Lencarta - moving, future proofing, what to do?

AdamNZ

AdamNZ

Messages
394
Name
Adam
Edit My Images
Yes
So I'm very impressed by everything I have read and experienced re this firm and have decided to invest in a strobe kit. I've been using younguo speed lights for the last year or so. Although I'm based in London in intend to move to NZ towards the end of the year so i want to ensure I get everything I need before I leave. As far as I can tell they won't ship to NZ :(.

Having looked at the three strobe kits I can't decide what I should get. In terms of my current requirements the entry level strobe kit would suffice, however, as time goes on I wonder whether the fast system would be more useful. I'm having a baby girl in June and I can see a lot of benefits in the faster system as she grows up. It's obviously a bigger investment up front so I'm not sure if trying to future proof is justified.

If anyone has any experience of these kits Id be interested to hear your thoughts. How long can I expect a kit to last? I'm also interested to know how many lights I'll need, I'm guessing three - again 2 would suffice now but given I won't be able to add as I go I'm thinking i should ry and stretch to three. What do you think?

Photography is a hobby for me only, however. I sold an image to Nikon recently so have a bit of "camera cash" to help me out. Not enough for a full three head fast kit but a start. It still seems expensive to future proof. So hard to decide.
 
Why do you think you'll have a need for the Superfasts? They're a bit of a niche product for a home studio.

Are you planning to chuck paint on your children?

IMHO the upgrades you should be considering are better modifiers, profold softboxes instead of std, a boom arm, maybe a stripbox, would you have use for a beauty dish? A reflector, reflector arm. Lots of stuff you might be able to use. A bag to store it all in.
 
Phil V said:
Why do you think you'll have a need for the Superfasts? They're a bit of a niche product for a home studio.

Are you planning to chuck paint on your children?

IMHO the upgrades you should be considering are better modifiers, profold softboxes instead of std, a boom arm, maybe a stripbox, would you have use for a beauty dish? A reflector, reflector arm. Lots of stuff you might be able to use. A bag to store it all in.
Click to expand...

Ha ha yeah, more water etc than paint though :) to be honest I'm not sure hence the question. Are standard strobes good enough to freeze some motion, for example jumping.? Appreciate your comments, there is a lot to take in and like I said not being able to add as I go makes it even more complicated.
 
BTW, we can and do deliver to New Zealand, it's expensive but do-able.
 
I'm not going to talk you out of buying lencarta lights if you want them, I use them and am happy, but have you looked in to how much they'll cost to transport and what will happen if they get damaged on route. A large part of the incentive for buying lencarta is they have a good waranty and a good reputation for customer service in the UK neither of which you'll be likely to take advantage of from New Zeland.

Do you need studio strobes if its mostly for shooting your child superfasts would be overkill imo but even studio heads could be, I know I feel safer with my toddler with the risk of speedlight being knocked over than a mono head. Knowing what your going to be shooting will make it easier to recommend a system and ultimately it will be the modifiers rather than the head that has the largest impact on what you shoot.
 
CraigDHD said:
I'm not going to talk you out of buying lencarta lights if you want them, I use them and am happy, but have you looked in to how much they'll cost to transport and what will happen if they get damaged on route. A large part of the incentive for buying lencarta is they have a good waranty and a good reputation for customer service in the UK neither of which you'll be likely to take advantage of from New Zeland.

Do you need studio strobes if its mostly for shooting your child superfasts would be overkill imo but even studio heads could be, I know I feel safer with my toddler with the risk of speedlight being knocked over than a mono head. Knowing what your going to be shooting will make it easier to recommend a system and ultimately it will be the modifiers rather than the head that has the largest impact on what you shoot.
Click to expand...

Hi, at the moment I do family shoots and adult portraits as well. Moving cost wise it's ok as that will be paid by my employer. I want to set up a little studio when I get back and like the idea of moving towards strobes. I've been using speed lights for a while and find I'm struggling with power at times. How much stronger are the basic lencartas then say a youngnuo 560iv ?
 
I use smartflash II's and yn-560 iii's Id say you get around 2 extra stops of light from the smartflashes but I've never bothered to test precisely, they have other advantages, and disadvantages, over speedlights. For portrait work the superfasts are probably overkill although they do also have the added benefiet of a lower minimum power than the elites or smartflashes due to the IGBT technology which can be useful indoor work if you want wide appertures or are in small spaces. For the cost of two superfasts you could be looking at the cost of a safari which would allow you to adventure outdoors and away from power more easily. If one lights too restrictive in that price range you could look at one head and add an atom for portability with added power. The bigger question may be whats available in New Zeland though as I'd imagine you may have easier trade links with asia from there so going godox etc. may not carry the same risks as here. My biggest concern buying here and taking would be the warranty as regardless how good a product is some will have issues and sending a studio head back and forth to UK porbably won't be an option, I'd try finding a New Zeland populated forum and try to see what the buying options were there. Whatever way you go remeber to budget for modifiers as well as the lights.
 
