Usable Distance S-2000 Strobe

[Peter Bomberg]

@dhaas, great pics and good food for thought.

@Interceptor121, very true I was just looking for a rough guide, I am experimenting and will likely end up with about 24-30 inch arms, I use locline so the segments are not very long. I tried a 40" arm today and its a bit long I cant adjust the strobe without flipping the rig sideways, will try 36 next. I don't know how it will work underwater but it's soo light and compact (I love it).

I will upload pictures once I have a working prototype but 24-30(ish) will be the range, I need to work on the quick connector next otherwise it will be 24" from tray edge to YS connector and my tray is very short.

 

[bvanant]

They seem way, way too long compared to any system that I have seen people use. Not sure why you want to go to such arm lengths and I don't understand the backscatter argument.
Bill

 

[Peter Bomberg]

Hello Bill, my idea was to maximize the length while retaining stability and ensuring the resulting system fits inside my small travel bag, that being said my 36 test showed some minor issues so next is 34ish.

The backscatter argument relates to anecdotal advice (I am not a good enough photographer to tell from my limited testing) that says if you get backscatter try moving your strobe arms out further. The logic is reduce the amount of space between the lens and the subject you light up, this makes sense since adjusting the angle will simply light up more behind the subject but the strobe arm distance will increase the angle thus it should decrease the light reflected into the lens but this is all theoretical on my part as my old rig had much shorter arms (12ish). The min I can use is 18 (to be able to get the video lights down to the lens as my arms are not super flexible (3/4 loc line), I learnt this when trying to take pictures into barrel sponges, I simply could not light up the subject for the autofocus to lock on the subject when the sponge had a narrow opening, at 20-22 I can shine the light over the camera and get into tight spots.