Broncolor Flash Pack Bonanza

[Daniel Unkefer]

Mal Paso,

Nice. Great when olde can be salvaged and made useful. Ektanon projection lenses sound perfect. I'm enjoying hot rodding my optical spots, I see great promise with these. Literally pinpoint accent lighting possible. Very versatile too.

Broncolor Impaspot Finally Behaving CFV16 EI 100 F13.5 Indicated by Nokton48, on Flickr

Finally the Broncolor Impaspot is starting to Behave! This is the entire field, looks even to me, modeling lamp is not accurate due to ventilation holes in the frosted S80 Dome. Required for this unit. Broncolor Strobe Meter indicated EI 100 F13.5. Set that on the 60mm C T* Distagon, this is the result. Good enough to start using I think. Still looking for original Impaspot Accessories in good condition. CFV16 Digital Back F13.5. Broncolor Impact S80 Monolight 600J 150W Modeling gets hot!

[Mal Paso]

The Tri Lite modeling is very uneven as it shines through the flashtube. It's a 250W MR16 and has a blower. The flash looks even though.

Daniel, I'm sure you'll find all the pieces if you keep an eye out. We are the only 2 buying this stuff and I'm into a different brand.

[Daniel Unkefer]

we are the only 2 buying this stuff and i'm into a different brand.

lol

[Daniel Unkefer]

Digital V System 30mm to 120mm by Nokton48, on Flickr

Using a heavy duty FOBA Fitting, I bolted a Broncolor C200 Pulso Monolight 1600J, directly above my FOBA Sweep Table, pointed straight down. A Pulso Beauty Dish, with Honeygrids Pulso Grid attached. I think beautiful light that I leave set up all the time. Also at 45 left an Impact S80 600J Monolight with homemade 12 inch Beauty Light with Grid. My wide to medium short Digital Hasselblad system. Which integrates very well with Olde Broncolor, up and down power in 1/10 stop increments necessary with digital. I used a mirror on a flexishaft to reflect from off camera right. Catches light from the baby beauty light. 30mm Distagon, 40mm Distagon, 50mm Distagon, 80mm Planar, 100mm Planar, and 120mm S-Planar. A short to medium full set, all roughly the same vintages. More than I can carry around, but it's here to use. Also 2 of 4 Lithium Battery Packs, Type CF Adapter, and seven 32G Micro Cards. I now prefer this late model Magnifying Hood, and the special CFV16 Acute Focusing Screen, which makes a huge deal with critical focus with this thing. It is -very- critical and DOF seems to be less than usual with this system. But all is good here. The Rubber Eyecup came from the Ukraine, a Hartblei 1006 Magnifying Hood Eyecup. Fits all my Blad Finders, also came from many Kiev 60 Meter Prisms. So I loaded up on them. Recommended.

The 2017 Hasselblad CFV16 integrates greatly with my 2000's era Broncolor bigger stuff. 1/10 f/stop is a necessary feature with digital. All my packs are LED controlled, or otherwise pre-LCD controls, which can "poof". Go with LED's or earlier, as recommended by Kevin at KHB. I have a nice mix of olde olde and mid-modern which suits me well.

[Daniel Unkefer]

My Portrait Lighting Downscaled 2 by Nokton48, on Flickr

25 years ago I studied Tim Kelly's lighting techniques. This is my 2021 retro version, scaled down quite a bit, no giant softboxes. But the same lighting principles apply just the same. Here's the scheme. A Broncolor Impact 21 strobe on full power, set at extreme camera left 90 degrees, providing an overall fill to the set and lighting the backround completely. The fill light modifier is a Broncolor Impaflex 60x60 softbox. Exposure measured incident F16 on full power. FILL F16 A Broncolor Impact 41 strobe on full power, set at 45 degrees camera left. Provides main light on the subject. The light modifier is a Broncolor Impaflex 60x60 softbox. Exposure measured incident F32 on full power. MAIN F32. A Broncolor Impact 21 strobe on full power camera camera light and up high. Impact reflector with Impact Grid. A tight circular pattern tightly aimed above the subject (no light on the subject) and creating a lighter background area to the upper right of the frame. Exposure on background measured incident F22 on full power. GRID SPOT F32. Finally a 36" round silver reflector just off camera right 45 degrees and "feathered" Since we read left to right, this makes a "dark, light, dark, light" across the frame that I find attractive. What I'd like is something interesting to look at in every part of the frame. Not there yet but it's a start. Exposed F32 4x5 TMAX100 Makiflex Automatic #2 210mm f6.8 Kern Apo Repro lens. Also shot some Ilford FP4+ 6x6cm Linhof Black Rollex film magazine. Man these early wind knob Rollex's are a good match for the Makis. Sheet film developed in an 8x10 Unicolor Unidrum using one-shot D23 diluted 1:1 ten minutes at 72F on a Unicolor Uniroller. Sony Nex digital test (way cheaper than Fujiroid!). Mac at Camtronics just simultaneously CLA'ed five of my Black Linhof 4x5 8 Exposure Wind Knobs. Which I recovered with special rubber from the Rollei Factory, a friend snagged some for me.

