Speedlite wishlist

[troutmouth]

more power. even if the light had the same battery capacity but twice the flash power - i would find it VERY useful - particularly for location shoots that often require large and cumbersome strobes. If i could get 50 flashes out of such a device, I'd be happy

john mckay

http://www.johnmckayphotography.com

http://500px.com/johnmckayphotography

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[TCampbell]

You can cluster your speedlights for more power.  Take a look at this video:

http://vimeo.com/40740390

He's got a couple of side-lighters hand-holding his speedlights, but they're using Westcott "Triple Threat" flash brackets which hold three flashes each... one side-lighter is holding a cluster of three lights...  the other is holding 6 (they use two "Triple Threat"  brackets on the same rod.)

Because they're using E-TTL with a LOT of lights, the system is dialing back the power so each light fires at a tiny fraction of it's full capacity.  As a result, they're able to shoot at 12 frames per second without the flashing going into a long recycle time.

You can cluster up to 15 speedlights in Canon's new radio trigger system.

[troutmouth]

yeh i've done that and works well. but one big boy would b nice.

thanks for response.

[ScottyP]

I am having a funny image from old cartoons where this giant flash detonates, and the subject is burnt black like Daffy Duck shot by Elmer Fudd in duck season.

[Skirball]

More is always better, sure, I’d take more free power if they could give it to me.

But for discussion sake, it’s not as simple as just pushing more power through it.  Speedlights increase power by doubling the output time.  So every stop you move up doubles the amount of time it takes to pump out that power.  I’m not sure what the 600ex does, but the 580exII seems to be in the ballpark of 1/200 second at full power (I’ve seen sources cite quicker, but my experience has been that my 580 acts about like a 1/200 shutter).   My 430 is noticeably quicker (but also less powerful).  The only reason I mention it, is because I have often found the 580 to be too slow at full power for some of my uses.  Like Tim said, I’ll usually cluster lights if I need a bunch of light so I can minimize duration and recycle time.