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| Multi-meter:
Gossen's Starlite meter
incorporates spot, incident, reflective,
flash, cine readings, plus unusual weatherproofing
and a great street price compared to comparable
meters. |
This
month, let's look at recent developments in ways
to produce and measure the basic building block
of all photos: light.
WHEN
LESS IS MORE
If you read the specs for some of today's high-end
amateur digital cameras, you'll see minimum
apertures in the neighborhood of f/11. In some
situations, these cameras can be perfectly suited
for pro use. When you use them with most studio,
AC-powered flash units, however, you often discover
that the flash burst easily overpowers the camera's
f/11 minimum aperture—even if you throttled
the pack down to its dimmest output and dial
in chip sensitivity to its lowest setting. This
scenario is especially common for photographers
who work with flash heads close to their subjects
in order to obtain beautiful, soft lighting.
What a drag! For years photographers scraped
by to afford more power...now they need less!
In response, Bogen (www.bogenphoto.com)
has introduced a new line of pro flash equipment
that can be throttled down to output levels
that coexist with the relatively wide minimum
apertures of some of today's digital cameras.
Made by Elinchrom and offered in both monolight
and pack/head versions, these flash units have
minimum outputs as low as nine watt seconds!
Let's
check out the specifics: The Elinchrom Style
monolights are available in S and non-S versions.
The 300S (5 lb) puts out 9 to 300 WS; the 600S
(5 lb, 12 oz) pumps 18 to 600 WS; and the 7
lb, 10 oz 1200S delivers 37 to 1200 WS. Street
prices are about $642, $731, and $1,141 respectively.
For a little less, Elinchrom offers the non
S Style 300 and 600 that can only be throttled
down to 18 and 37 WS respectively. Why go with
the S series? In addition to having more powerful
modeling lights (250 watt instead of 100 watt),
they include a cable-connected remote control
(4 or 8 foot). This accessory is very helpful
when flash controls are out of easy reach. Even
if you're on a tight budget, go with the S Series.
For
shooters who prefer the separate head/generator
design, Elinchrom has two new lower-power packs
for the digital shooter. The Digital 1 (12 lb,
10 oz; street price: $1,042) is a 1,200 WS generator
that can pump out as little as 37 WS; the Digital
2 is a 2,400 WS bruiser (16 lb, 10 oz, $1,550)
with a minimum output of 74 WS. Both units work
with the Digital SE flash head ($623), that
features a 3,000 WS flashtube, a 300 watt quartz
modeling lamp, and a built-in fan. Unfortunately,
that 300 watt quartz modeling lamp has a European
base and isn't widely available in the United
States. While spare bulbs are available through
Bogen dealers, I'd probably keep four spares
on hand.
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