Home Forums Gear Photography Mr. Cameraland - Questions on a Flash..

Mr. Cameraland:
I'm running out of ideas for supplementing Cookie's equipment. She runs a Canon 50D and has a ring flash that meshes with her macro. I'm thinking that something that might complement her 28-135 lens might be good for some nightime close in wildlife shots. Something that reaches from about 10 to 20 yards.

We have some buddies that are quite good at calling in a variety of owls etc. She also has a remote trigger system, so tripod setups and remote triggering by trails or bait might be applications too. Suggestions? And it can't be too exotic as I need to score something by Christmas. Thank you,

Thanks for thinking of is. There are no flashes that will do much good at night at a distance of 30-60 feet. We do have the Canon 600 coming in and may just reach out to have a slight effect on a 30 foot shot, but barely.
We also have the Nissin DI866 II and the Promaster FL1, both very powerful flashes. The problem is the light has nothing to reflect off of.

Mr. Cameraland:
Thanks for the speedy response. It sounds like one needs near arc-welder power to have much effect outside of typical room size distances.

In setups for something like a well established perch or bait pile, one could place flash/es in quite close and either trip them remotely or with a wire. Cookie is more a roam around and take what comes type person, and I suspect she would only rarely want to engineer such a setup.

Wish I could do one of the super telephotos, but I can't find a willing cosigner at the moment. I'll do a bit more thinking.

Thank you for being here, your sponsorship, and technical advice. Merry Christmas,

How about a Better Beamer

Better Beamer

Ron: Are you aware of a source that can attach any real numbers to that product? I.e. How much gain does one actually get? Also, I'm a little leary of something with a velcro strap as a primary component.

Joel:
Hope I'm not a PIA here, but you are dealing with a village idiot that has essentially no flash experience since my Nikon F days back in the 70's. Still have it too.

I've done a little surfing on the Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT TTL Shoe Mount Camera Flash.

The following is a copy/paste from the feature listing:
�Zoom flash head covers wide range of 20-200mm; maximum Guide Number (197 ft./60m at ISO 100).

That suggests a bit of reach, but as you mentioned one is not blessed with much in the way of bounce with outdoor environments. Could you venture a guess as to what it's realistic effective range might be? I.e. could one resolve a racoon's whiskers at 50 feet or the subtleties
of bird feathers at say 30 feet?

Thanks again,

Google is your friend. It is a widely used product in the bird photography community.

If I could add a little to think about. With some of today's cameras and their ability to shoot at higher ISOs, the idea of getting a little detail in a subject at a greater range is possible, but...
When you look at a flash in a dark situation, some people will relate the brightness of the flash as to it's power when there is another factor involved and that is the duration of the flash. The farther away and the more light that the flash puts out is partially because of the duration of the flash being longer. Typically when you use a flash for wildlife you want a shorter burst, which stops the action. The critter being farther away may light up but there could be some movement.
With something like a Better Beamer, it simply focuses the light to a more narrow beam. I would think at night the problem is going to be having the lens being able to focus on that spot quickly in the dark as well.
With the value of some of the Nissin flashes, you may look at setting up 2 to fire into a designated area (almost like a studio) when the bird or animal enters the spot. In other words, it is predicting where a critter will be, which the remote trigger would do. You could use a remote trigger on the flash(s) and have it fire from a closer distance into the area, like 10 feet away.
I hope that makes a little sense. What you are looking for is not impossible to do, it will take a little planning that is all.
Good luck!

Thank you. I think I will pursue some other options, and sorry that we did not flex the credit card.

The Canon 600, while very powerful indoors would be no where near what you need outside. If you are lucky you may get 25 feet out of it

This was taken with a better beamer at almost 70 yards in the middle of the night.

and this was about 50 yards:

I liked the better beamer but unfortunately mine was stolen

The better beamer was likely accompanied with some sort of flash. Specifics?

it was a 580ex with the BB. Works like a champ.

70 yds? How in the world did you focus it?

Flashlight

Very nicely done. Not an easy task.

Thank you sir. While the flshlight(Fenix TK30) I use is very powerful, I get allot more OOF than in focus.

As you know, the key to looking good is never to show those!

If people only could see the amount of OOF shots I get, they'd never ask me a question again

I never take a bad shot....LOL!