Ebay Light Kit

[Sherman Banks]

Here is a lighting kit I bought on Ebay for $70 and 14% off thanks to live.com cashback. I don't know much about lighting equipment as this is my first set up, but the stands feel pretty sturdy. The plastic on them is a bit cheap though. I was worried I'd get umbrellas that did not collapse, but these do and they are a decent size too. I thought most mounts should have the umbrella hole angled a bit to have the flash aim at the center, but this one appears to run parallel to the shoe mount, and is quite a bit bigger than the umbrella pole is. I haven't received my flash yet, but this kit seems to be of good value for anyone trying to set up a light kit on a budget. The best part is that it should be very portable which is the key thing for me. Anyways, just wanted to throw this out there for people looking for cheap options to do some strobist work. Hopefully I'll have some shots using them soon.

ps. This was purchased from the seller: discountbulbs, and they were quite fast with the shipping.

 

[elemental]

I've been had my eye on that for a little while now. Glad it worked out for you. Are both of your umbrellas shoot throughs? The one I'm looking at has a shoot through and a bounce, and I'd prefer two of the shoot throughs.

 

[JerryPH]

The ones shown above are strictly shoot through.

I though I would use shoot-through more than the bounce... but it really is a 50/50 split with me. I use the bounce when I need to evenly light a larger area, or more than 1 person and/or want to control spill from the rear.

The difference in a price of an umbrella that does one vs both is maybe 2-3 dollars... VERY convenient and way more than worth the cost difference!

So what is being used to light up those umbrellas?

 

[Sherman Banks]

^ Hopefully two SB600's. One of my sellers just flaked on me though, so I'll probably end up with one for now (at full price) until I can find a cheaper used one. Any other recommendations that are low in price and could work with my D90?

I'll see how the shoot through works for me, and luckily if I need them to reflect, umbrellas are pretty cheap.

 

[JerryPH]

With CLS you are limited to using the SB-600 , SB-800 or SB-900 If you were using 3'rd part triggers like Cactus, Radio Poppers or Pocket Wizards, you can basically use any manual controllable battery powered flash with your setup.

 

[Sherman Banks]

Yeah, I'm looking into the cactus triggers, but pocket wizards are way out of my price range. One of my local camera shops has an SB800 for $280, but that seems way low. They say it's in excellent condition but there isn't really a way to tell the amount of use with flashes right? Idk, I'm back to square one trying to budget my glass and flashes still. I have been enjoying the new body though, so I guess I don't need to be in a rush to get the flashes. Still a lot to learn with that alone. Thanks for the insightful feedback as always!

 

[CxThree]

You can get a vivitar 285 off of ebay for $90. I still see lots of people using them in umbrellas.

 

[JerryPH]

For people starting out and considering not using CLS, the Vivitar 285HV would be an excellent and reasonable alternate. There is also the LUMOPRO made for strobists over at MPEX that is a little more, but has some minor bells and whistles over the Vivitar.

I bought a Vivitar 285 just to test and play with and it is actually very nice for the price. No support for CLS, but the "strobist way" dictates an all manual setup, and it is something I endorse for all new off camera flash users.

I also suggest a lot of time and practice with direction from the Lighting 101 and 102 blog entries over at Strobist

 

[vishankapraveen]

Need Some help

 

[Sherman Banks]

For people starting out and considering not using CLS, the Vivitar 285HV would be an excellent and reasonable alternate. There is also the LUMOPRO made for strobists over at MPEX that is a little more, but has some minor bells and whistles over the Vivitar.

I bought a Vivitar 285 just to test and play with and it is actually very nice for the price. No support for CLS, but the "strobist way" dictates an all manual setup, and it is something I endorse for all new off camera flash users.

I also suggest a lot of time and practice with direction from the Lighting 101 and 102 blog entries over at Strobist

I'm looking into those Vivitar's as an option as the price for two and some cactus triggers are around the same price as the one SB600. I don't have any experience shooting off camera flash and still have much to read on it (and I've been reading the lessons on strobist blog too), but is it difficult to do the metering manually? I think that is the nice thing about the SB's is that they will auto meter, but since I don't know the first thing about metering flashes, I'm worried I won't know what the heck to do with them.

 

[JerryPH]

Need Some help

We do too... we are not mind readers and therefore do not know what you need help with... lol

 

[JerryPH]

... is it difficult to do the metering manually?

Like anything else, it takes a little practice. it took me about a week of futzing to get it down by myself... but it took me about 15 minutes to show and explain the system to someone well enough that they were out and about themselves taking properly exposed shots right after the explanation. This info is available at the strobist site and other places on the net.

I think that is the nice thing about the SB's is that they will auto meter, but since I don't know the first thing about metering flashes, I'm worried I won't know what the heck to do with them.

Yes they do thats thanks to CLS and iTTL... but it's not rocket science to adjust the lights manually, just a little slower (and often better too!). The entire strobist thing is about controlling it yourself. If 30,000 strobist members over at the strobist website can do it, I am sure you can learn quickly too.

 

[Sherman Banks]

Thanks again Jerry! I am thinking about those Lumopro's with some cactus V4's (which I've read are supposed to be better than the previous). I guess I do most of my photos mostly manual anyways, so learning the flash settings shouldn't be too difficult. This decision is harder to make than the initial purchase of the camera, but I think this setup would work well for now.

 

[JerryPH]

Here is something... if there was no way to mod them, yes V4 would be better than V2, however, do you see anyone saying they get over 100 feet with their V4s? No... however, I can get over 350 feet out of a pair of modded V2s for next to nothing.

Now I was told that my set was a one in a million because others that did this could not duplicate it... well guess what... if the batteries are fresh AND the mod is done exactly as I did it on my blog, EVERYONE can get this performance. To prove this, I have 3 sets from *2* different sources (MPEX and Gadget Infinity) and all three work identically. On top of that, I have to date now done about 12 other transmitters and *all* are able to trigger the receivers outdoors in line of sight at over 350 feet.

All you have to do is do the mod properly.

 

[Stranger]

Do not count out the Cyber-syncs from paul buff (alienbee creator). I have those and they work flawlessly with a 400ft range. $60 will get you a receiver and $70 for the trigger.