{"id":2725,"date":"2014-10-20T13:13:04","date_gmt":"2014-10-20T18:13:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/siskinphoto.com\/blog\/?p=2725"},"modified":"2014-10-20T13:13:04","modified_gmt":"2014-10-20T18:13:04","slug":"junk-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siskinphoto.com\/blog\/?p=2725","title":{"rendered":"Junk Man"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a> \"\"\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n

My books and my classes give me a reason to keep doing this blog. If you\u2019re in Indiana I hope you\u2019ll consider taking my Portfolio Workshop<\/a>. You can see a little more information about this workshop if you check out this blog post<\/a> . I\u2019ve listed my BetterPhoto classes at the end of this post. Thanks so much for your attention.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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I\u2019m a junk man. I think that it\u2019s better to have more gear than newer gear. So I have a lot of Norman 200B strobes. Norman 200Bs haven\u2019t been made in about 20 years, long time. Norman still makes a 200C, which costs about $1200, while a used, well used, 200B can be had for around $100 on eBay. So, if I can find them I can get a used unit for less than 10% of a new one. The used one weighs more, which is too bad, but it has some actual advantages. The 200B recycles quicker than almost any other strobe; the best 200Bs recycle to full power in a second. Norman 200Bs use 12-volt power, so you can run one off a cigarette lighter socket in your car, you can use a cheap lead acid 12V battery, you can even use a car battery. I don\u2019t know of any other strobe that has so many inexpensive power options. A Norman 200B is pretty powerful, with a guide number around 114 with a standard reflector. The thing is that a Norman reflector spreads light a lot wider field than a Canon or Nikon strobe. The reflector isn\u2019t built in so there are a lot more ways to modify the light, you can even use the bare tube (bare bulb) alone. I\u2019ve also checked and with a big soft box, say 3X3 foot the 200B is about the same brightness as the much more expensive Canon or Nikon units. Now a 200b, even a 200C is a manual strobe: you can control the output, but the strobe won\u2019t automatically change the output. If you\u2019re designing the light for your shot this won\u2019t be a problem, but if you want to have the flash make your choices a Norman 200B, any manual strobe, is not the way to go.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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\"A<\/a>

A Norman 200B Head (called an LH2) bare bulb and with some accessories<\/p><\/div>\n

If I\u2019m shooting interiors, for an architect or a designer I\u2019ll take 7 of the 200B strobes with me. There are so many places that you might need to put light when shooting interiors, so sometimes even 7 strobes isn\u2019t enough. It\u2019s better to have a lot of strobes, even if they\u2019re junk, than not enough lights. With architectural lighting power isn\u2019t as important as having light where you need it. If I was shooting people or product I might not take as many lights, but I would still grab the 200Bs first.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Norman<\/a>

Norman 200B power pack<\/p><\/div>\n

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If I\u2019m shooting an event, and frankly I\u2019d rather not, I grab a different strobe: the Sunpak 120J. Another piece of old junk. A 120J has a little more than half as much power as a Norman 200B, but it has automatic exposure! This is an earlier version of strobe automation, not the current ttl system. Still it\u2019s accurate most of the time. Here\u2019s a couple of things I like about the 120J: it uses the same strobe tubes as a 200b and the same reflectors. It can hold its own batteries or use a high voltage battery pack. Also it mounts on a hot shoe or a 1\/4X20 thread. Oh yeah, they\u2019re cheap, well reasonably priced. Quantum made some similar units that are worth checking out. The current Quantum strobes are probably worth having if you shoot a lot of events.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A 200B rig for flash fill<\/p><\/div>\n

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There are a couple more classic (old) strobes I should mention, first the Vivitar 283. They made millions of these and you can consistently find them for less than $30. I owned a couple of these modified with an extra capacitor to have a stop more power and there were a lot more modifications and accessories. The high voltage battery packs were really quite helpful because they reduced the recycle time a lot. Another strobe from the same time period is the Sunpak 411. I still use these because the head was so well designed it moved up and down as well as side to side. Unfortunately you don\u2019t often see a 411 in good shape.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Norman<\/a>

Norman kit for location<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Of course there are a lot of other good used strobes available, and I should mention Lumedyne in particular. These are manual strobes, similar to the 200B, but can produce much more light. With the right accessories you can get up to 2400watt-seconds from these battery powered units. Lumedyne strobes are available new and used, and a little pricier than the Norman 200B. Still if you need battery powered strobes with as much light as a studio strobe this might be the way to go.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Vivitar<\/a>

Vivitar 283-with manual power control and 2nd capacitor modification<\/p><\/div>\n

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If you need a lot of light on location there are a couple of ways to go. First there are battery packs that you can plug a mono-light or a studio strobe into. Many companies offer these now, and they can be quite helpful. I prefer to use a gas generator. While it is much heavier you can shoot all night and day with just a few gallons of gas! Of course you may need an assistant to lug the thing around. Gas generators start at less than $150.00, batteries for mono-lights are generally more expensive.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Gas<\/a>

Gas generator for location work<\/p><\/div>\n

d\/I could discuss the new stuff on the market, but not in this entry. There\u2019s a lot more information about strobes in my book: Understanding and Controlling Strobe Lighting: A Guide for Digital Photographers
\n<\/a>If you\u2019re interested in how to light interiors and other architectural shooting you might want this book: Photographing Architecture
\n<\/a>Or you can check out my classes at BetterPhoto:
\nAn Introduction to Photographic Lighting
\n<\/a>Portrait Lighting on Location and in the Studio
\n<\/a>Getting Started in Commercial Photography<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m a junk man. I think that it\u2019s better to have more gear than newer gear. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,15,8,14,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/siskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2725"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/siskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/siskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2725"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/siskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2740,"href":"https:\/\/siskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2725\/revisions\/2740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/siskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}