Second guessing myself! Advice?

Came from shooting video, just purchased a 5dmk2 and bought 2 Ikelite DS200's. Thiniking maybe I made a mistake buying these.

I will be doing most of my shooting 60% WA, 40% macro. I also want to shoot video approx 25% of the time.

Should I go buy some DS51's for macro and keep the DS200's for WA or should I sell the DS200's and buy some DS160's to use for both WA and macro?

Or am I better off since I am going to shoot video to buy some video lights like the HID50's from Seatek and use those for stills as well?

Can you use video lights with the same amount of success as with strobes for shooting stills?

thanks for any help you can give....

DS200s should be fine for macro.

Video lights can be challenging for stills. Mainly because they are a continuous light source and cannot be controlled differentially from ambient light via shutter speed and aperture. Also video lights do not produce an even coverage of light to match a pair of DS200s for wide angle stills.

Alex

DS200s should be fine for macro.

 

Video lights can be challenging for stills. Mainly because they are a continuous light source and cannot be controlled differentially from ambient light via shutter speed and aperture. Also video lights do not produce an even coverage of light to match a pair of DS200s for wide angle stills.

 

Alex

Thanks for the advice..I guess part of my problem is the strobes are so darn big. Guess I should have looked at one in person before ordering them. They are going to be a pain to travel with.

btw, did you ever get my post in response to your question regarding the ID of the 16-35 II canon lens that you were asking about? I measured it and gave you the numbers you were after.

Should I go buy some DS51's for macro and keep the DS200's for WA or should I sell the DS200's and buy some DS160's to use for both WA and macro?

You could have gotten away with DS160's for everything. Do not buy DS51's. Keep your DS200's for now.

Can you use video lights with the same amount of success as with strobes for shooting stills?

Absolutely not.

Video lights can be challenging for stills. Mainly because they are a continuous light source and cannot be controlled differentially from ambient light via shutter speed and aperture. Also video lights do not produce an even coverage of light to match a pair of DS200s for wide angle stills.

Well you gotta stop playing with toy lights and get some big boys like 200W HMI, but you'd be surprised that these lights can throw out in excess of 11k lumen effective (from about 14-16k rated due to inefficiencies). All for 25 lbs of extra weight The funny thing is they cost about the same as 2 Seacam strobes

I have to ask what you mean by it cannot be controlled differentially by exposure controls? If you expose to ambient light and use the lights as fill, it still works like a strobe. Halogen and LED lights are dimmable (albeit not quite to the degree of a strobe). You can black out the background to a certain degree but punching up shutter and aperture. Video lights are also capable of up to good coverage (120° or more) diffused properly. Obviously the control is less precise but it's possible to do it.

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I meant you can control ambient light independently from strobes with shutter speed. You cannot control ambient light independently from video lights with shutter speed. The power of video lights and strobes can be adjusted with their own power settings, though.

I think that this is an interesting area for discussion. I'll start a new thread.

Alex