field macro light improvement options

[Gregor Samsa]

I was about to ask how on earth did you manage to fit the Neweer softbox on them (I ve for the same one..) As the R200 has very little room at the front in order for the softbox strap to be secured. But then I saw this photo; you ve actually teared the softbox bottom 3-4cm in order to slide it in, with the strap securing after the R200 mount

Just to be clear, I didn't tear the sofbox at all. They're built with a flap at this point. So they mount easily this way without any modification.

You could actually mount them entirely in front of the flash mount, but they would be liable to get knocked off.

Another option would be to use adhesive Velcro strips on the flash head and the softbox to attach them together, and not use the elastic strap on the softbox at all.

But the way I've mounted them here works fine.

 

[sanosai]

Just to be clear, I didn't tear the sofbox at all. They're built with a flap at this point. So they mount easily this way without any modification.

That's great, thanks for clarifying that. Important little detail, because I was put off by this mounting issue with the softbox

So only downside of the Meike system is that it won't work with a mechanical-only (without electronic contacts) lens (such as the Laowa). This is non neglectible, considering the Laowa is the only native FE that offers over 1x...

Hopefully Sony will respond to Canon's new 100mm that offers 1.4x and perhaps come up with a 2x GM in the following months

 

[Gregor Samsa]

I don’t have the Laowa macro lens, but what makes you say the Meike flash won’t work with it? You can set the Meike to work in Manual mode, not just TTL. In fact, you can set one flash to be Manual and the other to be TTL at the same time if you want. There’s 3 groups that you can individually set settings for.

With the flash set to Manual, I can get the Meike to fire when there isn’t any lens at all attached to the camera, so I don’t see why it wouldn’t fire at the assigned settings with the Laowa attached.

 

[sanosai]

I don’t have the Laowa macro lens, but what makes you say the Meike flash won’t work with it? You can set the Meike to work in Manual mode, not just TTL. In fact, you can set one flash to be Manual and the other to be TTL at the same time if you want. There’s 3 groups that you can individually set settings for.

With the flash set to Manual, I can get the Meike to fire when there isn’t any lens at all attached to the camera, so I don’t see why it wouldn’t fire at the assigned settings with the Laowa attached.

Probably it would work in Manual mode, yes

I ve seen this critique as (negative) feedback in one retailer reviews, but maybe N/A

Other negative comments include the battery life + recycle times, and there must be some truth into this, as I would imagine that a pair of AAAs cant possibly provide enough juice for repeated/hard use. On the upside, its extremely lightweight as a system, which is important for some

 

[Gregor Samsa]

It should be noted that TTL won't work correctly on any flash if your lens isn't electronically coupled with the camera. That's nothing to do with the Meike, that's just the nature of TTL - it relies on knowing what the lens is doing. Manual mode will work regardless.

Regarding batteries, I use Sanyo Enloop rechargeable batteries for all my flashes, and I always have charged spares to hand. I've 12 AAs and 16 AAAs. That said, I don't push things in terms of taking a lot of sequential images in quick succession. A flash with a lithium-ion rechargeable pack would certainly have an advantage there, both in terms of recycle times and capacity.

I haven't tried this, but I believe you can recharge batteries in the Meike via the USB ports in the flashes and the control units. So maybe you could keep them topped up in the field via a USB power bank. Wouldn't really help with flash recycle times, and I'm just thinking out loud really - i wouldn't regard it as being an advantage if it did indeed work.

 

[R2D2]

How about something like this ? Does anyone have any experience with such system?

I use one of these to mount my LED lights (Canon's focus stacking/bracketing mode doesn't work with my MT26 twin flashes). My arms are a different brand, but I think they are all made in China!

The arms are nice and stiff, so they don't sag. They work so well that I bought a second set to keep as a spare (they were hard to come by a couple of years ago).




Plate attaches to the lens' tripod foot.




Arms will bend and stay in any position.




Note: the tape is to keep the lights from rattling.




.

If so, any advice on the flash units mounted there? I presume they have to be light as possible, if it is to last!

For compact flashes I like the Godox TT350 (I have the Flashpoint version). The Nissin i40 is more powerful, but a bit heavier. I use manual flash power, so the external dials on these flash units are awesome. For flash, I do mostly use the Canon MT26 tho.

R2

--
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Experience comes from bad judgment.

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[Jack Calypso]

I received one of the FotoPro brackets the other day. I bought it from an AliExpress shop for $30-40 less than the above-mentioned source. I've never had one of these without the arms, but I think this is an improvement. I really like the ball joint arm setup a lot. I had to tighten it up first thing, adjusting each joint individually, to get them "just so". These are light-years beyond the Gorilla Pod style bendy arms

I intend to use it with a FlashPoint [Adorama's brand for Godox] R2 system, which I also recently got, so I'm still determining how to get the whole thing together. I'll have to get a couple more Arca clamps, too. The one on there now is "borrowed" from my Pano rig. ;-)

I also got a couple of the same mini softboxes as everyone else, but yet another brand. Or maybe two brands — The front of the label said 'Glow' [which might be an Adorama brand], but the instructions on the back said, "How to use your 'Vello' softbox.'

 

[noptc]

Hello Gregor love your setup, I am currently looking for exact setup only I want to use Godox MF12 since I have godox ecosystem. Do you think twin flash is better than speedlight setup? I am currently using speedlight and cygnusdiffuser, while a great setup it's not flexible in lighting as twin flash.

 

[Gregor Samsa]

The Godox ones weren’t available when I was putting that setup together. If they were, I definitely would have got them, they look perfect

As for what’s better, I can’t really say. The twin flash setup gives you more flexibility on paper, but it’s also more physically cumbersome and fiddly than a single hand-held flash.

There are people taking absolutely amazing macro shots with a single speedlight and a home-made diffuser, and there’s people like me taking decidedly mediocre shots with a big complicated setup.

 

[noptc]

Do you have other photos as well from this setup?