I am looking for a manufacturer of very short duration strobe/flash lighting and if they have a UK stockist or preferably somebody who rents them?
I have tried the companies I know but no joy, but obviously Stephen Dalton has something like this and so does Andy Harmer ( Andys is bespoke as I suspect Mr Daltons is).
Specs
I would like a strobe/flash duration of about 20000th of a second and a recycle time of about 1 second. Distance flash has to illuminate is about 1m @ F32 @ 200 ASA. I know this will be bulky kit.
Try this link it worked ok the other day no luck tonight. The company is in Ely and are about to release a range of high speed units designed by Proff Greg Parker, not cheap but seem well made I think they are talking £3000.00 a unit or £7500.00 for a set of three and I think these go to 40000 of a second. They are powered by battery so can be used in the field and are fairly weather proof
I was looking at the Broncolour Grafit A2 a studio pack these go to 7000 of a second T.01 Profoto also do a pack that states 12000 of a second at T.05 but for some reason these come down to a 4000 at T.01
I noticed on you website you say that you also use Canon guns? I have 2 580's and the modeling macro flash, but cannot find the manuals Do you know what duration these fire at when they are set to their lowest power?
Posted by John Varley on January 23, 2008 at 7:04 AM
Tom for your purpose (f32) you probably need a bigger flash, but here is a bit of info about the Canon 550ex.
I used an oscilloscope to measure the flash durations of the 550ex at the various manual power settings. At the lowest power setting the flash duration is 1/25000 second.
The flash is ready to fire again pretty quickly (probably less than a 1 sec) but the flash duration will start to increase. I think it is by design that the flash duration of the 550ex starts to lengthen as you repetively fire it - the flash becomes weaker but lasts longer - so the light output is held constant - so exposure remains correct. So if you are aiming for fastest flash speed you need to let the flash rest a bit between flashes. I have been wondering about using pocketmax's to slave a group of flashes - so they can fire quite rapidly but each flash can rest a bit.
Anyway I thought some people might find this useful to know.
Hi Tom. According to Joe McDonalds article on main site it's posible to be 3,6 feet (1,1 m) away with 550EX and better beamer at f22 ISO 100. Problem with studio strobes is that they don't have thyristor for cutting out light. That means that their output is curve and tail of that curve can easily cause ghosting. And i don't know of a unit that have duration of 1/20000.
Cheers,
Marko
Posted by Gary Beers on January 23, 2008 at 8:22 AM
I think that Michael Leach has used this sort of kit, along with an IR trigger, so he might be able to help. I think his book says he got a friend to build it for him (!)
Posted by Ian Andrews on January 23, 2008 at 1:06 PM
Tom,
I've used multiple speedlights at reduced power to achieve speeds of around 1/16000sec and even half a dozen would work out cheaper than some of the prices above!
Using Sigma EF530 supers x3, triggered with a Sigma macro flash (same electronics) I've been getting 3 or 4 shots at 5fps (on a D200) The 4th has sometimes been a bit underpowered.
Without teaching Gran'ma, the closer you can get the units, the less power required. If you need more info, give me a shout.
Frank Greenaway did a lot of work with H/S flash eventually building his own units, one of the factors was the shutter delay etc of the camera, it was found that the only camera that he could use effectively was the Rollei 6008, another of my colleagues has been working on similar lines and also found the Rollei to be the best bet (should add that they are using the Integral version which with the extra controller the camera can be set to a high speed release mode with the shortest delay of any camera apparently)
You don't say what you are planning to shoot, but if you want I can get in touch with Frank to see if it is OK to pass his details on to you (he is from that Island too )
Discussion
9 repliesI am looking for a manufacturer of very short duration strobe/flash lighting and if they have a UK stockist or preferably somebody who rents them?
I have tried the companies I know but no joy, but obviously Stephen Dalton has something like this and so does Andy Harmer ( Andys is bespoke as I suspect Mr Daltons is).
Specs
I would like a strobe/flash duration of about 20000th of a second and a recycle time of about 1 second. Distance flash has to illuminate is about 1m @ F32 @ 200 ASA. I know this will be bulky kit.
Any help much appreciated.
T
Try this link it worked ok the other day no luck tonight. The company is in Ely and are about to release a range of high speed units designed by Proff Greg Parker, not cheap but seem well made I think they are talking £3000.00 a unit or £7500.00 for a set of three and I think these go to 40000 of a second. They are powered by battery so can be used in the field and are fairly weather proof
I was looking at the Broncolour Grafit A2 a studio pack these go to 7000 of a second T.01 Profoto also do a pack that states 12000 of a second at T.05 but for some reason these come down to a 4000 at T.01
Hope this helps
Andy
Unit 9
Unit 9lancaster Way Business Park Ely
Cambridgeshire
CB6 3NW
t: 01353 659922
f: +44 1353 668883
Andy
Cheers, but a tad pricey new
I noticed on you website you say that you also use Canon guns? I have 2 580's and the modeling macro flash, but cannot find the manuals
T
Andy
I used an oscilloscope to measure the flash durations of the 550ex at the various manual power settings. At the lowest power setting the flash duration is 1/25000 second.
The flash is ready to fire again pretty quickly (probably less than a 1 sec) but the flash duration will start to increase. I think it is by design that the flash duration of the 550ex starts to lengthen as you repetively fire it - the flash becomes weaker but lasts longer - so the light output is held constant - so exposure remains correct. So if you are aiming for fastest flash speed you need to let the flash rest a bit between flashes. I have been wondering about using pocketmax's to slave a group of flashes - so they can fire quite rapidly but each flash can rest a bit.
Anyway I thought some people might find this useful to know.
Cheers,
Marko
I've used multiple speedlights at reduced power to achieve speeds of around 1/16000sec and even half a dozen would work out cheaper than some of the prices above!
Using Sigma EF530 supers x3, triggered with a Sigma macro flash (same electronics) I've been getting 3 or 4 shots at 5fps (on a D200) The 4th has sometimes been a bit underpowered.
Without teaching Gran'ma, the closer you can get the units, the less power required. If you need more info, give me a shout.
Ian
Frank Greenaway did a lot of work with H/S flash eventually building his own units, one of the factors was the shutter delay etc of the camera, it was found that the only camera that he could use effectively was the Rollei 6008, another of my colleagues has been working on similar lines and also found the Rollei to be the best bet (should add that they are using the Integral version which with the extra controller the camera can be set to a high speed release mode with the shortest delay of any camera apparently)
You don't say what you are planning to shoot, but if you want I can get in touch with Frank to see if it is OK to pass his details on to you (he is from that Island too
Best of luck with the conference...
Speak soon
Phil