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Hi All, well i am thinking about some studio lights for portrait stuff etc and well there is so many to choose from but looking for something like this setup.
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/BRAND-NEW-PROFESSIONAL-2-x-400W-FLASH-PACKAGE-GN64_W0QQitemZ7610943079QQcategoryZ30088QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Now i know there are a few on here that dable in this stuff so maybe you can give me a few hints to this gear or even if anyone has dealt with this ebayer.

I would like to have a play with something like this, dif from my usuall subjects. I know there is a shop in Adelaide that has lots of gear so yeh just after some info on what i should look out for in a flash heads etc...

Thanks

I too am very interested in a setup like this. Mainly wanting to know the quality of such a kit as well as if it would be enough for formal portraits

and how compatable this would be with a d70, ie how would the studio lights be triggered

I have been dabbling lately with minimal gear lately, and with what I have discovered so far, multiple flash units are a better option than expensive studio lighting. the Nikon system is extremely flexible, combined with some reflectors and a couple of cheap light stands, multiple SB800s or even one SB800 and a couple of SB 600s and you have a great setup.

These units are way underpowered for studio type work. You would be better off with Elinchrom or Pro Foto studio flash heads.........new or second hand........ I would find out who does their repairs, as some of these units are had to get parts for repair.......... or just add another SB800

I have no connection to these guys but have had them highly recommended to me, re their prices and their experience, and I have called them once enquiring about some of their lighting products and found them to be extremely helpful. It might be worthwhile just ringing and having a chat before you invest, as they claim to have "the best prices in Australia".

Dragon Image
19 Whiting Street. Artarmon, NSW 2064
(Rear parking at Sawyer Lane)
Phone: +61 2 9906 5488
Mobile: 0412 566 477
Fax: +61 2 9906 5477
Toll Free: 1300 130 370 (Within Australia)
E-mail: syd@dragonimage.com.au
website: http://www.dragonimage.com.au

I noticed that they have a hire department........ might be a better way to try out the flash units....... but at 600w they are not much better that a SB800.....

I tried a few options in my time.

Option A
I've got a few Elinchrom strobes that i once used for weddings, but it was a pain in the butt carrying the stands, strobes, umbrellas, softboxes...... and so on. The results were fantastic. If you own a D70, you'll need to either buy a strobe socket for your hot shoe, or use your on board flash to fire the strobes remotely.

Option B
To save carrying all that equipment around i bought a few SB800s to run in wireless ittl mode. When it works, it works well, but 80% of the time the at least one SB800 in my group of 3 didn't pickup the pre-flash and as such didn't fire.

Option C
SB800s and pocket wizards. Same as Option B, but it uses radio waves to communicate and thus you can put the SB800s anywhere and they will fire.

If you are setting up a studio, option A is the way to go. Studio lighting is a craft that you can pick up quickly, but takes years to master. I personally am an absolute beginner in this area, and try to stay away from it.

Fortunately my workplace is never the in the same place twice, so portability is what I go for. Option B just isn't reliable for me, with tight time constraints and the occasional odd location. Option C is what i use now.

BBJ wrote:Hi All, well i am thinking about some studio lights for portrait stuff etc and well there is so many to choose from but looking for something like this setup.
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/BRAND-NEW-PROFESSIONAL-2-x-400W-FLASH-PACKAGE-GN64_W0QQitemZ7610943079QQcategoryZ30088QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

John,

I was thinking that you could just borrow my strobes for a weekend. That way you could see if you really want this type of equipment. But you're a long way from Sydney.

Maybe hire some gear near you to see if it's the way you want to go.

Thanks Andrew for the reply, yes well it is something to look at although i dont have a lot of room here and isjust something i thought i might like to try maybe even with 1 strobe. Still i know the SB800's can do the same sort of job and i guess a couple more and some stands/softbox/unbrella's to bounce and flash through would be ok as well and some gels and stuff.

I think this is more portable but by time you get all the bits would near work out the same. I must do a search on these pocketwizard things as not sure i have seen these, but will look into it a bit more what you have informed me off and see if this could be another sollution.

