Photoclubalpha

Sorry, just a question, will it work? I am really new to studio lighting and wanted to know if the kit in question will work with my A55? or will I need adapters?

I have seen a cheap nearly new Lastolite lumen8 400w set for sale and wondering if its worth getting for my A55 at a bargain price of £250

Many thanks!
Ian C

Ian C wrote:Sorry, just a question, will it work? I am really new to studio lighting and wanted to know if the kit in question will work with my A55? or will I need adapters?

I have seen a cheap nearly new Lastolite lumen8 400w set for sale and wondering if its worth getting for my A55 at a bargain price of £250

Many thanks!
Ian C

Hi Ian,

http://www.lastolite.com/lumen8.php
You'll need a hot shoe to sych port in order to make it work. Otherwise, the Specs said "User Replaceable Flash Tube No": I don't think i want a moonlight that need to get back to the service in order to change the bulb...

Another thing you need to take in consideration are the accessories: the flash itself can be 'cheap", but if the accessories are expensive, or there are not that many options, the system will become really expensive.

I think Aliensbees is a more popular brand in the UK.

Regards

Alienbees is not a popular brand in the UK at all, they spent too many years being unable to pass European electrical safety regulations. Lumen8 is a cheap Chinese flash and seriously overpowered for digital work, like many 400-500Ws units. For £250 you can get a cheap Indian-Swiss made (honest) Einchrom D-Lite2 IT which will give a far better quality of light, access to the best range of accessories, and will also go down to a very low power making it better able to light close-ups or enable portraits at f/5.6 (etc) without moving the head so far away you lose the wrap effect of the light.

David

David Kilpatrick wrote:Alienbees is not a popular brand in the UK at all, they spent too many years being unable to pass European electrical safety regulations.

Voila!

I use Photogenic products, but I don't know how popular/easy to get in the UK this system is.

Regards

Sorry, I see you were referring to a kit - two 400WS Lumen8 heads is enough to light a large room.

The Elinchrom D-Lite 2 IT two head kit is £460 (or was, VAT may have increased that), but for this you get two heads, really excellent stands and semi-rigid foam/fabric bags, a wireless transmission system (requires an SC-6 or FS-1100 type adaptor, works well) with receivers built into the flash heads as well as regular slave cells and sync sockets and a transmitter which lets you control the power of the flash from the camera position. And two softboxes and one general purpose reflector.

I'm considering swapping my Elinchrom BX Ri kit for the D-Kite 2 IT, because the D-Lite does not have fan cooling. That is a huge advantage for video. I can not use the modelling lights for video on my existing flash heads, because the fan may start up at any time. But the D-Lite is silent and stays silent. That's useful if you ever plan to use the A55 for movies using lights.

David

Thanks for the help!

I should have said, it would be mainly for car photography. So I would need a fair bit of light!

Thanks again though
Ian.

If you want it for car photography - indoors I assume - you need not only a lot of light, but a rather large amount of space. I'm visited many car studios and they often use 'white flats' - a suspended ceiling which can be lowered like a huge bounce flash reflector. That's because you don't aim the flash at the car, instead you light the room and the car is shown by the reflections in the paintwork, chrome, glass etc of the room. It's the same principle as taking a car to the beach at sunset, or to the desert - you don't want direct sun, just a huge sky and loads of additional reflected light at ground level.

Many of the best car photographers use continuous light, simply because it's easier to set up banks of HMI light aimed at flats, screens and coves (infinity scoop plastered into the wall itself) and get enough brightness to begin to judge by eye.

Certainly the 400Ws heads will do about as good a job as you can imagine, but to get close to the visual effect of magazine editorial, or advertising car shots, you will also need a lot of white paper or vinyl, or loads of space with white paint.

David

David Kilpatrick wrote:It's the same principle as taking a car to the beach at sunset, or to the desert - you don't want direct sun, just a huge sky and loads of additional reflected light at ground level.

Like this?


Bonneville Salt flats (about 90 mins from my house)

Brilliant info yet again, thanks everyone!

That picture is fantastic!

Here are a couple of my own taken from my website gallery, I tend to prefer natural light and rely on using my Photoshop knowledge for a very artificial but unique look. I guess it's a style I want to keep to now, so will likely give the Lights a miss.

In Devon you've actually got some perfect light for car shoots. Lonnie's shot works against the rules for car shoots and puts the sunset behind the car. Pro shoots use the sunset to light the car, and rely on reflected glow off clouds behind if the want a dusk effect. The main light source should be wrapped all round above and behind you.

David

Awesome tips, thank you!