Better beamer advice

[marc]

I'm off to Zambia next August for an 12 night safari, I'll be taking with me the D2Hs, 17-55 and 70-200 VR+ 1.7 TC. Yes,...... I know this may not be quite enough reach, but it's gunna have to suffice. (This trip costs a fortune as it is )
I'll also be taking the SB600 and was wanting to know if it will be a good idea to purchase the Better Beamer flash extender?
After a bit of research some seem to suggest that it's only useful from 300mm onwards?
Has anyone here used it with the 70-200VR?
And what results have been attained?
Any advice greatly appreciated.

Cheers
Marc

[marc]

Anybody.....................??

[greencardigan]

I haven't actually used a better beamer but I think the problem with lenses with focal lengths less than 300mm is that the flash might not cover the full frame.

There's a chance you might get enough flash coverage using 200mm but probably not 70mm.

Someone who has used this combination might be able to help more.

[Glen]

Marc, try a PM to Kipper, he has one. aslo do a search of better beamer, that will give you names of members who have one and you can PM them

[CraigVTR]

Marc
I bought a better beemer a couple of months ago but have not yet had a chance to conduct tests. However, I understand that the flash will not cover the full frame at less than 300mm as Greengardigan says
Craig.

[avkomp]

or even ask steve, who uses one quite often also

the primary reason for the bb was that when you are using a long lens,
you have a narrower field of view.

the zoom of the sb800 goes to 105mm automatically with cpu lenses.
so when you go above 105mm you are looking at a narrower field of view than a 105mm lens but are still throwing light into areas that you cant see anyhow.
this does 2 things wastes flash power, which also wastes battery power and causes longer cycle time. you may miss a followup shot due to this.

so with lenses of 300 and over you are looking at a narrow picture angle of stuff typically further away than you would normally shoot. but you are firing lots of light from the flash where it isnt being used

300mm is suggested as the minimum lens you might benefit from but
the bb is usually used with a manual zoom on the sb800 of 50mm.
the lower the zoom you dial in, the tighter the bb pattern is
conversely the higher you dial the wider the pattern is so if you were to use 85 manual zoom on the sb800 the beamer would cover a 200mm lens angle. the advantages would be more range by flash and or a faster cycle time.
you can easily calibrate your beamer by shooting a shot of a wall 10 or so metres away and the beam should be in the middle of the frame, if not you can adjust the velcro to make it so, also with 200mm lens you can set manual zoom higher on the sb800 and confirm that you have no flash vignetting.

hope that helps

Steve

[beetleboy]

Zambia hey! Nice one!

I'll be in the Okavango for a couple of weeks this december..one of the advantages of importing your partner from South Africa!

[marcotrov]

Anyone found a local supplier or similar product to the better beamer fresnal screen i.e. Australia ?
cheers
marco

[avkomp]

not really,

just order from the states. get em in 3 days anyhow.
http://www.naturescapes.net/store/home.php?cat=21
get a few and save postage. get a handful of members who want em for example


Steve

[horstflotow]

[quote="avkomp"]

you can easily calibrate your beamer by shooting a shot of a wall 10 or so metres away and the beam should be in the middle of the frame, if not you can adjust the velcro to make it so, also with 200mm lens you can set manual zoom higher on the sb800 and confirm that you have no flash vignetting.

Steve[/quote]

I think the calibration like Steve mentions is the critical thing to do, as you're not going to use any TTL metering functions on the flash with this kind of setup and a lens >105, I actually use an SB28 on manual (full output), set to 50 mm zoom, usually with the contact taped to give me >1/500 synch and the camera on manual. With a decent set of batteries the recharge time is short enough to give you a chance to change the shutter speed/aperature before taking the next shot (in any case an educated guess gives you a decent first shot most times)

It's all a matter of playing around with your setup.

Regards

Horst

[radar]

Marc,

I'm off to Zambia next August for an 11 night safari, I'll be taking with me the D2Hs, 17-55 and 70-200 VR+ 1.7 TC. Yes,...... I know this may not be quite enough reach, but it's gunna have to suffice.

You would be surprised that this would suffice most of the time. I was in Botswana and Kenya last August and I had my D70s, kit lens and the 70-300mm ED.

It was rare that I needed more reach. Certainly not for the big animals. Our guides were pretty good at putting us in a position that the light was pretty good. We also tended to be doing the game drives in pretty good light, morning and afternoon.

Only for some of the birds would I have wanted something with more reach.

Your 70-200VR is pretty fast

I'll also be taking the SB600 and was wanting to know if it will be a good idea to purchase the Better Beamer flash extender?

I now have the SB600, bb and a 300mm lens with 1.7tc. It would have been nice to have in Africa. But then again, we saw a number of pro photogs there, none were using flash, all natural light.

We didn't do any night safaris, so not sure how useful a BB would have been.

Nicole, another member here, was in Zambia last August. She used the 80-400VR and had great results.

I think you will be fine with your 70-200VR + TC. Sure it would be nice to have a 500mm lens, but you would also want to take a second body to have your 70-200 on. The African bush is not very friendly to cameras, so you want to minimise lens changes in the field.