I would have to have like maybe 2 or so as would need 1 on the D2x to trigger the others maybe, oh well we have sparked some interest here so we will look into it more.
Thanks Andrew for the offer and if i was closer i would take you up on it.

Cheers
John

I have a similar plan too. I just don't have the camera yet!

I've got Multiblitz studio lights and plan to use them with a D70. I've already got the adapter AS-15 so that'll trigger the flashes. There's no way for the camera meter the studio lights, so I'm assuming I'll have to put the camera into manual and use a light meter (luckily I have one of those too). Hopefully that'll do the trick. Like I said, I just need the camera (where are you Kris?)

Would that be studio lights or flash heads ???

I assume we're talking flash heads.

optogamut wrote:I assume we're talking flash heads.

Well you will need a flash meter not a light meter to measure the light.........

Hi John,

At one stage I was trying to buy a similar set of gear and looked at these. Haven't heard anything bad about them or about them or the Dragon Image gear. That said, a mate of mine looked at these and Dragon and bought some comparable gear from another Sydney importer at (significantly) better price. I've used his gear a lot (read - we flogged its guts out) and it never skipped a beat. He got it a similar set to this for under $1000 or $1200 i think. I'm trying to get the guys email address at the moment..

I've also heard a lot of very good things about alien bee lights (http://www.alienbees.com/packages.html). I think you have to buy them in from the states but they're apparently good gear. Might also check with some of the retailers (eg vanbar) as often there is a deal running where you can get two bowens or elinchrom 500W lights and all the fruit for $2500.

Also, as far as pocket wizards go - you can buy cheap radio transmitters for about $80 that slip in the hotshoe and work a charm. Ebay or Dragon etc all sell them.

cheers,

adam

I've inested some time into researching this as well recently.
I have an sb800, sb600, stands, an umbrella, softbox and reflector and am finding it works well, everytime. The wireless CLS is just gret. Although I'm still learning lighting basics, I find that this system is reliable enough, and more than powerful enough for my studio space. Full power of those tow units combined with a reflector will light up tealstra stadium.


...well, not quite, but you know what i mean, they are bloody powerful.

The portability aspect of it is a big plus in my mind.

Would be interested to see what you decide on.

Adam

Unfortunately, I was advised by Alian Bees that they have recently decided they will no longer ship to Aus.

Adam, thanks for that info and have looked at dragons site but could not see any prices or setups in like kit with all the gear, maybe 1 has to email them for that type of stuff and well i guess i could no big hurry as yet as lots of research to do, but would be handy to get all in 1 hit. I know there is also Masdens as they put kits out as well.
Site here http://www.madsens.com.au/
pdf here from masdens

More study to do.http://www.madsens.com.au/boot_stud.htm

I have a set of Bowens flashes a mate has Elinchrom recently they developed some problems and are just about impossible to get repaired in Australia, no one is importing parts.

They are not cheap units and are only a few years old.

We are trying to import parts from America.

I am not happy with the backup not provided by the importers.

This is why to by with in oZ might be the go Dug, i know one place on ebay is in Melbourne and have 2 year warranty, but yeh no good if you cant replace anything.

Matt said:

I've inested some time into researching this as well recently.
I have an sb800, sb600, stands, an umbrella, softbox and reflector and am finding it works well, everytime. The wireless CLS is just gret.

Matt I have same set up i.e. SB800 and SB600 (I've also got an SB80DX i use for some background lighting from time to time in manual wireless mode, trial and error) and am thinking of getting soft box. What do you use and where from? Sorry John I didn't intend to hijack your thread
cheers
marco

Thats ok Marco, i hate flash at best of times but looking for something differant to try, so all this is info for me.

big pix wrote:

optogamut wrote:I assume we're talking flash heads.

Well you will need a flash meter not a light meter to measure the light.........

I tend to just call them light meters either way, but mine is a flash meter. Or actually it's both, Sekonic L-408.

