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hi everyone, not sure if this is the right area but i need some advice on lightstands for flashes. i have been looking at some on B&H and they either say they have a 5/8 in stud or 5/8 instud with 1/4-20" in thread, so for the first that means you need an adaptor to mount your flash on with the second type, does that mean you can mount your flash directly to the stand? any advice would be appreciated

yo davey boy,

dont know if light stands are the best thing to use for the type of shooting we do man,

i have had a look into it...

the ones that i was interested are about 12 feet (3m), and they all seem to fold up to 98-100cm. which i think will be a fair pain in the ass, if your ridin around with it strapped to your back. they are pretty heavy too.

for 3 flash i am thinking about using two regular size tripds which reach 1.5m plus about 15cm when you wind the neck out, and then one of those mini small ones. i have space on my bag to strap two tripods against it.

i'd hate to see you sink some $$$ into light stands (and i expect the shipping would be pricey too), to find thye arent much use to you.

RE the adaptors. my 555s came with adaptor thingos for them to work on light stands, i believe they go from the traditional lightstand mount onto a regular 1/4" thread.

if you wanna see how they work feel free to come round, but im keepin em, just in case i ever get lightstands.

i dunno tho bro, if your gonna be just chucking your lightstands in the car and always be parking close to the spot then they might be suitable... but carrying my big ass backpack (and yorus is bigger than mine!!!) with two tripods strapped on and riding all over the place doing street stuff sucks man....

long post

oh and shipping for one lightstand is $60 brah

jamesw wrote:the ones that i was interested are about 12 feet (3m), and they all seem to fold up to 98-100cm. which i think will be a fair pain in the ass, if your ridin around with it strapped to your back. they are pretty heavy too.

This one is 1.9m high, which should be good enough for most situations, collapses to 49cm, and weighs .9kg. Strap it to your leg. I carry this hung on my belt and strapped to my leg, and I can walk around for hours without any hassles.

yea fortigurn i have sinced talked to jamesw and informed him that not all lightstands are massive and bulky, did you have any info on the mount situation?

Actually no I don't unfortunately. Sorry about that. This is an area I'm just looking into myself (I intend to purchase a portable lightstand and umbrella which I can carry around with me).

I'm confused over all this adapter stuff, and I reckon what I'll do is walk into Keyphoto and just play around with bits and pieces to see what works and what doesn't. That's the best way to find out what I need.

I assume you've already checked out Strobist?

I just use some old tripods.
They work fine for me, and often turn up cheap at trash & treasure etc.
Stability is not an issue with flash, as long as it doesn't actually fall over. The amount of shake at 1/10000Sec tends to be pretty minimal. Even then, its your light source, not your camera.

To attach most flash heads, you will need a screw to hot shoe adapter
Most camera stores can supply these for not a lot of money. You could also use http://mpex.com/ItemDetail.aspx?SKUID=6570&SKU=0034447501233&SN=0000&Q=False. They will allow you to add an umbrella to the set-up. You do need to insulate the shoe adapter on these as that part is carved in solid aluminium.

You can also use bungee balls or masking tape to hold your flash in a convenient spot

Also, if you get Nikon SB600/SB800s, they come with a nifty little stand that works on its own, or can be screwed to a tripod. I use them all the time.

Mr Darcy wrote:Stability is not an issue with flash, as long as it doesn't actually fall over.

Actually, stability can be and is an issue, for exactly the reason you mention.

With a brolly or softbox, you're throwing the centre of gravity of the whole thing well away from the the centre of the unit, and having it tip is a very real worry. Also, fully spread, it can be bulky and easily knocked about, thus causing it to overbalance.

I sit corrected.
I was aware they tip easily with a brolly attached, but as I tend to be in a room alone with an inanimate object when using them this way, it is not really an issue for me.

Still I must remember that others will not work the same way I do. Just as well really, or all the images here would be as bad as mine

You can always use something like this, and drop a spare lens in it.

thanks for the input guys, much appreciated