I never saw a clear end to the earlier thread about this. Mine just arrived. With the standard reflector and diffuser in place, flash tubes and modeling lights, mounting bracket and cable piled on top the full weight is 3lbs 6 ounces. That's on an accurately calibrated and precise to the 1/2 ounce german made kitchen scale. With cable resting on ground: 2lbs 7oz.
A nice touch is how the cable connects to the head. it swivels through roughly a 30 degree range and with the mounting stem attachment point pointing downwards (i.e. cable at the bottom of the "O" the cable is angled downwards rather than straight back.
The units (2500 w-s pack, standard head, Ringmaster, and the new larger moonunit softbox system just arrived. Testing starts tomorrow or on Monday depending on my schedule. Through the good graces of a local professional rental shop that is nearby my plan for the studio tests (in a roughly 50' x 50' gray painted studio with a ceiling that is in the 15' or 20' height range) is to compare the Zeus system to several different but similar US and European made or branded pack and head systems. I'll be looking at t0.1 flash durations, color temperature, and of course output. My plan is to test these parameters with heads bare (no reflector) and with a Chimera Pro II Medium (36"x48") softbox with the light source either the axis of the bare head or the diffusion screen on the Chimera 5' from the meter. Why 5 feet? that is the length of the diagonal across the face of the softbox which is the optimum distance for a softbox of that size. The Chimera will be mounted on its own stand and the different heads will be on a short boom to place the head where it would be if the appropriate dedicated speedring insert was used. I decided that this would be the easiest way to ensure a constant distance from the diffusion screen to the flash meter. Flash meter will be set to ISO 100 and sync speed of 1/125. Test photos will be made with either a Canon 1Ds Mark 2 or 1D Mark 3.
I'll post some notes here but the full review will be in Professional Photographer magazine ( http://www.ppmag.com ) and possibly on http://www.photo.net
Ellis Vener
http://www.ellisvener.com
A nice touch is how the cable connects to the head. it swivels through roughly a 30 degree range and with the mounting stem attachment point pointing downwards (i.e. cable at the bottom of the "O" the cable is angled downwards rather than straight back.
The units (2500 w-s pack, standard head, Ringmaster, and the new larger moonunit softbox system just arrived. Testing starts tomorrow or on Monday depending on my schedule. Through the good graces of a local professional rental shop that is nearby my plan for the studio tests (in a roughly 50' x 50' gray painted studio with a ceiling that is in the 15' or 20' height range) is to compare the Zeus system to several different but similar US and European made or branded pack and head systems. I'll be looking at t0.1 flash durations, color temperature, and of course output. My plan is to test these parameters with heads bare (no reflector) and with a Chimera Pro II Medium (36"x48") softbox with the light source either the axis of the bare head or the diffusion screen on the Chimera 5' from the meter. Why 5 feet? that is the length of the diagonal across the face of the softbox which is the optimum distance for a softbox of that size. The Chimera will be mounted on its own stand and the different heads will be on a short boom to place the head where it would be if the appropriate dedicated speedring insert was used. I decided that this would be the easiest way to ensure a constant distance from the diffusion screen to the flash meter. Flash meter will be set to ISO 100 and sync speed of 1/125. Test photos will be made with either a Canon 1Ds Mark 2 or 1D Mark 3.
I'll post some notes here but the full review will be in Professional Photographer magazine ( http://www.ppmag.com ) and possibly on http://www.photo.net
Ellis Vener
http://www.ellisvener.com