I use Multiblitz and the importer in Sydney is quite helpful in sourcing things for me. Hopefully the same service would extend to fixing the actual units if something went haywire.

Hi everyone,

I was just wondering if the Nikon onboard flash would be enough to reliably fire the studio strobes, or would one really need the hotshoe attachment ? Any idea what the attachment costs?

I have a studio job coming up and am planning to run a few tests as well.

Nosh.

Nosh,

yes, and zero.

You just need to set it up so that there's no preflash

Thanks Gary,

Will be running the tests this weekend.

Nosh.

Have fun.

Hey Nosh, i guess you'd really need to test if your strobe will fire, I think mine did (and that was from a coolpix 5700). and if you want the onboard flash adding to your lighting setup.

I got my as-15 adapter on ebay for about $25 shipped a while ago, so they're not too expensive.

cheers,
Danny.

optogamut wrote: and if you want the onboard flash adding to your lighting setup.

Danny, good point.

You simply need to dial down the power of your onboard flash for this, when you don't want it to figure in your exposure, which would probably be in most cases.

gstark wrote:
You simply need to dial down the power of your onboard flash for this, when you don't want it to figure in your exposure, which would probably be in most cases.

or mask that light from the subject, but let it hit the flash heads...

Nikkofan - that's a bit of a bugger. I was chatting to a pro guy here in canberra not so long ago and he was using AlienBees for location work and loved them.

Dug - Sucks about those busted units. I would have thought good brands like them would be easy to get fixed. Apparently not

John - from what i've heard of the guy who runs dragon, he'd whack something together for you if you asked. Same with this other Sydney bloke. Having trouble finding his contact details for you though

If it were me (and my main intrest in strobes is portraiture and glamour) i'd be looking at one big strobe that could be used for location work (as well as mains power) with stands, brollies, softboxes, reflectors etc. Would cost a bit but would be very flexible. You can always use SB600/800s to provide additional light for hair, rim, fill etc.

Oh, while your spending, add in a course for a day or two to learn how to use all that gear properly

adam

And just a remionder that there will be heaps of this sort of stuff on display this weekend at PIW, to which we're going on Saturday.

If you've not yet signed up for your free tix, tough, it's too late.

But we'll be there in force (and farce too) on Saturday.

Should be fun.

BJ,

As you know most of my work is with models and much of it is indoors. Since your not around the corner and can come and play with my equipment (lights that is) my advice is to consider how you will use it and how often it will be used. Aswering this may lead you to either a few extra SB units or go the whole hogg with mono blocks and soft boxes.

If you need any input drop me a line and I'll give you my 20 cents worth.

Mark

Heya, don't like digging up old threads but i finally got the contact details for the distributor in Sydney i was talking about (kinda like dragon but smaller).

His name is Ralph Hesse - rhesse@iinet.net.au

cheers,

adam

Thanks Mark, for that advice and this is still of interest to me and well i guess i would use from time to time with the family and so on but i guess it is another step to getting more gear and learning how to use it and having it if needed this is why i would no got to big expence as i dont have a lot of room either.

Adam thanks mate will look into that, as well my main computer has died so few bucks to update that for awhile and will look into it still lots to read and so on which ever way to go, and well a couple sb800's and stands soft boxes al the other gear would cost as much maybe more that getting a small studio setup.

Cheers

Agreed John. I looked at buying stands, brollies and slaves etc for my current hotshoe mount flash units (2) and it was almost cheaper to buy the proper studio strobes! Do it once and do it right I reckon

adam

Adam, thats what i thought and have sent him an email so see what happens, but that what i figure anyhow and then there all the batteries etc... so yeh oh well plenty of time and will keep looking into this so yeh thanks for the help.

I still like the ones i have seen on ebay seems like a good deal as they have some 350w and some 400w so yeh i am in no rush at the moment and will have to save some more bucks.

can't really suggest any types of lighting.
we statred off with tungten lights at school for simple portraits.


Although i say that you pick up a lighting book at your local libary for a guide to look at what type of images your after. you can also use these technique for lighting ppl outdoors as well with a couple of reflectors.