Filters And Flashes

Now, for some assorted geeking out!


Kaleidoscopic colors! It comes with a rotating ring with a stub to rotate the effect around.


There was also the classic soft spot filter.


However, the coolest was this one! You could rotate it to affect the angle of repetition.


I had never seen so many rare filters in one place!


Yes these great finds were in a shop called dSLR in Subang Parade.


What else did I find there?


The Sunpak PF20XD! I had been contemplating a tiny flash for my Sony Alpha 900. This was the smallest I’d seen with manual power (since it uses the old hotshoe mount, I need to use my adapter, but the flash must be able to dial down its power or else it will always fire at full power when using the adapter!)

And now, for finds elsewhere.


A ring light…


…and something more portable with a wow effect.


Yep, that’s the Sony HVL-F58AM on my former Sony Alpha 700, wirelessly commanding the Sony HVL-F42AM (on the F58’s stand) on the right. The lens is my former diminutive Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 35mm F2.4, with a very nice normal angle.

Notice the orange gel on the F58? It’s not on the F42 (it was the shop’s unit). I made a custom cardboard holder for it to quickly attach and remove the gels.


Now this is why the Nikon SB-900 costs RM400 more than the F58 – it comes with a flash gel clip-on holder! Of course, the guy who was using this n00bishly did not know what it was for but clipped it on anyway. This isn’t quite the same as the diffuser that is given!

Though, I would maintain that my design is faster to remove and put on.

Note that putting the gel clip without putting a gel is going to waste a wee bit of flash power for no reason.


The SB-900 comes with a very cool feature which detects which flash gel is on, and sends the correct color temperature to a compatible Nikon (D300/D3 onwards.) How does it know? I only found out yesterday – there are square markings which lie on an infrared sensor on the SB-900. Different combinations of squares will transmit different data – I noticed a full and half tungsten-to-daylight filter, and a full and half flourescent-to-daylight filter.


Anyway, back to the wonderful swivelling F58, seen here on a Type-A light stand mount adapter.


Flashes also have them AF assist lights, which honestly look very pretty. Tron, anyone?


Wireless flash. Flash head zoomed to 85mm and placed from the left and another flash head had its diffuser on so it becomes 17mm and gives a soft look.


Finally, KJ jumps! Flashes were on Strobe mode and shot the closest thing to closeup with this.

8 thoughts on “Filters And Flashes

  1. KJ Post author

    he prolly repost with a different intention.. hahaha =P tat time he posted me jump into a Gateway or something like that.. jumping into the lighttt!

    Reply

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