Have a look at my Africa photos:
http://www.leaveonlyfootprints.com/gall ... _itemId=14

Most of those photos were taken with the 70-300.

have a look at Nicole's galleries in Zambia, great photos she has there:
http://www.oznaturephotos.com/

DaveB was also recently in Africa, he may be able to offer some more insight.

Anyway, it will be a great trip, mine exceed all of my expectations!!!

HTH,

Andre

[Nicole]

Zambia...I am sooo jealous!

Yes I was there August/September last year for 3 weeks in South Luangwa and Lower Zambezi. Where are you off to?

I've had the same experience as Andre and most of the time the guides were able to get us in a good position for the animals. You definitely won't have an issue with elephants but birds is another thing.

Having been to other countries in the continent (I have an Africa obsession) I would have to say that the wildlife in Zambia didn't seem to be as relaxed as somewhere like Botswana or South Africa. Make sure you take plenty of storage as I'm sure you'll get lots of pics!

Also I didn't have a BB and with the 80-400 it probably would have been a good idea but they do use spotlights and I found that assisted with providing sufficient lighting.

[marc]

Yes, Nicole & Andre,

I too have this "Africa " condition and will be my 4th safari.
The reason why I was suggesting a longer reach (ie. 500mm+) is because
Zambia will be quite different to Sth.Africa (SSGR) where I've last been.
In that the wildlife aren't quite habituated to vehicles. Especially as part of our Safari will be a 7 night walking Safari with Remote Africa: It includes 3 nights at Tafika, 2 nights at Crocodile Camp and 2 nights at Chikoko.
And then 5 nights at Puku Ridge. Both are in South Luangwa.
Zambia will be a different experience to the SSGR I'm sure, with a greater variety of wildlife other than just the Big 5.
I'm sure you know what I mean.

Cheers
Marc

[Nicole]

Yes I've heard of those places. We did a walking safari as well. We mixed it in with drives though because it is tricky to get close to the wildlife on foot. Although sometimes we were a little too close (one guide got a buzz out of getting close to lions on foot). The majority of my photos were definitely from the vehicle.

Yes Zambia is very very different from Sth Africa. But that's the appeal. It's a lot wilder and worth it when you get those nice photos you want. I don't know much about Puku Ridge but we stayed at Kulefu in Lower Zambezi (owned by the same company) and had a great time. Will look forward to hearing all about it!

[marc]

The micolighting from Tafika (US$90 for 15 mins) will be a highlight.
Will have to make sure I don't drop the gear

http://www.wanderlust.co.uk/features/feat76d.html

Cheers
Marc

[marc]

Nicole

How did you find the 80-400 VR?
What other lenses did you use?
Did you have the luxury of another body?

Andre.
Some very nice pics there, especially for the 70-300 ED

Cheers
Marc

[DaveB]

I think the calibration like Steve mentions is the critical thing to do, as you're not going to use any TTL metering functions on the flash with this kind of setup and a lens >105

It is very important to make sure you have flash coverage across your frame, but there should be no reason you can't use TTL flash metering with the BB on.
Sure you set the flash zoom to manual, but the decision to use TTL flash metering or to use manual flash is quite separate from that.

With a decent set of batteries the recharge time is short enough to give you a chance to change the shutter speed/aperature before taking the next shot (in any case an educated guess gives you a decent first shot most times)

Through not wasting flash power illuminating areas outside the sensor's field of view, not only can the flash reach further, but as Horst mentions at the same distance it will use less power and refresh faster. Sometimes that gets forgotten (although with a good battery source the recharge time shouldn't be an issue anyway).


On my June trip to Tanzania my BB got a lot of use. 30D body, 100-400mm lens (equiv to 160-640mm), 580EX flash on Wimberley bracket, BB on flash, CP-E3 external battery pack for flash. I sometimes used a 1.4x TC on this setup (thus equivalent to 224-900mm).
Some of the time I didn't bother turning the flash off, and a couple of times my travelling companions mentioned that I was wasting flash. But not only was I not worried about battery (the CP-E3 ran for ~2 days of continuous use before needing a new set of batteries) but there were many situations where having fill flash was wonderful, even though there was a lot of sunlight. That's what I took the flash for, not for photographing at night (although that happened also).
Note that in those conditions (where flash isn't the primary light source) it's often not noticed if the flash isn't filling the whole frame, and when I zoomed back to 100mm I usually didn't remove the BB: I just kept shooting!

Mostly the flash was on the 30D/TC/100-400mm rig, although occasionally I used it on the 350D/17-40mm rig that I also had (but that definitely required removing the BB).

The reason why I was suggesting a longer reach (ie. 500mm+) is because Zambia will be quite different to Sth.Africa
[...]
Especially as part of our Safari will be a 7 night walking Safari

Carrying a 500mm/4 for a week on foot is not something I'd consider lightly!

[avkomp]

I use ttl with the bb

afterall you are measuring light coming back from the subject

dont underestimate the value of a quicker followup shot
steve

[Nicole]

Microlighting sounds fun! Definitely get some nice aerial pics up there.

I found the 80-400 great. Most of the time I was shooting in sunlight (never once clouds). The extra reach was nice. The only other lens I used was the 18-70 kit lens. I did take a backup body but never really needed it.