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inexpensive slave flashes
- Thread starter Abraxsis
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I have a Vivitar 283 and a 285. They sell for $40 each on eBay. These were a couple of the best flashes ever made. They were and are still widely used by professionals but they don't do TTL
http://www.amazon.com/Vivitar-285HV...=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=photo&qid=1221696222&sr=1-5
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/shop/1736/Optical_Slaves.html
Attach one of the above to a Wein optical slave. The slave will trigger the strobe and also has a tripod socket
I use the $34.95 version of the Wein hot shoe optical slave shown below
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/shop/1736/Optical_Slaves.html
I might be talked out of my Vivitar strobes. I'm using my Nikon SB25 now. And yes it works well with my D50, just not TTL.
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thanks for the advice. I think I did a pretty good round up after some study. I got 2 Vivitar 5200 flashes with zoom heads (with PM/N modules, so theyll work on all my cameras as well) and 2 Vivitar SL-2 slave modules for 50.00 shipped. I think that should be the perfect for my needs, then I can just upgrade them with umbrellas and stands when I need to. I have a Vivitar 5600 which is close to the 5200, and the recycle times is great. With a fresh pair of batteries and 1/2 power I can usually shoot 3 frame bursts with no lag at all. So the 5200s should allow a pretty fast recycle time with some tweaking and the right batteries. Thanks again!
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That pretty much duplicates the setup I described. I used that setup until I found a used studio power pack setup. BTW calumet is selling just that right now and it's a "steel" at $750. They have some older 3000 wattsecend power packs bundled with a pair of lampheads for $750. These are full-on professional units (Bowens with Calumet lable) and have enough power to melt paint off the walls (well maybe not. but close) These are a lot better then what I have for only about 50% more than I paid.
If those are even "effective wattseconds," I'd stay way from it unless I was lighting large groups outside- in which case I'd jump on it. My 1000WS pack and head system can only go to 1/3rd power, and it's waaaay too much power for a small studio or location portraits, especially if you want to be able to do low key shots. Even with scrims and modifiers, it's a real pain to get control of the light- better to get a single smaller light and use reflectors if you have to, or flash guns.
The problem with too much light is that the easiest way to dim the light is to move it back- but that creates a "point source" that is harsher than you usually want the light to be dimmer for- so it's a catch-22 unless you can adjust the lighting levels down, but in a pack and head system, you're not drawing load off the caps, and I'd be concerned long-term about that (which is why my pack requires one non-adjustable light head to be connected at all times.)
I'd much rather have closer (softer) lower-powered lights, even when I do high-key if I have the choice. It's all about control of the light, and it's difficult to control a lot of power without turning the lights into harsh point sources unless for 3k you have around 8+ stops of adjustability.
YMMV