Portable Lighting Questions

[jchooper12]

Ok, so I am really wanting to start honing my skills with the portable lights and have a couple questions. Right now I have 2 sb800s and radio poppers. One of my sb800's fell and broke the head off, it is super glued together and holding for now and all seems to work, ooops. Anyways, I like the lights BUT I was wanting to get some stobes that are more powerful for outdoors and am wondering what a good option would be. I want to be able to shoot in bright sun with my small softbox and be able to have a little distance from the subject. Are the quantum Qflash good lights and will they work with High speed sync and the radio poppers?

[Charles Putnam]

Elinchrome - their latest lights include built-in receivers, and with their Skyport transmitter, you can easily control them from your camera.

These are the ones that Scott Kelby uses in his Light It, Shoot It, Retouch It seminar.

[Tom]

Originally Posted by Charles Putnam

Elinchrome - their latest lights include built-in receivers, and with their Skyport transmitter, you can easily control them from your camera.

These are the ones that Scott Kelby uses in his Light It, Shoot It, Retouch It seminar.

I use these as well, but as far as I know, they don't work for high speed sync, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. David Hobby recently went into why you should use a neutral density filter instead of HSS for shallow DOF portraits.

[stephenpinn]

Quantum Flashes are amazing products but there are come model considerations you might want to make. Three basic light heads
1) Trio - hot shoe mount, supports HSS, supports native TTL, model for nikon another for canon, you can purchase without Quantum radio (Xwire) or with
2) QFt5dr - cable available to work with canon or nikon TTL, stand (or bracket mounted), requires receiver/transceiver to work with Quantum wireless system, will NOT support HSS
3)QFX5dr - like above except uses a different battery pack and can generate up to 400ws

Quantum also sells a shoe mounted transmitter (Pilot) to control 3 lighting zones.

Using a quantum receiver and s brand specific cable (nikon or canon) you can control speedlights. Supports HSS

The thing that I really love about the Quantums is the quality of light, so much more even than the harshness of speelights, also being able to shoot barebulb gives you some incredible lighting possibilities. Quantum sells a series of modifiers but you can probably use the softboxes, Octas that you already have.

Looking through their website I was totally confused with there offerings, I talked to the tech support guys and they were incredibly helpful, you might want to give them a call.

I think you would be very happy with them. I am sure I have missed a couple of things so my apologies for that. BTW check out their website they have some great tutorials talking about features and capabilities.

Best - S

[jchooper12]

Cool, I will look for the tutorials. I have a friend who uses the Quantums and loves them, I just need to make sure I get a version with HSS. I will have to see if Radio Poppers will work with them. I think my radio poppers only have ability for Nikon or Canon. Thanks for the info everyone.

[Daniel W.]

The Elinchromes (if we're talking about Quadra) are nice but in anytihng more than one head setup, the default full asymmetrical power distribution makes things an annoying complication.

The Broncolor Mobil A2L is a pretty sweet setup, if money is no limitation. The LED-hot light function has come in quite handy the few times I've used it, either to grab some video or just as a area light. It's the most color accurate across power ranges (especially in a challenging asymmetrical head setup). The reflector mount is similar but not the same to the Pulso mount, neither of which I'm a big fan of.

[a2rob]

Another vote for Elinchrom quadra, 400 watts of portable power!

[JAmadoPhotography]

I bought and portable pack from alien bees and it works great outdoors. I use umbrellas and the same 800 bees but they do have softboxes and more powerful bees.

[iamjediknight]

I can't recommend an Alien Bee Einstein enough for on location work. You can get an Einstein + Vegabond Mini Power supply for $740.

To be honest I really wanted the Elinchrom Quadra however for the single light configuration you are looking at $1450.00 The Einstein/Vegabond combo is about half the cost with more power. From a cost perspective it was a no brainer. Is the Einstein/Vegabond as lightweight at the Elinchrom? No, but its still very light weight and nimble.

You can either throw in one of Alien Bee's foldable softbox and still be under a grand.

Just my two cents.

[darktiger]

I have both AB/Einsteins/VML and Elinchrom Quadras... they both are awesome solutions.... The cool thing is the quadra heads weigh less than a Canon 580EXII (with batteries) and most likely the SB800/900.. it is really that lightweight.... I have seen some people mount the quadras in their hotshoe mount...... That said, if I was going to be stationary (studio, not moving alot), then I use my Einsteins/VML/BD combo.... very lightweight and powerful...

[texxter]

Another vote for Einstein+Lithium battery. I use these lights equally well in studio and on location, the Cybercommander allows me to control them all centrally, and doubles as a light meter. The Einsteins have a huge range from 2.5 to 640 ws., action-stopping flash duration, digital control, excellent color consistency and competitive price. And they are built strong. The range is a big deal for me, as sometimes I just want very very little light, and the Einsteins can give me a very subtle kiss of light, so I don't use my portable flashes anymore. But when I need to overpower the sun, 640ws will do it with no problem whatsoever.

[Bombsight]

Another vote for PCB Einsteins ...