Lighting questions again!

[jenn76]

Ok, so FOREVER ago I started purchasing items for a small lighting setup for inside my home. I already had a backdrop stand and backdrops, and an external flash (420EX speedlite) that I plan to use off camera. I checked out strobist.com, and following their example, I purchased umbrellas and the Cactus wireless radio triggers, and plan to purchase a lighting stand and umbrella bracket. I had originally planned to just set up with one light for now, and see how it goes as I learn, but I saw something that made me think I might be able to afford to use 2 lights right away. I was going to order the light stand and umbrella bracket from adorama.com, and saw this.. wondering if I could somehow connect it to the rest of my setup to be able to use 2 lights if I get another light stand with it... seems to have decent reviews for the price... how would I incorporate it with the rest of my lighting? Since I'm ordering other items from adorama, I'd like to go ahead and order it all together if I'm going to get it. Thanks in advance!

http://www.adorama.com/LTBF.html?emailprice=t

 

[bigalbest]

This strobe comes with a 12' sync chord, you should be able to trigger it with that while still using the cactus triggers for your other light.

 

[jenn76]

So I would plug the other end of the sync cord into my camera (I have a canon 20D) to fire it while the radio triggers fire my 420EX? Do you recommend doing this? Thanks!

 

[Village Idiot]

I wouldn't buy it. That's just me. It's like a huge speed light. It has about the same w/s rating and GN as most speed lights. You can find Vivitar 283's on ebay for about $35 used.

Personal opinion. I don't know what else to say.

 

[GeneralBenson]

Well, it also says it has a slave sensor. But I'm pretty sure the preflash on the 430ex would fire the other head too soon.

 

[bigalbest]

So I would plug the other end of the sync cord into my camera (I have a canon 20D) to fire it while the radio triggers fire my 420EX? Do you recommend doing this? Thanks!

I do it all the time with no problems using my 5D. And I would somewhat agree with Village Idiot, but maybe for different reasons. If you plan on using strobes a lot outdoors I recommend using high power units (at least 500 watts), but if you're shooting indoors you might be able to make this work.

 

[Big Mike]

Well, it also says it has a slave sensor. But I'm pretty sure the preflash on the 430ex would fire the other head too soon.

If the 420 was fired with the radio trigger, it would not fire a pre-flash.

I'm not sure, but I think that the 420EX does not have manual power control, which would mean that it only fires at full power, when not connected to the camera's E-TTL system. You could still work with that, but it might be a pain in the rear. The 430EX added the feature/option of manual power control.

As for that unit that was linked to. As mentioned, it's no more powerful than a normal hot-shoe flash...but it lists it's recycle time as 5-7 seconds...that's too slow for my liking. The only advantage is that it has a modeling light, which isn't all that necessary with digital.

You can find Vivitar 283's on ebay for about $35 used.

To be honest, I haven't check lately...but the 'Strobist' craze has driven the price of these (and other) flash unit up because there is a much bigger demand for cheap flash units now. If you can get them for that cheap, that's great...but you may have to fight for them.

 

[Village Idiot]

They were at that price about 2 weeks ago.

 

[jenn76]

Bigalbest, yes, this would be for indoors only. I'm just looking for an inexpensive setup to shoot inside when it's too cold outside.

I will check ebay for those flashes again. I had checked before, and they were a bit higher... If I get the Vivitar flash, would I just get another receiver for my radio triggers (plus of course another light stand and umbrella bracket) or should I use a sync cord? I think I can plug in a sync cord on my camera (canon 20d), but there's not one on my flash, which is why I got the radio triggers....

 

[Village Idiot]

You could get a receiver and the cable 3.5mm miniphone to vivitar sync cable to connect to it.

I just feel that it would be more versatile and a better buy than that unit. If you want a monolight, look at the Genesis 200 kit on Calumet. $289 last time I checked. It's got two 200w/s strobes that are compatible with Elinchrom modifiers. A really good buy imo.