Share some knowledge on mounts please?

[diehardhoo]

Can someone please explain the different types of mounts to me? There's the Bowens mount, the Elinchrom, some kind of mount that has four screw holes in it...I'm confused.
I can set flash ratios, calculate light fall off, and create some really dope exposures with reflectors, but I can't seem to find a resource that just teaches you how to put things together...mounts, lighstand additions, different adapters needed, attachment of soft boxes, etc. I really want to step up my game in the light department, and I'm good with how to use the equipment assembled, but I am lost up to that point. Help please?

 

[Derrel]

Various studio flash brands use their own mount, or lug pattern, to directly connect accessories to flash heads (box-and-cable style systems use flash "heads") or to self-contained monobloc (SIC) studio-type flash units, now more commonly called monolight flash units.

The mounts are NOT interchangeable between brands.For example, Profoto, Balcar, Speedotron, Elinchrom, and DynaLite ALL use different "mounts", which in the UK you will often see referred to as the "fit", as in, "Bowens fit",etc..

IF ANY "fit" is close to being a generic or industry standard, it would probably be the Bowens mount. It uses three simple lugs, and is pretty easy to make/fit.

Some,in fact MANY, (umbrellas, and pop-open modifiers, have come to use the umbrella shaft mounting system. MOST current umbrellas/softboxes/octoboxes use a metal umbrella shaft specified as (as I recall)7mm diameter...Elichrom uses the harder-to-find 6mm diameter, and markets a line of skinny-shaft modifiers specifically for their flash units.

There are "speed rings" designed to attach directly to a light on one side,and for a sofbox or octobox to be supported on steel or Fibreglas rods on the other side or the perimeter of the speed ring. There are both rotating speed rings and non-rotating speed rings. Speed rings usually retail from $20 to $99.

 

[Designer]

Can someone please explain the different types of mounts to me? There's the Bowens mount, the Elinchrom, some kind of mount that has four screw holes in it...I'm confused.

Many of us are confused as well.

When shopping for lights and modifiers, try to stick with one type of mount, such as Bowens, for instance, and any additional gear you purchase should be that mount or "Bowens compatible".

Another method is to call the supplier and ask. They are usually very helpful, and will attempt to make everything work together, or they stand the chance of having an irate customer. They don't want an irate customer.

 

[diehardhoo]

Thanks so much for the insight!!!

 

[clarc]

Thanks again !!

 

[petrochemist]

The mounts are NOT interchangeable between brands.For example, Profoto, Balcar, Speedotron, Elinchrom, and DynaLite ALL use different "mounts", which in the UK you will often see referred to as the "fit", as in, "Bowens fit",etc..

IF ANY "fit" is close to being a generic or industry standard, it would probably be the Bowens mount. It uses three simple lugs, and is pretty easy to make/fit.

To me 'mount' is the connection between lens & camera, of which there are a huge number...
I've much less experience with studio lighting gear but still enough to discover it's another potential minefield. I soon learned the 'Universal' fit was anything but, being too narrow to fit any of my strobes...

 

[Derrel]

In the field of Studio lighting, the mount is the connection between modifiers and the light head itself. All of the various lighting manufacturers have their own mount, although if there is one Mount that is close to becoming generic it is the Bowens S-Type, which is fairly simple, with three lugs space relatively equidistant around the circle. Some made in China manufacturers have taken to using the "old Photogenic" brand mount come up which is not the same as the" new" Photogenic mount. The Photogenic Machine Company basically was one of the earliest of all Studio flash lighting manufacturers, along with the Chicago, Illinois- based company known as Speedotron. Speedo goes back to 1939.