The advantage of Lencarta is a) good value, and b) local service and support. Studio flash is generally pretty reliable and should keep going for many years.

My other favourite brand is Elinchrom. D-Lites are good entry-level and their BRX 250 is a very good choice with slightly faster than average flash durations. Just about quick enough for kids jumping about, but not splashing water etc. Be aware that quoted flash durations with conventional studio flash (not IGBT) are very overstated. Claimed 't.5' flash durations are usually around 3x longer in terms of action-stopping than real shutter speed equivalents. Effective flash durations also get longer at reduced power settings. Elinchrom is a big international brand with full representation in Oz.
 
CraigDHD said:
My biggest concern buying here and taking would be the warranty as regardless how good a product is some will have issues and sending a studio head back and forth to UK porbably won't be an option, I'd try finding a New Zeland populated forum and try to see what the buying options were there. Whatever way you go remeber to budget for modifiers as well as the lights.
Click to expand...

100% agree. At the very least, I'd want to be sure there is somewhere in NZ or nearby, that can fix them.
 
The Lencarta SuperFast is based on the QT series, but which much higher performance.
Godox are bringing out a mark 2 version of the QT in a couple of months or so, with a higher spec. At the moment, all that we know about it is that it has some new features plus shorter flash duration, and has a built in radio receiver.
Personally I wouldn't consider buying into any new flash until several batches have been made, problems always occur in the early days.
 
Does anyone have the new Mark ii of the godox qt's?? I would love to know what people's thoughts and experiences are. I'm debating getting a new, or older (cheaper) model. As they offer very reasonably price short duration capabilities, for freezing motion. So would actually love to hear any reviews of either models.
 
Last edited:
tysing said:
Does anyone have the new Mark ii of the godox qt's?? I would love to know what people's thoughts and experiences are. I'm debating getting a new, or older (cheaper) model. As they offer very reasonably price short duration capabilities, for freezing motion. So would actually love to hear any reviews of either models.
Click to expand...

I have used it as a pure Godox badged version and it fitted in well with all my other Godox lights, without a doubt the best ever and most capable studio light I have ever used.

Mike
 
AdamNZ said:
Having looked at the three strobe kits I can't decide what I should get. In terms of my current requirements the entry level strobe kit would suffice, however, as time goes on I wonder whether the fast system would be more useful.
Click to expand...

I went for the Superfast 600's. My personal reasons were (in no particular order):

- short flash duration I prev assisted a couple of people who photographed dancers and saw them take and retake to try and get a 'frozen' moment that killed blur. This is a pain for the photographer and for the model to keep repeating. I can see I might be wanting to photograph animals in the future and possibly active children.

- they have cooling fans in

- modelling light is 250 watts - I wanted a decently bright one in case I had cause to want to use continuous light instead of flash.

- the modelling light is not linked to flash power, you turn it up and down or off independently of the flash power. There are both advantages and disadvantages to this - depends on your own needs really.

- almost instant recharge of the flash, ready for the next shot. I had worked with other peoples standard units and there is a much bigger delay in recharge. sometimes its been seconds wait. On lower powers the Superfasts beep to declare 'ready' instantaneously. Its great! Slower at full power, but we are still talking very fast here, they are the fastest units for recharging I have personally encountered so far. Though I have not worked with expensive professional high end flashes.

- researching around, I think lots of big companies are moving towards this style of fast flash head - it looks to me to be a more future based product than slower traditional style studio flash..

- I wanted more power than the 300 size - its possible to 'loose' power as you put on modifiers and its always possible to stick a neutral density filter on a lens.. I am using metal 7" honeycomb grids at the moment and they seem to eat light power. I wavered about lower power srudio strobes as so many people say start with low power and buy something cheap. I am already very glad of my choice as I can see I would be more frustrated at a lower power and would have soon felt regrets at getting the 'smaller' unit and would be forced to upgrade in a year or 2..

- Lencarta SuperFasts seem very solidly built, Metal case,. They feel like you can safely put a big modifier on them. The mounting clamp that goes on to the the lightstand is metal as well
I have used other brands of medium and low price range and found them to be plastic bodied - they are light for moving around, but feel cheap and less robust and I would hesitate to put some big modifiers on them - thought that may be me being over cautious.

- The Lencarta flashes have decent big handles on the back for carrying and for changing position once on the stand. Some brands do not have handles built in, which I find both bewildering and stupid. They are a total pain in the backside. Whatever you get - get ones with a handle!

- there is a clear glass safety cover around the modelling light to protect it from damage in use and to protect you if the lamp fails.