[Daniel Unkefer]

Soonpho Projection and Beauty Lights Impact Mount by Nokton48, on Flickr

I have wanted Projection Spots for my Broncolor Impact monolight strobes for quite a while, the Impact 41 at 300J is powerful enough shooting in close. Soonpho Projection Units, two of them have the supplemental condenser inside, which evens the light out much better. The third unit is the original diffusion only design, which perfectly fits the Visatec 1600B, as it has a deeper flash tube mount. All three have Adapters from Canon EF, to Minolta SRT mount. Shown back left, is the 100mm F4 Bellows Rokkor, on a Minolta SRT Bellows. In front left is a 100mm F2 Pre-MC Rokkor, super bright light sucker lens. On the far right front, is the Soft Focus Spiratone Portragon, with homemade Honeycomb Grid, and SRT Adapter to EF. Now I also have the 85mm F2.8 and 150mm F2.8 made by Soonpho for this. And in the back center, two Soonpho Twelve Inch Baby Beauty Lights, with Honeycomb Grids. All this stuff fits my Impact 21/41 and Impact S40/S80 units, as well as my Visatec 1600B. The Baby Beauty Lights both have Rosco Polarization Sheets held in place by the Honeycombs. With the Polarizer on the lens, these babies can have their reflections removed in the images, so quite useful to me. Precision teeny tiny light placement at bottom feeding prices. I converted all of these to Broncolor Impact (all were Godox mount) in my workshop. Twas fun, drill press and electric scroll saws from Harbor Freight utilized. Nuts and Bolts came from our local Lowes.

[Daniel Unkefer]

TTL 4x5 5x7 8x10 Broncolor Strobe Meters Norma Sinarsix Cassettes by Nokton48, on Flickr

Another new to me Broncolor studio enhancement. Early on I stockpiled Sinar Norma Meter Cassettes, here are 4x5, 5x7, and 8x10 Versions. I bought this FCM2 Ambient/Strobe Meter, which I never used much. Just now an Internet Friend offered me a second one, it has been upgraded from FCM to FCM2, by Larry at Broncolor Service. The difference I'm told is four meter cells versus two. Anyway these read TTL ambient, flash strobe, or combinations thereof. Once these are properly tested and calibrated I'm switching to TTL, which should add amazing exposure control, and should eliminate costly bracketing of exposures, when shooting expensive sheet films. Exposure variations can compound, causing unexpected results sometimes. These should eliminate a lot of that. BTW these meters were over $500 each new; I paid about $30 for each of these. More good Broncolor purchases, also they control my Pulso Power Packs by remote Infared control, which speeds up shooting setup time. I used Velcro from Lowes to attach the FCM's to the Olde Norma Meter Cassettes.

One of my Impact 41 gave up the ghost, so I replaced it with one with a six month warranty in new condition from Roberts Camera. And made an offer for another Visatec 1600B which was accepted. Wanted backup units and the prices were fair IMO.

[Mal Paso]

Ya, I picked up another 4,000 WS power pack for $135 delivered. Likely less than the cost of round trip shipping of one for repair. I tried to say no but couldn't. That brings me up to 20KWS, 19,880 actual, just past the actual power of the 19,200 WS Profoto studio featured last year.

Including all the new light/background stands, umbrellas, gels and grip equipment I've spent about $5K, Profoto would be well north of $150K.

What's nice is being able to leave equipment permanently set up and not being a target like Profoto would be.

[Daniel Unkefer]

New James Bright SEASIDE 500CM Hasselblad CFV16 30mm Distagon F9.5 C171 Beauty by Nokton48, on Flickr

Years ago I snagged some James Bright Backgrounds which were sold by Sinar and Calumet. Now this one has come along (entitled "Seaside") for $35 with the money going to charity. Tested with Hasselblad 500C/M CFV16 Digital Back 50mm F3.5 C T* Distagon EI 50 Broncolor C171 375J Universal Beauty Dish F9.5. Love it

Olde Blue C171 Broncolor Monolight 375J with Blue Universal Beauty Light, with Olde vintage Blue Universal Beautylight grid. 250W modeling light that does not spill all over my small studio, due to the Olde Beautylight Grid. Notice how it vignettes the light in the four corners. I like that.

[Daniel Unkefer]

I like the Visatec 1600B I have, perfect for my uses. I bought another one recently (as a backup) for $90, turns out it is like brand new, fully tricked out. So he had three more of them, so I grabbed those as well. A quick friendly call to Kevin at KHB confirms how to bring these babies out of coma. Set to lowest power setting, let it soak for a bit. Five pops or so at lowest power, then gradually increasing power, popping at 1/4, 1/2, and finally full power. It'll either work or go bang. These are brand new units and revived nicely. $899 each originally in the Broncolor catalog. With reflectors, power cords, flash tubes, modeling lights it's a great deal IMO. The modeling light by itself is $65 online so I'm pleased. Kevin agrees