Off-Camera Flash Kit – List of items you need to buy
My interest in artificial light started with Sigma EF-500 DG ST ETTL II, fully automated low end flash which stoped working after I upgraded my camera to 50D (usuall compatibility issue with third party flashes).
Feeling let down by Sigma I decided to fork out significant amount of money and go directly for a canon flash. I set my eyes on 430 EX II, which seemed like a reasonable option, but still expensive on the student budget – especially in Europe (here we pay 30% more on photo equipment). So, I purchased flash from Honk Kong on ebay. Unfortunatly, little I knew about Italian postal system at that time… I had to go to post office every week for total of 3 month to finally learn that the day before my last visit they have shipped package back to Honk Kong. You can imagine how…
But I learned my lessons: 1. Use local dealer whenever price of an item is more than you care to lose; 2. “Posta Italia” sucks; 3. if you purchased something from ebay, and it didn’t arrive within 1 month period, ask for refund immediately. Ebay buyer protection program expires in 45 days and nobody will give you money back after that period.
I blame all my bad luck on ETTL. Or in other words I thank ETTL, because if I was a bit luckier with it, I would have never discovered an awesome world of cheap manual flashes!
I hope this article will help you avoid my mistakes and let you plunge into artifical light photography right away.
My rationale for choosing these:
- Portability: I wanted my lightning kit to be ultra compact (this effectively excludes all studio strobes and heavy continuous lights).
- Scalability: if I was going to build a system I wanted to make sure that 1, 2, 3 or more light sources could be added to the kit without a problem (wierless triggers provide this capability).
- Price: cheap, cheap, cheap! (this means no ETTL, automation is pricey).
Manual Flashes
Thanks to competition from little technology companies in china our choice for third party flashes has widened considreably compared to previous years. Besides the new toys in the market, your choice also includes second hand and discontinued models from the eigthies. Old models are not hard to come by, you can usually find them on ebay or in local second hand camera shops. I personally have both: second hand vivitar 285 HV and new chinese Yongnuo YN460-II. They are both similarly priced, but there is distinction… As a general rule (from my experience) old models have slow recycling time but are better built, while YN models are fragile / less reliable but usually more powerful and with more bells and whistles. If you want more than 1 flash, it’s better to buy 2x of the same model, because difference in recycling time will be quite annoying while working (again, personal experience).
Note, it doesn’t matter what camera / lens system you’ve got, you will be shooting these using wireless triggers and NEVER mounted on the camera itself. So it doesn’t really matter what combination of brands you use – you might have canon camera, and use old Nikon flash.
Also be warned that mounting old models like Vivitar 285 HV on the hotshoe of your camera will probably fry both, since there is considerable voltage difference.
This is the list of all manual flash models available in the market. For your convinience, I will try to include price and relevant links to the products.
- 1. Nikon SB-24 – 100$
(There are several versions and any of these will do just fine SB-25, 26,28) Nikon SB is highest quality manual flash you can get on the second hand market, and this is reflected in the price. Allot of manual shooters had been buying these lately, so prices have actually increased.
- 2. Vivitar 285HV – 70$
This is time tested trustworthy flash! The only problem I’ve with Vivitar is the recycle time, outright annoying.
- 3. YN-460 mk II – 40$
(I absolutely recommend this for starters, but I wouldn’t trust YN for any crucial work.)
Wireless Trigger
(aka: povertywizard)
These radio triggers are dirt cheap, break often, but are awesome due to price! Industry standard triggers cost around 300$ so you must understand, there will be some drawbacks when you buy them for 20$.
RF-602, 2.4GHz Wireless Remote Flash Trigger = 17$
(Pay attention to the items included, go for the package with: Receiver + Transmitter + PC sync cable.)
Adhesive Velcro
This, while not nessesary, is certeinly useful. You can use velcro to attach radio triggers to flash body so that they don’t dangle around. Probably you know how this works, but just in case lets run the details… You need to buy 2 types of velcro tape: loop and the hook (aka: soft side and hard side), usually sold together. You need to get self adhesive version and stick the ‘loop’ on the back side of the radio trigger and ‘hook’ on the flash itself.
Self Adhesive Velcro Hook and Loop Tape = 0.01$
Umbrellas
There are many types of modifiers, but for starters I will explain two basic umbrella flavors: shoot-through and reflective.
In a sense there is nothing to explain, names describe their function perfectly. With shoot-through you just aim flash inside and get softer light on the other end. While, with reflective you try to bounce flash off the umbrella surface.
I purchased both types on ebay from Hong Kong – if I had to buy only one type, I would go for reflective umbrella. Because light with this type of umbrella is more concentrated and there is less spill on the surroundings. Shoot-throughs give softer light, which is preferable for portraits, but allot of power is lost as heat when light passes through the material, and much of light bounces in all directions. Both have their uses, but again, if I had to choose only 1, I would go for reflective.
Reflective umbrella for Flash = 12$
Light stand
I own manfrotto light stand and another brandless direct from Hong Kong. There is huge difference in quality of these, Manfrotto stand which I purchased for 80$, is well bult, heavy, and is shorter when collapsed – brandless one on the other hand is made of cheap plastic, it is very light, and costs around 30$. Under similar work-load neither of these broke… so despite the obvious differences, I still recommend the cheap one, cause it is more durable than it looks.
Photo video studio light stand = 30$
Flash shoe holder / Umbrella mount
This is important. Flash and umbrella mount is a joint where all parts come together.
Flash shoe holder swivel bracket = 5$
Gels
Gels are transparent plastic pieces you attach on the flash – When light passes through the colored plastic it changes its characteristics. Gels are used to balance flash output with color of ambient light.
To understand usefullnes of a gel, imagine a room lit with a tugnsten light which has greenish tint; You want to use flash, but soon find out that flash light has different characteristics than ambient. Flash output is comparable to daylight, so with this in foreground and tungsten in background problem emerges: you can only choose one type of white balance on the camera. But, gel saves the day… you put green gel in front of a flash, and light passing through will become similar to tungsten ambient – thus you will be able to set your camera white balance to tungsten and obtain correct balance.
To understand this on deeper level you must read more about white balancing.
Flash Gel Filter + Velcro = 8$
Total: 112 $
To my best knowledge, this is the cheapest kit you can build. If you have relevant information, or additional usefull links, please use the comment box bellow.
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There are 6 comments on this post.
Trackback URL | Comments RSS FeedGreat info..!!!
Exactly the information I have been lookIng for. Thank you!!
This was helpful. I am just starting out in studio photography but so far only have continuous lighting. I have an SB 700 and will be using that. Thank-you very much!
Sonia
Sonia M. » Continuous lightning is great and easy to use… But I would never trade mobility and cheapness of strobes.
p.s. Are you talking about NIKON SB700? I believe it’s a strobe not continuous light…
Hi Sandro
I am just a beginner and am now only using continuous until I learn more about lighting. I have the SB700 but am not using it as a strobe just yet. I will be studying up more on that and would eventually like to use strobes for portraiture. Thank-you for your articles, they are great!
Hey Sandro – Just bought a Ravelli light stand on Amazon for $21.00 shipped to your door and the quality is superb…no surprises, just a good quality stand…Check it out…Also, it compares with the Manfrotto, which sells for twice as much, however, the Manfrotto workmanship is just a hair higher than Ravelli but this stand is good for any level of photographer…