Mains Strobe advice please

[rokkor]

I have a Sony Alpha A300 camera, I need to take good quality photos of my wife's pottery. We constructed a light box and used ordinary household tungsten lights and also daylight as a first try (shooting in RAW and PP). While the pictures are `OK' they are not up to the standards achieved by professionals.

While I am sure that I could improve my lighting technique even with this setup, a number of internet resources (e.g. the Strobist) recommend a flashlight arrangement with the lightbox. Unfortunately flashguns for this camera are expensive and I would really need two. Recently at a show in Holland a fellow potter of hers took some photos with a lightbox and two inexpensive mains strobes producing excellent pictures. He had a Nikon triggering the strobes.

I found some main strobes on e-Bay e.g. this DYNASUN WOF4004 80W/s mains powered Studio Flash £ 38: 36m Guide Number ISO 100 having an internal sensor to activate flash, 5500K colour temp (also sync cable but I guess this is useless for my camera). So I could by 2 of these.

My question is this: would this work with the A300? Would the exposure metering work? Any advice/comment/input would be appreciated.

[David Kilpatrick]

You can't get anything decent for that price. I suggest an Elinchrom D-Lite it 2 head, just one head, with a translucent umbrella, and a reflector panel instead of a second light. It will cost around 250 euros, maybe less, but it will learn the flash synch sequence of your camera so you can trigger it with the built-in flash, and this allows you to use the Quick Live View function as well as optical VF.

The flash units which just have strobe-slave cells that do not learn the flash pre-burst sequence do not fire correctly with the A300, and will not work.

David

[rokkor]

David,

Thanks for the quick reply and advice. There can't be many forums where you get a response from the top man himself, I really appreciate this. The risk you run is that there will be a follow up question. So here it comes.

Yes I did find the Elinchrom D-Lite it 2 for £179 (just the light no umbrella) has GN 35. But then I also found the Sony HVL-F42AM flash for £166 GN 42. So why shouldn't I buy the cheaper more versatile more powerful flash rather than the Elinchrom mains flash? Does the latter have any feature better suited to the application I have in mind? (Smallish pottery approx 20-40 cm.)

Also what sort of lens would you recommend for this sort of work. Currently I have the kit zoom lens and my old Minolta AF 50mm 1.7

Peter

BTW I live in Devon, it is just that we attended a ceramics fair in Holland

[David Kilpatrick]

I think you are wrong about the flash powers. The Sony is quoted for the angle of view of a 105mm lens and only covers that when so adjusted. The Elinchrom is quoted with a reflector that covers an angle of view closer to a 28mm lens, and with a large light source measuring an effective 15cm circle instead of a tiny tube, the quality of delivered light could not be more different.

In real terms, the Elinchrom D-Lite it 2 delivers about four times the overall power of the HVL-F42AM, and at full power you can take pictures every second or two, where the battery flash will need many seconds to recycle. The Elinchrom has a modelling light, which gives you a preview of your careful lighting, and has all the power needed to use a diffuser and still get any aperture you want. The Elinchrom has a wide range of power control, will never need replacement batteries, and gives a quality of light far removed from any battery camera top flashgun.

Of course both have their uses, I need to have both a camera top and my studio lights. But I assure you, the D-Lite will be better. You will only get the most from something like a twin head kit with stands, softboxes, wireless triggering etc which costs £450, but a single head at £179 is a very workable option.

David

[rokkor]

Thank you David, I now understand the difference.