location flash

I have a 3 600watt/sec white lighting strobes and a battery pack that I have

used on occasion to take the strobes on location. Problem is that I often find

myself w/o the time or the space to pack up the white lightnings and head to a

location.

 

I'm looking for a lightweight small solution that I can take anywhere - 2-3

lights. My main requirement is to fire wirelessly from the camera without

having to trigger my on-camera flash. I have a Canon 350xt - digital rebel.

 

I'm considering quantum, canon speedlights, or a 3rd party speedlight. Always

looking to save some $$$ - I welcome any suggestions.

 

Thanks

 

-- Michael

One way: http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/03/lighting-101.html

I'm not sure you are going to end up with that much smaller a setup - you will still need light stands, appropriate mounting for the flashes and any modifiers/reflectors you regularly use, and you are going to need quite a bit of flash power to replace 1800 w/s of strobe output.

 

Since you use studio lighting, I expect you will be happy to work without having E-TTL control (which in any event can be more tricky outdoors because optical signals don't work as well as in the studio where there are lots of surfaces for them to bounce off) - perhaps with a flash meter. That suggests using fairly powerful but simple flashes with manual power control and radio triggers - which has the benefit of being somewhat cheaper than Canon or Quantum units, give or take whether you invest in Pocketwizard as the radio trigger system or accept a cheaper option (that will partly depend on the shooting environment). You aren't going to get the same fast recycle times either, I suspect. Tolerance of continuous use for extended periods will be rather lower too. You may need a pair of flashes to replace a single studio strobe - perhaps more, depending on the model you select, especially if you are working outdoors - and each flash is going to have to be set up for the shoot and each change of lighting.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if you end up concluding that you might as well take your studio setup along.

>>My main requirement is to fire wirelessly <<

 

The only system I know that is near-perfect is the Pocket Wizard. Pretty much guaranteed to fire your strobes, no matter what.

 

You can also look at WEIN's infrared systems.

 

As for the strobes themselves Lumedyne makes excellent portable systems. Relatively small and easy to setup.

 

It all depends on what you need in so far as power, reliability, etc... You have to pay for quality, reliability and power. So, no way out of that one.

I use <a href=http://www.photo.net/photo/3042035>this system </a>90% of the time. It consists of three 550EX (triggered and controlled by the ST-E2) Photek Softlighter II umbrella boxes, stands, adapters and gels. I can set it up in 5 minutes.