- The Superfasts (and prob others in the Lencara range) have USB transmitters that match them and can just plug in the back of the units, no battery needed (other than on camera unit) as they draw power from the strobes. This is brilliant. I had not been sure about ordering them as I have some other transmitters I could have used, but they are so straightforward and no battery flat crisis. The camera unit takes normal batteries and nothing obscure..


Something I have seen in the last few days, but not tried yet. Short flash durations kill movement blur and thats not always what you want in some situations. I have just seen the suggestion that you can combine 'dragging the shutter' or using the normal shutter with a short flash duration but have the modelling light of your units on high, so that you get residual movement blur from the ambient light this creates. Not tried it, but thought it something worth throwing into the debate. Maybe someone else here can say if its viable?

ps as well as Lencarta, Bessel are well worth a look for easy fold modifiers - differences appear mainly cosmetic, at least to my eye.
 
Last edited:
There's no reason to stick to Lencarta as it uses the Bowens mount, you could buy the bits you need now and if you need to expand but can't source them locally as long as you stick to something with a Bowens mount you should be fairly future proof regardless of the country you're in.
 
MidnightUK said:
Something I have seen in the last few days, but not tried yet. Short flash durations kill movement blur and thats not always what you want in some situations. I have just seen the suggestion that you can combine 'dragging the shutter' or using the normal shutter with a short flash duration but have the modelling light of your units on high, so that you get residual movement blur from the ambient light this creates. Not tried it, but thought it something worth throwing into the debate. Maybe someone else here can say if its viable?
Click to expand...

My reasons for choosing the SuperFast 600's were pretty much the same as yours Jay, and I talked about it on my blog at the time here http://owenlloydphotography.com/?p=1554 At 6fps (fast as my D810 will go in 1.2 crop mode) and 1/4 power - there is no recycle time at all - which means for action shots, I have the option of just nailing the shutter in continuous mode (this is not always the best approach though - if you need to be precise on the timing, take one shot at the right time instead of rapid fire).

I've used the modelling lights and a longer exposure to do just what you describe - see the 2nd picture on that page. I also regularly mix in bigger tungsten lamps and lots of other random continuous lighting. Here are some examples...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/owenlloyd/30404281133/in/dateposted/ - straight action freezing
https://www.flickr.com/photos/owenlloyd/29127109160/in/dateposted/ - using the modelling lights on the SF600's
https://www.flickr.com/photos/owenlloyd/28578640723/in/dateposted/ - using a 650 Watt tungsten spot, plus an SF600
https://www.flickr.com/photos/owenlloyd/27582813140/in/dateposted/ - laser generator with pop of flash from SF600 at the end.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/owenlloyd/26742390890/in/dateposted/ - Moving the camera in a long exposure - flash at the start. Blur from modelling lights only on 2 SF600's round the back.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/owenlloyd/24069487829/in/dateposted/ - Bottom half lit with 2 650 Watt spots with barn doors, top half lit with one SF600 with spot grid and barn doors. Bottom half blurs as I move the camera up and zoom out during the long exposure.

Some more action freezing http://owenlloydphotography.com/?p=1685

Agree with Phil though - for Adam's intended use I would spend the money on the reflectors and decent soft-boxes with grids first, but as this is an old thread, I thought it might be worth replying to your question about the modelling lights.
 
@Scooter Just spent ages looking at those Flickr links plus many more of your pages. Simply stunning and creative. I really enjoyed reading the info on how you use lights. Although your work/skill/knowledge is a trillion miles away from myself it still makes me wanna play around with my speddlights in my own little space at home

Gaz
 
Great Flickr Owen (y)
 
Scooter said:
I've used the modelling lights and a longer exposure to do just what you describe
Click to expand...

Thanks lots for that post - very constructive and interesting.
Good studio work, well done.


I wonder what the OP did about their studio lights in the end?
I just had a skim through their postings and they seem to have sold their main camera gear since this studio post,, maybe decided not to bother with studio kit after all?
 
Last edited:
@cargo Hey Gary - we're all somewhere on the learning curve! You have some wonderful images on your flickr stream. I'm really glad you found some of the info on my website useful. If you do have any questions about any of the images you see, post them up. I learn how to do these things from others (with hopefully a bit of invention and adaptation of the techniques) - it's only fair to pass it along !
 
mike weeks said:
I have used it as a pure Godox badged version and it fitted in well with all my other Godox lights, without a doubt the best ever and most capable studio light I have ever used.

Mike
Click to expand...

Which model do you own? Is it an original qt or a newer model!
 
Garry Edwards said:
Godox are bringing out a mark 2 version of the QT in a couple of months or so, with a higher spec. At the moment, all that we know about it is that it has some new features plus shorter flash duration, and has a built in radio receiver.
Click to expand...

Any plans for a Lencarta version of the above Garry, and if so a rough price please
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top