portable lighting kit on a budget, sigma vs canon speedlites, pocket wizards etc...

[johnker]

I'm just getting back into photography and I'mbuildinga potable lighting kit to shoot portraits of bands while I am on the road. If you have ever seen "confessions of a professional photographer" on you tube, I am trying to emulate his set up. I'd like to have 2 remote flash units for lighting, so my question is... Should I buy high end canon flashes or can I get away with sigmas? And... what is the best way to wirelessly trigger my flashes, is there an alternative to pocket wizards? Being a musician/photographer means I'm on a seriously tight budget. I have done tons ofresearchon the internet, just looking for some human feedback and suggestions! Thanks!

[devsalvi]

I read Bryan's review on 580exII and decided to give it a try. It has worked great for me so far. I would not think of buying any other flash for canon cameras. I just ordered my second flash, another 580exII and the remote transmitter st-e2. Some of the things you buy from canon, you will not regret, like this flash or the L series lenses.





Cheers!


Dev

[Joel Bookhammer]

I would use the Canon flashes, they work great and they are built to last. I use Cactus V2s for the wireless flash setup. I think that there is a newer version of them now, they arenot as well built as the PW's but for a fraction of a cost they work for me.


thanks


joel

[johnker]

thanks for the tip! the cactus V2 looks amazing for the price, found a review and link to www.gadgetinfinity.com i'lldefinitelybe picking some of these up!

[jea lee]

i mount a 580ex2 on my 5d mk1 and sync it to two 430ex flashes. works great.

[peety3]

Start with two Canon 580EX II flashes. Use one on-camera and one off-camera. Either through the camera or on the master flash, you can control the remote flash either through E-TTL or manual power settings. See if you can become comfortable with manual flash in such a way that you wouldn't need to walk over to the remote flash(es) to adjust power. If so, many of the triggering tools out there would be great. If you're better off using E-TTL, consider a third Canon flash as your B remote. If manual flash is OK, various triggers that only signal "Flash now!" will be OK.

[Jayson]

Joel,


When you use the Cactus system, do you have to use your flash on manual mode or can you use it as normal? I have been looking at the PW but this might be a good alternative.


Thanks,


Jayson

[Sean Setters]

A flash is a flash. If you're using it off-camera, and can live with manually adjusting your power, then the only reason to get a 580EX II over a (much) cheaper flash is the power (guide number). With todays cameras shooting at ISO 200 with very little noise, the extra flash power isn't as necessary as it once was (in my opinion).


As far as triggering the flash, your budget will be the deciding factor in what range your triggers will have and how reliably they trigger.


On the low end, I'd suggest the CTR-301 or the CTR-301p. They're relatively cheap, and don't require any extra wires because the flash simply slides into the trigger's hotshoe. I think the added PC sync port of the CTR-301p would be relatively useless to you at this stage, however, they're a slightly newer product and may be slightly better made than the original CTR-301 (I don't know, though). If you buy a set of these, you'll need to choose an umbrella swivel carefully because you'll want one with a threaded (1/4" if I remember) stud instead of a shoe connector.


For a good middle-of-the-road option, you can't beat CyberSyncs. The products you'd need are the CST (transmitter) and the CSRB (receiver) units. They're made by Paul C. Bluff (of Alien Bees/White Lightning) in Nashville, TN. They're basically as reliable as PocketWizards, but don't have the same range (400-600' instead of the 1600' range of PocketWizards). If you need substantially more range than the length of a football field, then you need the PocketWizards. And if you need the PocketWizards, then you probably don't have any issues paying for them. You'll need a way to connect the receivers to the flash. The best option is to buy a hotshoe adapter from FlashZebra (with the CyberSyncs, I'd personally suggest item #0128).


And on the high end, as you know, PocketWizards. I'm not even going to go on about them because I think they're economically unreasonable for anyone who doesn't make a living doing photography. They are fantastic, but the price is steep.


And if you want to learn more about off-camera flash, check out the Strobist blog and specifically Lighting 101. They are invaluable resources. The blogger, David Hobby, recommends using PocketWizards because of their reliability. However, for most of us, one of the cheaper options above will do just fine.

[johnker]

sean thank you for the feedback! much appreciated, I have checked out all of the links

[Joel Bookhammer]

Hey John I use them in manual mode, I havent tried it in the other modes. I find them to be extremely reliable for the price.


thanks


joel