Universal strobe bracket that can support a 3 lb strobe + heavier soft box (5 lbs?)

[Ellis Vener]

I guess my question then really is: is from the metal bowens mount adapter to the bottom plate (or whatever the light stand mount, mounts into, all metal, either one piece or some how bolted together thus creating one large "L-bracket" if you will? If that's the case ,then it would probably be fine, but I'm wondering if the two pieces are some how screwed together or not (or are one piece). My other concern is balancing, particularly when the light is aimed downwards, I would think using the OEM bracket and mounting it to the light itself means that the center of gravity has shifted, and the light would probably already be front-heavy from a softbox just using the original bracket.

For those who are wondering, I'm using a heavy duty light stand, but not a C-stand. But the stand is rated high enough to hold about 20 lbs at least and has a wide stance in terms of how far the legs can be extended so I'm not so worried about the stand. I can't remember the exact brand, but it's a heavy duty studio-type stand just not a C-stand.

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There’s really two things at play here:

- What is the load limit the monolight was engineered to support?
- What are the dimensions of the modifier?

This doesn’t just take into account the weight of a modifier but how that weight is distributed in modifier.

If used outside, we also have to take into account the force exerted by wind on the modifier and of course the larger the modifier the more force the wind will exert on it.
By mounting the speedring to the stand, those forces are not exerted on the lighting instrument (the monolight).

Stands:

a wide base stand is more stable than a C-Stand. The C-stand might weigh more but it has a relatively small footprint. Grip heads can be used on standard light stands if they use the standard 5/8” “baby pin” stud for mounting a light.

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Ellis Vener
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“It's not about the f-stop." -Jay Maisel
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[RL Photography]

I guess my question then really is: is from the metal bowens mount adapter to the bottom plate (or whatever the light stand mount, mounts into, all metal, either one piece or some how bolted together thus creating one large "L-bracket" if you will? If that's the case ,then it would probably be fine, but I'm wondering if the two pieces are some how screwed together or not (or are one piece). My other concern is balancing, particularly when the light is aimed downwards, I would think using the OEM bracket and mounting it to the light itself means that the center of gravity has shifted, and the light would probably already be front-heavy from a softbox just using the original bracket.

For those who are wondering, I'm using a heavy duty light stand, but not a C-stand. But the stand is rated high enough to hold about 20 lbs at least and has a wide stance in terms of how far the legs can be extended so I'm not so worried about the stand. I can't remember the exact brand, but it's a heavy duty studio-type stand just not a C-stand.

The S2 bracket is composed of three main components. The Bowens mount is heavy plastic. It will take a lot of abuse. The stand mount is made of two pieces of cast metal. The part with the umbrella mount is screwed to the Bowens adapter with three screws. Two come through from the back and one from the front effectively clamping it to the mount. It is not going anywhere. I know people that have heavily used S2 brackets for a long time without a single complaint.



If you are worried about balancing a front heavy load, using the S2 shifts the mount point closer to the front of the combined assembly, though balance issues are a combination of the stand used as well as the distribution of the load.



All that being said, an S2 is inexpensive. Buy one and evaluate it for yourself. Note that the Godox product page for the S2 shows it being used with an AD400Pro.