location photography gear: portable strobe case
Another week, another installment of the location photography gear saga. This week we’ll look inside our kit of portable strobe units. This kit of 2 strobes and accessories doesn’t get used a ton but it’s invaluable when we need it. It’s rare that we use these as main lights since we rely more on studio strobes (primarily the Travelite 125 Travel-Pak Kit if we have no AC power). We generally use smaller strobes more as “out of the way” lights, tucked inside machines or inside an area where a studio strobe simply won’t go.
click image to enlarge
That said, I envy photographers who can operate a business with a handful of small speedlights (SB-800, etc.
The heart of the matter is the Sunpak 120J TTL flash unit. It’s a shoe-mount strobe that is no longer manufactured but has wonderful features. The shoe is interchangeable for various camera models but we use a plain ol’ single contact no-frills hot shoe and strictly manual power settings. It has a replaceable, exposed flash tube (just like a studio unit) that can be used as a bare bulb head or with the included adjustable dish reflector or softbox adapter. You’ll note we also have a spare flash tube on hand (always carry a backup). A Quantum Battery 1+ provides power to the unit.
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Spotted for just $16.99 at Calumet |
Next up is the Sunpak auto 555 Thyristor “potato masher” flash. This wasn’t a particularly spectacular flash even in it’s day, outshadowed by the more expensive, better built Metz handle-mount flash units. It gets the job done, though, and we carry a diffuser, light stand mount and battery cluster backup for it. The main juice for the strobe is provided by a Quantum Battery 2 unit.
Our main concerns with any flash unit are repeatable power settings that are easy to use, fast recycling and long battery life. At the risk of showing my age, I’m perfectly content with having one simple mechanical slider to set power output in lieu of multiple choices via LCD. It really is whatever you’re most comfortable with (and can afford).
Toss in a handful of sync cords for each unit (they have different connectors – more backup) and a bunch of optical slaves (4 peanut, 2 standard and one shoe mount with a pc connection) and that rounds it out.
Ooops, I forgot to include an Umbrella Adapter with Hot Shoe for adapting the 120J to a lightstand. A couple are always floating around here but I left them out of the group pic (photo added at left)!
One other thing you may be expecting to see are wireless remote triggers (we use the Quantum Radio Slave 4i system). Observant readers will remember seeing them listed in last week’s installment on the camera bag, since that’s where they get carried.
Next week: we’ll pull the contents out of another bag and take a look.
I think liking a mechanical switch is showing forethought, not age! See how the SB-900 now has a simple mechanical switch for going into remote mode, instead of the Sb-800 which forces you to go through a set of menus.
I’ve got to say Jim, I’m pretty envious of that Sunpak 120J. I’ve always thought they’ve got a pretty good blend of size, versatility and power. What type of speedring do they take and how big of a box can you use on one?
The 120J is SWEET. I forget where I got the speedring but I’ll look it up at the studio. And we use a large softbox on it (3′ x 4′) with no problems, it fills it right out. This is where having a camera that shoots pretty clean images at ISO 400 comes in handy, if I remember correctly we’re shooting between f5.6-8 at normal portrait distances (8 feet or so).
Oh, so this is how professional bloggers come up with content for their blogs. Take something large and split it into lots of little pieces. Hmmm, maybe I could take so photographs of our luggage next time we go on vacation and spread some posts about them out over a month or so. Of course they’ll be “artistic” shots of luggage
Is that the speed-ring adapter to the left of the hotshoe flash? The first time I looked at the photograph, that thing looked like another flash but I see now that it isn’t.
Jim,
This is not so much about gear but a question about working as a pro commercial photographer.
When somebody calls inquiring about a hiring you, what specific questions do you ask to formulate a price/bid proposal for them?
Any guidance you could give would be greatly appreciated.
Clay, we’ve hit on these questions in some earlier entries, I think. Take a look under the category “business” on this site and take a look. These two, in particular should give a start:
http://prophotolife.com/2008/06/18/business-of-photography-questions-to-ask-the-client/
http://prophotolife.com/2008/06/25/business-of-photography-what-is-a-fair-price-to-charge-for-your-professional-photography/
Let me know if this helps!
Hi, Jim. How long is the recycling time of the 120J with the quantum battery? I am thinking about getting a quantum battery to power up my 120J. Thanks so much.
Hi Kristian, I think the Quantum is definitely the way to go but am not sure on the recycle time. A wild guess would put it at 4-5 seconds but don’t hold me to that just yet. I’m on location tomorrow and know the 120J has been packed, so I’ll try to remember to give it a test.