40 watt strobe

[RubyGloom]

I was looking through some fliers today and seen 40 watt opus strobe for 129. This is really cheap so I am assuming it's not very good? I have studio strobe and 2 that I take on location with me and was thinking about picking up one or two more (keep in the car kinda thing) is this complete crap? Or a good deal?

http://www.londondrugs.com/Cultures...- OPL-M402&ProductID=4463931&Category=Flashes

 

[PatrickJamesYu]

What do you plan on shooting?
The picture doesn't look like a flash unit, but it's possible it might be.

 

[RubyGloom]

What do you plan on shooting?
The picture doesn't look like a flash unit, but it's possible it might be.

Mostly portraits

 

[PatrickJamesYu]

What do you plan on shooting?
The picture doesn't look like a flash unit, but it's possible it might be.

Mostly portraits

I've had bad luck in the past with new, uber cheap lighting units
But than again, I've had a lot of luck with out dated $5 Vivitar strobes.

I say try it, but keep guide numbers and power in mind.
It sounds terribly low powered, but I may just have that confused with different numbers in my head

I'm a firm believer in it's how you use it, not what it is
So use it well and it'll work for you!

I think as long as you're okay with long refresh times, the cheaper units can work well
as long as they're bright enough I think it mostly matters on how you defuse it.

And many of the cheap stands are totally crap and very top heavy with a weak stance.
With hot shoe flashes, strobes, mine tend to tip over when shooting outside with the average breeze.
Quite risky towards your equipment

Goodluck

 

[Derrel]

Seems overpriced to me. THat basic "type" of strobe has been made by the Morris Company for many decades. It uses a standard "household" type threaded base, which is threaded into a plastic/PVC "light unit" which has a hole for an umbrella shaft, a thumbscrew, and a receptacle for the stud aka "the spigot" that is on top of all modern light stands. The light fixture also has a tilting feature, which allows angling of the light and the mounted umbrella. To ME, $129 Canadian or American seems like too much dinero for that type of light.

 

[RubyGloom]

Thanks all for the input. I currently for my location lighting have 2 elinchrom d lights, and of course my external flash which I am hoping to be able to sync with my skyport transmitter and use it on a stand. I was consider this as a background light but I am wondering if it would be bright enough to do anything I am not sure how bright 40 watts are

 

[KmH]

It's advertised as 40 watt/seconds, not 40 watts. Watts and watt/seconds are different power units.
40 w/s very little power and is equivelent to an el cheapo hot shoe flash unit.

 

[Big Mike]

It's advertised as 40 watt/seconds, not 40 watts. Watts and watt/seconds are different power units.

To get technical...isn't it incorrect to show it that way...as in Watts / (over) seconds? It's Watt Seconds (Ws). Not W/s.

Anyway, here is a monolight with 160 Ws for $50.
BF160 Flashpoint Budget Studio Monolight Flash, 160 Watt Seconds, with User Replaceable Flash Tube.

 

[RubyGloom]

Sorry about the confusion of the watts, I am still learning. So this isn't really worth buying? Is it as strong, less or more then my 580 Flash?

Thanks again everyone for the imput

 

[c.cloudwalker]

Seems to me you are paying $129 for the umbrella and stand.

The strobe they just throw in. They actually tell you to use either that or a shoe mount unit. That tells quite a bit about the strobe....

 

[Big Mike]

it's a bit confusing to compare a flash to a studio light. Flashes are rated in GN (guide number). The GN will change if the head zooms...but with a studio light, the output will largely be affected by the modifier it has. For example, does it have a reflector dish, is there also an umbrella, or a softbox etc.

I've grabbed a response from somewhere that came up in a search...

I'd like to know how do battery-powered system flashes compare to studio units in terms of light output.

I know that AlienBees B400 has 400 "effective" Ws, and that Canon Speedlite 580EX II has guide number 42 (meters) at ISO 100 and 50 mm zoom setting.

But how do I compare these two? Is there any way to convert guide numbers to watt-seconds?

No, there is no way to convert guide numbers to watt-seconds. Watt-seconds is a measurement of how much energy is used by the flash, not how much light is put out. A significant portion of this energy is wasted as heat, infrared, ultraviolet, etc.

A 4 watt-second flash that is 100% efficient will put out the same amount of light as a 400 watt-second flash that is 1% efficient.

"Effective watt-seconds" are ill-defined as well, so are basically just as useless as watt-seconds.

By contrast, guide numbers are fairly well defined. They can be directly compared at a given beam spread (assuming manufacturers aren't stretching a bit. Ken Rockwell seems to think most flashes are over-rated by about a stop.)

However, the most accurate way to compare two flashes is through an actual scientifically defined unit like the lumen-second. From Wikipedia,

The lumen (symbol: lm) is the SI derived unit of luminous flux, a measure of the power of light perceived by the human eye.

As photographers, we're all keenly aware that time plays an important role in exposure. The longer the shutter is open, or the longer the light is on, the higher the exposure. Thus, lumen-seconds more directly translate to exposure than lumens do.

Here's a page from AlienBees' website which includes the specs on your B400 (7000 lumen-seconds) as well as a paragraph or two about how bogus "effective watt-seconds" are.

The Effective Wattseconds rating, however, is rather arbitrary and cannot be easily proven true or untrue, as it is merely used as a basis for inflated comparison of different flash systems.

I've looked around for a lumen-second rating of the 580 ex II, but can't seem to find one.

Further searching has turned up some 'guesses' that the 580EX is equivelent to 60 Ws or up to 100 Ws. Either way, I think it's safe to say that it's going to give you more light that that 40 Ws strobe. But also consider that the way a flash works, it puts light into a defined area, and is pretty efficient in doing that...while a strobe has to have something to direct the light into an area/direction, and the way you do that, will affect the results.