedlights.

[todd_a]

One additional thing that Strobist.com brought to my attention was the fact that the 160's now have a 1/8" standard audio type sync jack so that you can now buy inexpensive longer sync cables if you are going the cable route, and side step the high cost of those PC cables.

[Tom]

Originally Posted by todd_a

One additional thing that Strobist.com brought to my attention was the fact that the 160's now have a 1/8" standard audio type sync jack so that you can now buy inexpensive longer sync cables if you are going the cable route, and side step the high cost of those PC cables.

And the PC cables suck ass.

[Jeff Lane]

Do you know if it works with the Nikon CLS system?

It doesn't in the sense that it shares CLS information with the master unit or the camera. I've used the LP120 "sort of" with the CLS system in this sense, however. I set my D80 acting as the master unit to trigger the SB-900 and SB-600 each set in the CLS system's "manual" mode, and use the optical slave on the LP120 to trigger it as a third light. Works like a champ. But I do everything in manual mode anyway. (I can't figure out how to make TTL give me consistent results.)

[Tom]

The big failing point of TTL is that it doesn't how how far from the subject the light is when it isn't on the camera.