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Thread: Better Beamer calibration

  1. #1
    Avian Moderator Randy Stout's Avatar
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    Default Better Beamer calibration

    For those just starting to use a better beamer, may I encourage you to calibrate it to your setup?

    Because it narrows the beam of projected light significantly (thats why it works in the first place), the alignment of the flash head/beamer assembly can have a significant effect on where the light falls in your image.

    With the SB800, the weight of the beamer tends to cause the head to droop a bit, and you tend to have the light under the center of the frame. This obviously changes depending on how far out you are shooting, but it can lead to some very unpredictable flash results.

    If you use a flash arm to get the flash higher, the chance for misalignment increases.

    I would recommend setting up the flash/beamer, on whatever arm, bracket you plan to use, and take a series of test shots of a distant wall in a dim room. I try to estimate my average shooting distance with a particular set up (lens/camera) and then be certain that my light pattern falls correctly in the frame. It is pretty impressive how far off it can be.

    To correct for the droop in my setup, I tuck a 12 gauge piece of insulated wire around the flash head where it articulates with the body. This holds it at the correct angle.

    This 'adjustment' certainly will vary depending on your particular rig.

    I would also rec. playing around with different zoom settings on the flash to observe the effect on the pattern.

    50mm is the recommended zoom, and it is probably the best, but I have tried the other settings for certain applications.

    This simple adjustment can reduce the number of flash surprises with the better beamer.

    Cheers

    Randy

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    Default

    Good tips Randy! I have been using BB's for several years and I can add that you don't have to really worry about the dirt, dust etc. I have tested dirty, grimmy, scratched BB's along side clean, new ones, using a flash meter and the loss of light due to dirt is barely measurable.

    Also, I have just repaired an old BB that was cracked in half and the velcro strips were pulled loose. I used 2" wide transparent packing tape and just taped the whole lens right to the plastic arms. It seems to be very solid and the tape allows the light thru nicely. The big draw-back is that now I can't break the beamer down for travel. I'm ordering a new one but this worked in the pinch!!

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    Lifetime Member Marc Mol's Avatar
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    Default

    Sorry double post??


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    Lifetime Member Marc Mol's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Randy Stout View Post
    To correct for the droop in my setup, I tuck a 12 gauge piece of insulated wire around the flash head where it articulates with the body. This holds it at the correct angle.
    I find a wide rubber band in the same spot also works very well, Randy.


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    BPN Viewer Dave Leroy's Avatar
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    Wow!

    I never would have thought of that.

    Tks for posting Randy,

    Dave

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    It may be obvious but some things I found useful:

    Put on a wide-ish angle lens and get in a large dark room and take repeated shots at different flash zoom settings. You get a great idea of what the illumination field looks like, and how sensitive it is to droop. You can also play with different ways of securing the unit.

    The flash-zoom-setting seems backwards -- zoom the flash head to the widest angle setting (e.g. 24mm) to get the most precise focus. You can trade taking care in alignment against zoom -- if you are really careful you can get maybe twice the distance by using the widest zoom; I think the reason they say 50mm is to give some slop.

    You can adjust the alignment up and down substantially without much loss of strenght by moving the lens up or down on the velcro. I've found a good balance to the "droop" is to wrap the velcro strap near the hinge so it partially holds the flash head up, then fine tune with the lens.

    NEVER, EVER let the sun shine into the better beamer, e.g. for a back-lit shot. It will quite literally melt your flash or some part of the camera. Have come close a couple times; here is an example I found on the web:

    http://redzlan.blogspot.com/2008/11/...-my-flash.html

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