Broncolor Flash Pack Bonanza

[dxp]

These Broncolor P70 Barndoors arrived today from China. Quality is very good! So I am making an offer for three more, $100 each. Broncolor brand Barndoors seem to be $350-$650 each on the used market. I think these will be more than adequate for my uses.

I've seen these advertised on eBay a few times...they seem to be a straight out counterfeit of the Bron ones. Do you have a genuine one to compare it to?

I managed to pick up a used 4-door Bron set recently for around 50€...I was pretty happy with that find.

[Daniel Unkefer]

Hi dxp,

Nope I don't have any Broncolor P70 Barndoors to use to compare. Fifty Euros is a great find, I've not seen priced in that range.

[Mal Paso]

I bought a studio for the reflectors. The 16" reflector with 4 way barn doors and filter holder was worth what I paid for the lot. It's So Nice when you need a light and you have snoots, grids, spots, reflectors with barn doors, softboxes, umbrellas..... Still want a fresnel.

[dxp]

I bought a studio for the reflectors. The 16" reflector with 4 way barn doors and filter holder was worth what I paid for the lot. It's So Nice when you need a light and you have snoots, grids, spots, reflectors with barn doors, softboxes, umbrellas..... Still want a fresnel.

Yes this is the way to do it. I've bought a couple of lighting kits this year purely to get the reflectors and accessories included with them. Saved a whole bunch of money that way.

In one kit I received a pair of essentially brand new P70 reflectors, barn doors, a few grids, and an umbrella, for 100€—around 10% of the cost of buying new. The seller originally tried to give it to me for free—the studio flashes in the kit he had advertised as working, but all three turned out to be faulty when tested. He told me I could just have the lot, but I insisted on paying him something for it given the great condition of the accessories.

[Daniel Unkefer]

I agree with you Guys, surely that's the way to do it. I'll keep what I need on my radar and see what turns up. I have everything I could ever want for my Impact system. In Pulso I also have everything I could ever want, except for a few more P70 Barndoors. The ones I see on Ebay are battered, missing pieces, and/or really expensive. So the search continues...........

'Spensive!!

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...ndoor_for.html

[Daniel Unkefer]

Four Visatec Sync Cords Infared 1600B Wireless Trigger by Nokton48, on Flickr

From parts distant, five brand new Visatec items arrived last week. From the Guy in Israel, four brand new Visatec Syncro Cords, brand new never used. And from the UK, the Visatec Infared Trigger Module, it trips my five Visatec 1600B by infared. Also brand new in the box, I made an offer and it was accepted. Remember I now have five (four brand new!) Visatec 1600B's ($895 new I paid $99), these are important accessories to me for these.

[Mal Paso]

For sync I use a Westcott FJ-X3m 2.4 GHZ controller that came with the 2 400 WS strobes I bought before I found the Norman Gear. The Westcotts will do 1/8000 of a second and higher continuous frame rate than the Normans though. The remote receivers are $30 and rechargeable. Plugs right into the newer Normans. I also bought their 80 WS on camera flash which has same controller, as flash and backup controller for off camera flash. Besides the controller it has motorized zoom for $280. None of my view cameras have a hot shoe so I need to find a clamp to hold the controller next to the camera. It's worth it not to have sync cables to trip over.

The Westcotts are nice in that modeling lights, power levels and every other little thing can be adjusted from the controller on the camera. They also have a decent battery life. The only downside is the 400WS Westcott is twice as heavy as a Norman so Norman is the one on a boom. Norman controls are on the floor so no big deal. For me it's a good blend of technologies.

[dxp]

For sync I use a Westcott FJ-X3m 2.4 GHZ controller that came with the 2 400 WS strobes I bought before I found the Norman Gear. The Westcotts will do 1/8000 of a second and higher continuous frame rate than the Normans though. The remote receivers are $30 and rechargeable. Plugs right into the newer Normans. I also bought their 80 WS on camera flash which has same controller, as flash and backup controller for off camera flash. Besides the controller it has motorized zoom for $280. None of my view cameras have a hot shoe so I need to find a clamp to hold the controller next to the camera. It's worth it not to have sync cables to trip over.

The Westcotts are nice in that modeling lights, power levels and every other little thing can be adjusted from the controller on the camera. They also have a decent battery life. The only downside is the 400WS Westcott is twice as heavy as a Norman so Norman is the one on a boom. Norman controls are on the floor so no big deal. For me it's a good blend of technologies.

I'm doing a similar thing but with Godox gear mixed in with my Broncolor stuff. I have a couple of RF triggers for some newer Bron gear I have, but often I'll have a Godox light or two mixed into my setup (especially if I have an overhead light since I have smaller Bowens mount softboxes suitable for positioning o/h that I'm yet to purchase Bron equivalents of).

When doing this I'll use the Godox controller on camera to trigger a Godox flash, with all the Bron gear set to optical slave mode. Even with a 300Ws Godox light set to min power (1/256), in my little studio it's still enough to trigger everything reliably every time.

[Mal Paso]

I have optical triggers on all my Norman Power Packs too, built in on the newer ones. If I use the RF controller I can switch that unit on or off from the camera, useful if I'm shooting masks. There's even a setting in the Westcott controller for masks. It's nice to have options depending on the needs of the set.

I got 2 20" and 2 48" softboxes with the first kit. All 4 can go Bowens (Westcott) or Norman. I also bought a 20x76" Half Dome just because I always wanted one. Still looking at replacements for my big Chimera.

[Daniel Unkefer]

Changing subtopics last year I upgraded from the Broncolor Hazylight (large studio footprint and heavy somewhat dangerous weighted British Broncolor Boom) to the Octobox 150. Now I simply cannot live without it! I picked mine up mint condition used from Adorama in NYC. Price was $250 so a very fair price IMO. For my uses I needed a slightly softer diffusion on the front, so I bought the Octobox 150 Supplemental Diffuser as well. Easily movable, smaller studio footprint, like a movable adjustable window light. I use this with GREAT regularity for all sorts of uses, I'm in love!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82m2zJv2iWg

Another excellent tutorial that takes you through in a very thorough manner, the wonderful Broncolor Octobox 150.