Reader's Comments - Index of - Free

Studio Photography
In powerpack/head systems, Novatron should be the
cheapest system you consider. Anything cheaper
probably won't work in the long run and won't fit any
of the standard light control accessories. Novatron
sells kits that include cheap umbrellas and light stands
in a big plastic case. You can use these to go on
location as long as you're not worried about some bigtime
professional walking by and calling you a girlieman
because you don't have Speedotron. The kits
range in price from about $500 (240 w/s, two heads) to
$1000 (500 w/s, three heads). The main problems with
Novatron are that (1) the packs only have adustable
power output over a 2 or 3 f-stop range, and (2) the
heads won't take more than 500 or 1000 w/s of power.
If you feel like spending twice as much money, you will no doubt be very happy with Speedotron Black
Line, Norman, Dyna-Lite, or Calumet systems. These allow you to pump 2000 or 3000 w/s into a single
head, adjust over a 5 or 6 f-stop range, have more powerful modeling lights, and are presumably more
reliable in heavy use. Many of these systems offer interesting zoom heads that allow adustment of the
light cone angle. I share a studio with Elsa Dorfman and use her Broncolor strobes. These are another
factor of two more expensive than other "professional-grade" systems and yet I don't really notice any
difference using them day-to-day versus Novatrons.
Warning: there is a brand of mail-order flash called White Lightning (Paul Buff) that is sold as X wattseconds
for N dollars. These supposedly aren't such horrible flashes but the watt-seconds figures are
absurd. The true output is something like X/2 in which case the monolights aren't any cheaper than
other cheap brands.
Note for high speed photography: Studio flash systems generally take between 1/200th and 1/1500th of a
second to dump out their light. This is fast enough to freeze much motion but won't stop a bullet or give
you a perfectly sharp splash. Studio strobes are designed for relatively long illumination times because
color film actually suffers some reciprocity failure at the very short exposure times of on-camera flashes
that aren't working hard. In other words, Kodak and Fuji don't guarantee that you'll get correct color
balance at 1/50,000 of a second because the red, green, and blue layers of the film respond differently to
being illuminated for so short a time. If you want to do high-speed photography, your options are (1) use
an on-camera flash set for 1/32nd power, or (2) get a studio strobe system specifically designed for stopmotion
capability.
Note: Call 1-800-CALUMET to get a catalog with a good selection of studio flashes with illustrations.
Kapture Group sells equipment for high-speed photography.
Light Control
http://www.photo.net/studio/primer (5 of 17)7/3/2005 2:18:01 AM