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Flash Recomendations for 500cm with 150/80/40 lenses


fino

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Can anyone with 2 minutes to spare give me your recomendations for a

suitable flash for a 500cm & PME45 with 150cf/80cf/40cf and a 16mm

ext tube. [i'm a landscape photographer moving into portraits,

outdoors and indoor]

 

I want a flash to cover all scenarios, budget up to $450/�400 second

hand.

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No single flash is very good for portrait work.An on camera light actually reduces the depth producing shadows that make faces appear round & three dimensional.That being said,the industry standard for wedding work are the Metz flashguns.These work best when mounted on a proper bracket so they are above the lens.The "off set" brackets they come with throw nasty shadows behind your subjects.The nicest light for any price is the Quantum Q's,these have round reflectors and throw a nice even light compared to the traditional rectangular reflectors.The Metz units cost $200-600 new depending on model and features.The bottom model CL45 is quite capable of professional work.The Q flash is state of the art for the top wedding people,these run around $700 with a Quantum "turbo" battery.
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I use a Metz 45CL-4 (Hasselblad Pro Flash was based on it) and a Quantum Q-flash with my Hasselblad. I like the Q-flash better the parabolic reflector works nicely with the sqaure format, the reflector is also removable for bare-bulb use, very nice. The Metz 45 has light fall off in situations where the Q-Flash didn't like at shorter distances. I use both flashes on a bracket that places them over the lens to help prevent side shadows. You can see my flash setups at the URL below.

 

 

http://ourplaceusa.home.att.net/hassey.htm

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If you want a flash that will handle a 40mm lens and work with the others, I'd say go with one of the barebulb type flashes--Quantum, Lumedyne, or Norman.

 

My favorite on camera flash setup for portraits: Norman flash set up high on a bracket directly over the lens with a 12x16" softbox, angled slightly downward. Use a prism, rather than a waist level finder to get the light up high. As long as you're within about 6 feet (the closer the better) of the subject, it produces a nice butterfly lighting effect. Outdoors in the wind and can be a little unwieldy, though, and I'll switch to the Norman 5" reflector with the opal glass diffuser.

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<<I want a flash to cover all scenarios, budget up to $450/�400 second hand.>>

 

2 Vivitar 283's ($50); 1 tiny shoe-mount ($5); 2 Peanut slave triggers ($30); 2 light stands w. umbrellas ($100); 1 good ambient/flash meter ($150). Spend the last $115 on used books on portraiture and lighting.

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This is a method I worked out 15 years ago. I use a metz or nikon sb11 flash with remote sensor on the lense hood. I posotion the flash about 2' above the lense on a bracket. I made an aluminum bracket that attatched to the left hand grip. so the flas head was atr an angle, but the real coupe de gras was to fit a small chimera soft box on the flas, I used one with the silver interior and about 12" square. This is cumbrsome but the results are fabulous!!!! I did not have ttl flash but kept the distances under 15 feet. I sue it regularly with the 50mm lense. It gives about the same light as in the studio withthe Mola on the brauncolor.
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<I thought the D Flash 40 was suited for the 503cw and not my older 500cm? Am I mistaken?>

 

That's what the catalog says,

 

"The D-40 connects directly to the electronics of the 500 and 200 series cameras with built-in TTL/OTF flash metering systems. Since the flash works only in automatic TTL mode only..."

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