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Forum: Flashes, Lighting, and Studio
01-07-2019, 01:53 AM
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Your budget would have to be a little bit stretched if you wanted to get an AD200 (has the power of ~ 3 regular speedlights) + a corresponding trigger which would tick all your boxes. Note, though, that the AD200's head cannot be zoomed. It only has one 35mm setting. However, it comes with an additional bare-bulb head which is ideal to use in softboxes.
All your boxes would also be ticked by a Cactus V6II + RF60X combination or a Godox trigger + Godox speedlight combination for quite a bit of less money (but also less flexibility and less power output). I'm not familiar with the current capabilities of Godox speedlights, but I'd be surprised if there weren't a model that supported HSS in conjunction with the XPro-P trigger.
Both systems are capable of working with your studio lights, you'd just have to use respective radio receivers + sync cables.
If your studio strobes have optical slaves then one such radio receiver + sync cable would be sufficient.
There is also the option of trigger stacking, i.e., putting your Aperture transmitter on top of a V6II but I wouldn't recommend such an approach.
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Forum: Flashes, Lighting, and Studio
01-06-2019, 12:32 AM
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Just bear in mind, as I mentioned on the other thread, that Cactus don't have studio lighting options. Lighting with speedlights like the RF60X or similar is not impossible but far from ideal when using large modifiers, requiring modelling lights, desiring quick recycling times, and independence from limited battery capacities.
You can, of course, trigger any studio strobe with a sync-port (I haven't ever seen one without a sync-port) using Cactus receivers, but this won't give you remote control over power levels and you won't get the use of HSS either. In many studio scenarios, the loss of these two features is not a serious issue, but it is obviously much more convenient and quicker if you can adjust lighting levels/ratios from the camera position. Also, there are studio lighting options that double as location lights and if you include such a use case then remote power level control and HSS become much more useful.
There are a number of options for Pentax that include speedlights and studio lights (such as from Phottix) but the largest range and the most affordable prices are offered by Godox (aka "Flashpoint" when bought through Adorama).
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Forum: Flashes, Lighting, and Studio
09-25-2018, 09:42 AM
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I cannot believe Profoto actually have the nerve to make such an obviously incorrect claim.
Of course one cannot directly compare Ws with GN but generally (non-anaemic) speedlights are assumed to have 60-75Ws. That suggests that the B10 replaces ~3 speedlights.
F-stoppers have actually performed measurements and found the B10 to be equivalent to ~2.5 speedlights. It is not trivial to make meaningful measurements because one doesn't want to be fooled by hot-spotting characteristics and doesn't want to ignore light that gets sent into angles one isn't measuring, so I think it is quite possible that F-stoppers didn't do the B10 justice. However, I'm certain that the B10 is nowhere near to replacing five speedlights.
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Forum: Flashes, Lighting, and Studio
09-23-2018, 04:58 AM
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For outdoor photography, I'd recommend having the option to use HSS (High Speed Sync).
Otherwise, you'll be limited to shutter speeds not exceeding 1/180s (or 1/200s, in case of the K-1). Instead of an HSS-capable light, you can use neutral density filters, but they are a bit of a pain in several ways and I wouldn't recommend this for (fast-paced) event photography.
I don't think any of your options with the exception of the Metz 50 AF-1 is HSS-capable. The Godox lights may acquire HSS-capabilities, if Godox will release respective firmware updates. You may want to consider the Godox AD200 as well, but again, it needs a as of yet non-existent firmware update to work with the XPro-P trigger for Pentax. Both Godox AD400 PRO and AD600 PRO are also options you may want to consider and for these a Pentax-compatible firmware version already exists. The XPro-P itself, however, is still only available for pre-order. I don't think anyone knows when it will become available for real.
You can already achieve HSS with some Godox lights by using trigger stacking, i.e., using a Cactus V6II on the camera and then placing a regular Godox trigger on top of it. You'd have to be careful, though, which devices will work with each other.
Two more questions that may help us answer your question better:- Do you get enough power out of the Metz 50 AF-1? Is it mainly the recycle time that you'd wish were shorter? More modern flashes like the Cactus RF60X recycle in 1.9s instead of 3.5s while delivering more power. If you use two flashes in conjunction, you can halve their output (to achieve the same overall output as before) in order to halve the recycle time.
- Are you after automatic exposure control? Personally, I prefer manual flash power control but for event photography, it can be useful to have access to P-TTL. Both Cactus and Godox triggers are capable of that. There is also a HSS/P-TTL capable trigger by Phottix but you'd be limited to the Phottix Indra strobes (battery-powered) and the Phottix Mitros flash.
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