Upgrading sports lighting gear. Help!

[Pricer]

Okaaaaaaaaay, so here we go,


Im currently using my canon 580ex II and 430ex II for my extreme sports work as well as my everyday shooting. Im continuing to find that the power isn't enough to overpower the sun when shooting skate, downhill - in open areas and motocross. When i get into the woods with the downhill shoots i cant fault them to be honest. Im basically after a lighting set with more welly which can throw out more power more quickly.

I've been pondering over Quantum's flashes for a while, umming and aaaahhing wether to take the plunge and and get them as i have a decent bit of money in the bank, about 2000 but i dont want to spend all of that if possible! I'm not going to be buying this all in one go, will probs take me a few months buying it in stages. I've seen a few sports togs using Einstein monoblocs which i have thought about, but considering there sold in the US, i can see it being a pain in the ass in anything goes wrong with them..... even though they look the dogs *******s!

I'm also looking to get a set, or a few softboxes ranging in size and style. For these i've been looking at lastolite as you can use speedlights as well as studio heads in the softboxes.

Does this sound like a good set-up or can you think of any variations?

Any advice will be gratefully taken if you have used Quantum and Lastolite gear and any advice in general for that matter!

Cheers!

Dave

 

[Garry Edwards]

You'll see from my signature that I'm involved with Lencarta...

You might want to look at the Safari Li-on - 600Ws of power, that will overpower the sun nicely when required. In my experience, less power than that just won't do when the sun is bright.

The flash durations won't be short enough to completely freeze all action, but then flash durations are pretty irrelevant in bright light because it's pointless having a flash that can freeze movement if the shutter is going to be open for say 1/250th sec, letting in enough ambient light to create its own blur.

You mention the Einsteins. You can get the new SuperFast from Lencarta, with the same IGBT technology and with better performance at lower cost - plus customer support.

 

[Digitalize]

There's a new wave of flash systems coming out which support things like E-TTL, use IGBT and will be able to freeze action.

The Safari Li-on system is nice if you need just one head, but 2 cuts it down to 400w/200w which might not be enough in bright sunlight.

Strobeam do IGBT flashes that are quick enough to freeze action and battery powered, expensive and apparently not as powerful as the w/s would suggest.

Does it need to be battery powered?

Might also be worth looking at the 600ex? Might be powerful enough?

It depends what shutter speed you'll want to be shooting at, as if its about 1/250 there's new flashes coming out which will support this, but might be a case of waiting a bit to see it really become used, especially out of studio lighting.

Bowens do a powerful portable flash setup, QUAD and CREO, are pricey but might do what you want, don't think they support high shutter speeds though.

http://www.bowensdirect.com/index.php/generators/quad-2400-studio-set.html

 

[EdMoss]

I've used the Qflash system on location for the past few years, really portable and suitable for 99% of what I shoot.
A lot of my friends use it as well, we all got fed up with speedlites blowing up.

The really nice thing is, a lot of the stuff is backwards compatible, or upgradeable, can't think of many companies who look after you like that

The Pilot (or co-pilot) coupled with a couple of x or T flashes and job done.

Flaghead have just updated there list http://flaghead.co.uk/pdf/0213/exdemo_feb13.pdf I've never paid full retail for any of my Quantum stuff.
Fixation will do the repairs, if anything goes wrong, which in my experience, is never.

Forgot to say, the quality of light from them is something else and I can shoot up to 1/8000th

 

[HoppyUK]

There's some good advice above, and some not so good. Go into the lighting forum and scroll down a few pages where you'll find this kind of topic discussed on an occasional but fairly regular basis.

The best solution, at least from a performance point of view and given your budget, is perhaps something like Dave Black's rig using eight hot-shoe guns, here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNDAINwhTWU That's expensive, but you can now do the same thing a lot cheaper using Yongnuo 568 guns and their 622 triggers, certainly within your budget.

That would give you around 800Ws equivalent power, and that's enough to also be workable in high speed sync mode - which is the ideal answer for managing both flash and ambient considerations. Plus you get auto-TTL exposure control, second-curtain sync, can zoom the heads, the lot. The rig is big enough to give quite nice/softish light, but obvious limitations are no choice of light shapers/modifiers and it's heavy so needs a solid stand or an assistant to wield it.

It obviously works fabulously well for Dave Black, but with the caveat that I don't know anyone that has done it going down the Yongnuo route yet (kit is very new). No reason why it shouldn't work that I'm aware of, and I'm not the only one to suggest it, but just make sure first!

Alternatively, look at Lencarta Li-on and Elinchrom Quadra.

Edit: 5D2 is not the ideal action camera. In this context, the shutter and x-sync is slow and that makes life harder for flash.