Photography Bay

Digital Camera News, Reviews and Tips

Strobist Photo Trade Secrets Vol. 1 & 2 – Book Review

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The Strobist Photo Trade Secrets books are quick-hit lighting books, featuring stunning flash photography from a variety of individual photographers.  Both volumes are edited by Zeke Kamm and published by Peachpit Press.

Essentially, the books each contain a collection of a couple dozen great images.  Each image covers a full page with a diagram and description of how the image was made on the back of the page.  Consequently, the photos suck you in to try to reverse-engineer the lighting setup in your head before you turn the page. [Read more…]

 

Photogenic PL625DR Powerlight Monolight

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Photogenic has announced a new model for its PL-series monolights.  The PL625DR offers a 6-stop output ranging from 7.8Ws up to 250Ws.  The new monolight has a t.5 flash duration of 1/2000s at full power.

Additionally, the PL625DR’s Guide Number is 130 at full power with the PL7R reflector.  It also comes with built-in PocketWizard receiver and is compatible with Photogenic’s PLIRC-2 Infrared Remote Control & PLICB-1 Multi Unit Control Center.  Other creature comforts include auto flash dump, optical slave cell, fan cooling, built-in surge protection and a dimmable modeling light.

No word on t.1 flash duration times, price or availability yet.

The full press release and provided spec sheet is below. [Read more…]

Bower SFD926 TTL Flash Review

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The Bower SFD926 TTL flash is a hot shoe flash that is available for just about every DSLR on the market now.  At around $100, the SFD926 is an affordable alternative to the more expensive hot shoe flashes from Canon, Nikon and the likes.

The feature set is also rather impressive for a flash in this price range.  The SFD926 will operate as a normal TTL flash, which means that your camera can communicate directly with the flash to provide commands for the correct amount of flash output needed for a proper exposure.  Additionally, the SFD926 can be operated in manual mode with adjustments from full power down to 1/16 power (i.e., a 5-stop power range).

The SFD926 has an optical slave, which makes it an attractive option for the strobist-on-a-budget crowd who want to shoot in full manual across the power range. [Read more…]

Gaffer Tape 101: Using Optical Slaves While Cheating the Sun

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I was outside taking some outdoor portraits earlier this week and had more lights than I had radio receivers to trigger them with.  While all the strobes had the ability to trigger with optical slaves, the sunlight (even though I was positioned in the shade) prevented the optical slave from seeing my command flash (no matter how close it was to the slave cell).

This was one of those oh-crap, on-the-fly moments…

[Read more…]

MicroSync Flash Radio Trigger Review

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The 4-channel MicroSync radio triggers let you wirelessly trigger your remote strobes or speedlights.  The basic transmitter and receiver kit will only set you back $100 and you can buy the components separately from there.  Depending on how you use your off-camera lighting kit, the MicroSync kit could be just the right fit. [Read more…]

Westcott Speedlite Accessory Gift Pack

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Just in time for the holiday rush, Westcott has put together a sweet Speedlight Accessory Gift Pack, which includes a bundles of light modifiers and accessories for your speedlights (or Speedlites for you Canon guys).

This kit is only $75 and includes all of the following items:

  • Adjustable Shoe Mount Bracket
  • 43″ White Collapsible Umbrella
  • Micro Apollo Softbox
  • 14″ Diffuser
  • 14″ Silver/White Reflector

You can find this bundle at Amazon.com and Adorama.

Elinchrom BX 500Ri Review

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The Elinchrom BX 500Ri is a powerful AC monolight geared for studio use.  I think I first heard about the BXRi series from Scott Kelby at Photoshop World, and I’ve heard him rave about these lights from time to time on his blog and elsewhere.  So if the big guy likes’em, they’ve got to be good, right?  Well, after spending some time with a pair of these big dogs, I have to agree wholeheartedly with Scott – they are pretty darn slick. [Read more…]

Nikon SB-700 Speedlight

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Along with the new D7000, Nikon has announced a new Speedlight, the SB-700.

The Nikon SB-700 Speedlight looks to be sort of an SB-900 Jr., with the ability to use it as a Commander or Speedlight Remote in Nikon’s Creative Lighting System.   The SB-700 offers a number of other improvements over the SB-600, which make it appear to be a reasonable alternative to the Nikon SB-900.

The Nikon SB-700 should be available in November 2010 at an initial retail price of $329.95.  Check availability on Amazon.com.

There are plenty more details about this new Speedlight in the press release below. [Read more…]

Paul C. Buff Vagabond Mini Lithium

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The Vagabond Mini Lithium looks downright tasty for those who use AC monolights on a regular basis.  This new AC converter uses a lithium battery to power your monolights for several hundred shots in the field.

While the Vagabond Mini Lithium was designed with Alienbees monolights in mind, it is also compatible with third party monolights.  There are plenty of other tech specs to read up on, but the best news of all is the price.

The Vagabond Mini Lithium is set to ship with a battery, charger, shoulder strap and light stand mounting clamp for $239.95.  Additional batteries will cost $89.95.

More details at AlienBees.com.