The Portable Ring Flash solution

[anthony_peraza]

I just relocated to the "Valley" from Los Angeles, and want a

ringlight that is portable so I don't have to drive back and forth

from Hollywood to Chatsworth on a daily basis. The choices I was

presented were the Macro Ringlight Canon manufactures and

Sunpaks "Dx-12R" Ringlight since I asked for a unit that didn't

require a power pack system. I have always used Profoto's ringflash

head for their portable powerpacks, and have been renting the kit

for years from Calumet. I would like to know if there are any

chances in the universe for a portable ringlight with a decent guide

number (unlike the GN of 40) for the sunpak.

 

I have engaged in talks with everyone about this. Yesterday I spoke

with someone from Samy's Camera for an hour about solutions and cheap

(er) ways of achieving a portable ringlight source all with

powerpacks powered with rechargable batteries (Speedotron's has a

good portable battery pack for it's price and so does White

Lightning).

 

The ringlight look is so overused, so I don't want to by the profoto

location kit just to have it. It's something I would only use from

time to time. Any options presented would be VERY much

appreciated...

 

- Anthony / www.perazaphoto.net

[ellis_vener_photography]

A few years ago I was at "GM Foto" in Frankfurt Germany. they sell a custom made ring

flash head for about $300-400.00, wired to work with Norman 200/400 watt-second

battery packs. It looked interesting . I've always been sorry I didn't buy one.

[daniel_unkefer]

I have a Hasselblad Ring Flash I bought on the cheap, and I have lots of Norman 200b heads, packs, and batteries. New York Flash Clinic will modify the pack/ring for a very reasonable price, there's Holly Enterprises in L.A. also.

 

How much light do you need? 200WS in a ringlight is a lot of close-up flash power.

[danny_liao]

A ringlight is nothing more than absolute direct light. Go invest in a portable pack

with two heads. Yes, it's expensive but you'll always need it for other things too. To

create a ringflash type of look without a actual ringflash, simply place one head above

the camera and one below the camera. BAMB, ringflash look without having to buy a

expensive ringflash. It's simple. Besides Speedo and White Lightning, try Dyna Lites

too.

[christian_sabel]

I am located in Frankfurt and GM Foto is my local dealer. The flash the sold was a Materzok Ringflash. It is not availible any more due to the fact that Materzok gave up his buisness.

(still glad that i have got one :-)

Christian Sabel

[anthony_peraza]

I've emulated a similiar ring-flash look just by placing an extra-large human sized softbox behind the camera, but i also tried the flash head above and below and side to side (which was overkill). Thank you everyone for your responses. I was thinking of getting the XP1100 Portable battery unit made by Dynalite and using it for the m1000XL and havin the Bowens ringflash that Calumet sells modified for it. What a pain in the ass though - i like working without assistants when possible, but since i'd have a 23 pound battery unit alongside a powerpack, i'd pretty much need someone the entire time for location, non-permit shoots (which most of my editorial work consists of). I am planning a trek to Europe later this year, maybe I can be a bit adventurous and try to find that ringflash unit in Germany... any other options for "completely portable" ringflash units without a battery pack would be awesome, but thanks again for all your responses!!

 

- Anthony

[twmeyer]

Adam Whaley has made a portable ring flash out of what appears to be a large stainless bowl. <a href="http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1025&message=13901744 ">Here</a>'s a link to his photos of it. He gets surprisingly good <a href="http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?topic_id=1481&msg_id=00Cv2Q&photo_id=3551991&photo_sel_index=1">results</a>.. t

[christopher_perceval]

Lumedyne will adapt most rings to work on their power packs for US$200. They

recommend the Profoto ones. They also claim to be able to make them do all the TTL

clever stuff with their deluxe packs and work with their Auto exposure module (a thyrystor

type thing). With their kit, at least you can carry it easily enough. You'll not be able to get

it up to 3,000J but you cannot have everything!

[dj from lumedyne]

Yes, Lumedyne can modify most ringlights to flash on our Classic and Next Generation equipment. Only a few work with the Signature Series. We are currently sourcing a ringlight flashtube that will make most of them fully compatible. We can stack up to 2400ws but most people find that 400ws to 800ws is more than enough.

 

We hope to introduce the Lumedyne Ring Flash this year. It will be compatible with all Lumedynes and accessories. The main advantage is our light weight system as our Head is made from the Hensel Ringlight.

 

Feel free to contact us about this. I only found this Forum because I was trying to find one of the Materzok units sold by Calumet for a customer. He wanted to buy one so we could modify it for him. Thanks for the unfortunate comformation of Materzok's going out of business in Frankfurt. I will agree that they are good units, I own one. I prefer the larger ringflashes even with the added weight though. (more ring light effect due the the convergance of light) And I agree that a bracket rig can be made with two heads for a similar look. I used the Jones rotating bracket when we experimented with the idea so we could use the lights vertically or horizontally in portrait or landscape modes. We also used two extra small soft boxes as we were shooting on the beach against full sun. That rig makes the full sized ringflash seem small.

 

Good luck out there.

D.J.