Dual bracket

[Designer]

I wonder if I can put four speedlights on my dslr.

Now that would be something to see. And it would be heavy.

However, it would not necessarily do anything to help the light.

Maybe if you wanted to capture the finish of a boat race in the dark where you don't have access to an outlet and can't get close to the action.

 

[cynicaster]

I wonder if I can put four speedlights on my dslr.

I think you'd look like an a**hole carrying that around.

Derrel mentioned some good points about using multiple flashes at lower power rather than a single flash at higher power. Another situation where it might be useful is when using high-speed sync, to buy back some of the power you lose in doing so.

 

[ronlane]

I gotcher 4-light bracket right here.

Also know as Emergency Jeep repair kit. But if you are planning on going fast, use this

 

[Derrel]

A friend of mine, and one of his friends who is a well-known local area nature photographer, have built special four-flash speedlight rigs that have four Vivitar 285 speedlights mounted in a circular array inside of a roughly 10-inch diameter PVC pipe enclosure, with a focusing lens type of deal on the front of it. THe lights are PC-cord connected to one another, for instantaneous, reliable triggering. Using four of these lights allows them to get VERY fast flash durations for their bird and flying insect photos, which are tripped using beam-tripper technology. In other words, they get a powerful flash exposure BUT, it has the very short,short flash durations needed to stop bird and even insect wings, from normal workable flash-to-subject distances which keeps the degree of light fall-off from being ridiculously steep.

As far as a dual bracket for two speedlights in an umbrella...in the past I have simply rubber band affixed the two speedlights together, back-to-back, and used the short seven-inch PC cord that used to come standard with my Vivitar 285HV flash units. Meaning, I have rigged one speedlight onto an umbrella swivel mount, and then just rubber-banded the second flash onto the first unit. Not very elegant, admittedly, but it did work.

ANother way I have done this was to use some very small ball-heads I own, which were marketed in the 1980's by Dotline Corp.. These small ballheads were for flashes or flood lamps, and had 1.75' long aluminum necks and 1/4x20 threads on top,with cold shoes that threaded on if needed, and I would mount a flash on a ballhead on top of an umbrella mount, and then rubber band and PC-connect the second 285HV flash to the first one, turn them "tall", and have the bounce heads straight, at 0 degrees, and then lay the two rubber-banded flash units on the umbrella shaft. Worked pretty well.

"Any way to cobble it together", you know what I mean??? RUBE GOLDBERG.