Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Adorama Budget 160 Strobes - UPDATE
The price is right.... but you get what you pay for. Not the most reliable little guys. I "froze" one strobe at least 2 times at every wedding so far. The only way to un-freeze it is to turn it off and on. I have no clue what causes this... but it's really annoying! I blew the fuse in one of them at the last wedding (for no apparent reason), but I always have a spare with me.
Paul C Buff - Mini Lithium Power Pack - QUICK REVIEW
This thing ROCKS.
I've used it for 5 weddings now with the Budget 160 Strobes. Plenty of power, very portable, dual sockets. What more do you need to know? BUY ONE!
I've used it for 5 weddings now with the Budget 160 Strobes. Plenty of power, very portable, dual sockets. What more do you need to know? BUY ONE!
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Vegabond Mini Lithium Review
I've finally got my hands on this little beauty. It's charging right now and I can't wait to put it through some tests... including an 8 hour wedding this weekend.Stay tuned.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Flashpoint Budget Studio Monolight Flash 160 Review
A quick hands on with one of these lights. The main specs can be found from the Adorama site here. But useful user reviews have been hard to come by. I hooked this little guy up using Cybersyncs instead of the included cable.
First Impressions - Tiny and light, only slightly heavier than a large flash. The ac cord is quite long, longer than expected. It's probably worth $60, the construction isn't anything fancy or solid looking, no protector for the front element. This might be a big deal for some, but it is recessed enough that it shouldn't be an issue if properly stored... and you don't use the included modeling light. The dials and switches work as they should on the back, and the audio "beep" is loud enough if needed. The umbrella loop doesn't have a screw lock, but the friction mount should be fine for most purposes. However, the hole is a little bigger than most poles so the umbrella tends to tip down about a half inch. But again, not the big of a deal, and probably fixable with some padding.
In use: The recycle time was much quicker than I thought. Below half power is roughly instant, beyond that it's about a second and at full pop it may be closer to 2 seconds. Each pop seems consistent, although I have no real way of measuring this, just visually on the monitor. The color temp is consistent with most flashes. Power wise, again no real way to measure this but in comparison to my sb600, it won't go as low on the output but it will go quite a bit brighter, not quite twice as bright (to my eyes) but at least 1.5 times as bright.
Accessories: I don't have any to test, and I'm not sure how securely they would fit on since there is no mounting bracket, but the most useful ones are probably the gels and snoot that simply slide on.
Biggest question... Why did I get these????
Well, for $59 with replaceable tubes and fuses, how can you go wrong? For weddings (formals and reception) and portraits they should be perfect for me. Small, portable and more powerful than my sb600. Right now I use an interfit 300 (which is much bigger and heavier) and 2 flashes (sunpak 433d). I've never had to put the 300 strobe higher than half power and the flashes I currently use do not give consistent pops... which is really annoying! So, my options were to get a few more sb600's or look at small, cheap mono's. The sb600's are $220 each, these are $60. Granted, the sb600's are great flashes and come with a boat load of features... features I don't need for formals or the dance floor. The downside to the 160's are that they need a/c power, so you are stuck to an outlet... or a heavy Vegabond II (until I get my hands on the new lithium one that is). But again, for my purposes that doesn't matter, it's easy enough to find an outlet.... and when that 4lb lithium pack is available, sweeeeet!
First Impressions - Tiny and light, only slightly heavier than a large flash. The ac cord is quite long, longer than expected. It's probably worth $60, the construction isn't anything fancy or solid looking, no protector for the front element. This might be a big deal for some, but it is recessed enough that it shouldn't be an issue if properly stored... and you don't use the included modeling light. The dials and switches work as they should on the back, and the audio "beep" is loud enough if needed. The umbrella loop doesn't have a screw lock, but the friction mount should be fine for most purposes. However, the hole is a little bigger than most poles so the umbrella tends to tip down about a half inch. But again, not the big of a deal, and probably fixable with some padding.
In use: The recycle time was much quicker than I thought. Below half power is roughly instant, beyond that it's about a second and at full pop it may be closer to 2 seconds. Each pop seems consistent, although I have no real way of measuring this, just visually on the monitor. The color temp is consistent with most flashes. Power wise, again no real way to measure this but in comparison to my sb600, it won't go as low on the output but it will go quite a bit brighter, not quite twice as bright (to my eyes) but at least 1.5 times as bright.
Accessories: I don't have any to test, and I'm not sure how securely they would fit on since there is no mounting bracket, but the most useful ones are probably the gels and snoot that simply slide on.
Biggest question... Why did I get these????
Well, for $59 with replaceable tubes and fuses, how can you go wrong? For weddings (formals and reception) and portraits they should be perfect for me. Small, portable and more powerful than my sb600. Right now I use an interfit 300 (which is much bigger and heavier) and 2 flashes (sunpak 433d). I've never had to put the 300 strobe higher than half power and the flashes I currently use do not give consistent pops... which is really annoying! So, my options were to get a few more sb600's or look at small, cheap mono's. The sb600's are $220 each, these are $60. Granted, the sb600's are great flashes and come with a boat load of features... features I don't need for formals or the dance floor. The downside to the 160's are that they need a/c power, so you are stuck to an outlet... or a heavy Vegabond II (until I get my hands on the new lithium one that is). But again, for my purposes that doesn't matter, it's easy enough to find an outlet.... and when that 4lb lithium pack is available, sweeeeet!
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Nikon D700 Update
Well, as promised I'll tell you what I like about this camera for my work. I mostly shoot weddings and portraits with it. This is NOT a "review" by any means, this camera has been around long enough where another review would be worthless.
Why I like it, for what I do...
In my opinion it is THE camera for portrait and wedding use. Remarkable low light capabilities, amazingly fast and accurate auto focus, excellent flash system, shallow depth of field (even more so than with crop cameras), and it renders skin tones marvelously. So really, in the portrait world, what more could you ask for?
For landscape and general purpose photography? I don't really see the need for it. My Pentax K7 is great for that work, but not so good for portraits... anymore.
Why I like it, for what I do...
In my opinion it is THE camera for portrait and wedding use. Remarkable low light capabilities, amazingly fast and accurate auto focus, excellent flash system, shallow depth of field (even more so than with crop cameras), and it renders skin tones marvelously. So really, in the portrait world, what more could you ask for?
For landscape and general purpose photography? I don't really see the need for it. My Pentax K7 is great for that work, but not so good for portraits... anymore.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
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