A New Bare Bulb Flash Arrives

symbolphoto wrote in post #15598757
2. Does it have radio capability?

RF, apparently he can have the lights on the second floor of his house and trigger them from his basement.

jcolman wrote in post #15598793
Thanks. No, I shoot full frame.

So i imagine you have Canon or Nikon Then ? But if you like TTL shooting , Quantum is the way to go. I used to have 5D and 7D , but i was always shooting Manuel on my quantum anyway , that's why i don't care about quantum anymore since CL-180 exist.

turcoyan wrote in post #15598816
So i imagine you have Canon or Nikon Then ? But if you like TTL shooting , Quantum is the way to go. I used to have 5D and 7D , but i was always shooting Manuel on my quantum anyway , that's why i don't care about quantum anymore since CL-180 exist.

I'm a Canon shooter. I don't use TTL on any of my off camera flashes. I currently have six speedlights and four mono lights plus a bunch of pocket wizards.

I love my mono lights but I need something that allows me the flexibility to control the power from the camera position. I also like the fact that the CL-180 is a bare bulb design and has a separate battery. The quantum looks good except that it seems to limit the number of off camera lights to three. Plus it's a lot more expensive. I may end up using my pocketwizards to fire the CL-180's and use their remote to adjust the power. That way I can still fire my speedlights and/or mono lights if needed.

If you don't use TTL , CL-180 is a no brainer.

I just sold all my white lighting Kit with my pocket wizard yesterday, i still have one quantum 5tdr and 2x2 turbo battery to sell. I'm going all the way Cheetah flash , i don't like, anymore having 2 kind of remote and 2 set of accessoiries . too cumbersome

with the CL-360 ( 300 watt ) you won't probably don't need monolight anymore, that' what push me to make my changes. If you cannot wait for the CL-360 you can still buy on ebay the Godox witstro AD-360... same thing.

turcoyan wrote in post #15598922
If you don't use TTL , CL-180 is a no brainer.

I just sold all my white lighting Kit with my pocket wizard yesterday, i still have one quantum 5tdr and 2x2 turbo battery to sell. I'm going all the way Cheetah flash , i don't like, anymore having 2 kind of remote and 2 set of accessoiries . too cumbersome

with the CL-360 ( 300 watt ) you won't probably don't need monolight anymore, that' what push me to make my changes. If you cannot wait for the CL-360 you can still buy on ebay the Godox witstro AD-360... same thing.

I'll still keep my mono lights as they are great lights for studio work. Plus I simply have too many modifiers that fit them that I don't want to get rid of.

I don't need a 300w light for wedding work so the CL-180's will do just fine.

jcolman wrote in post #15598975
I'll still keep my mono lights as they are great lights for studio work. Plus I simply have too many modifiers that fit them that I don't want to get rid of.

I don't need a 300w light for wedding work so the CL-180's will do just fine.

I understand ,

But for me, i know The CL-360 will replace my X1600 for studio work . I will just miss the modeling light ...

tetrode wrote in post #15598301
The foot assembly on the CL-180 is actually quite robust, Yan. Like anything else, if subjected to enough stress, it will fail. I did disassemble the bottom of a CL-180 and didn't note any particular points of weakness:

My concern during beta testing was more with the structural integrity of the shoe in which the flash was mounted than with the flash foot itself.

Dave,
Thanks for taking the foot off to show us the construction. I doubt that it will break.
I've had 8 - 10 foot stands go over in the wind with speedlites on them. Foot never broke. Not even when clamped in a cold shoe. Sometimes the umbrella cushions the fall, other times it was just the bare flash.

Looks like someone could fabricate base out of alum stock if they really wanted a 1/4 20 fitting.

dmward wrote in post #15599086
Dave,
Thanks for taking the foot off to show us the construction. I doubt that it will break.
I've had 8 - 10 foot stands go over in the wind with speedlites on them. Foot never broke. Not even when clamped in a cold shoe. Sometimes the umbrella cushions the fall, other times it was just the bare flash.

Looks like someone could fabricate base out of alum stock if they really wanted a 1/4 20 fitting.

Werd. I've broken pocketwizards when a stand has blown over but not the flash foot.

symbolphoto wrote in post #15598757
1. Does this recycle faster than a 600EXRT at full power?

Based on Dave's video, it recycles a bit faster than my 600EX when both are set to full power. Of course, it's 2-3 times more powerful than a 600EX, so at equivalent power settings it will recycle a lot faster.

symbolphoto wrote in post #15598757
Dave, glad to see you are still active here. Considering all the folks that got banned around that time.

So, i don't have the time to read through the entire thread, but i have two questions...

1. Does this recycle faster than a 600EXRT at full power?
2. Does it have radio capability?

If this doesn't require line of sight, it's a huge knockout!

Hi, Brendan. I'm quasi-active here. It got lonely with so many of my forum buddies banned

I can't compare the CL-180's recycling time to the 600EX-RT simply because I'm a Nikon shooter and don't have a 600EX. What I can tell you is that full power recycling time of the CL-180 using the Lithium 4500 pack is roughly 2-1/2 seconds. Full power, remember, is 153Ws. At 1/2 power recycling time is maybe 1 second. Have a look at my little video:

http://www.youtube.com​/watch?v=XjFFVWokVgw

Incidentally, I was able to get 850 full power pops from a fully charged Lithium 4500 pack.

Yes, the flash is controllable by radio. The Tx/Rx set is really the killer app with this flash. Remote power adjustment over more groups than you'll ever need is huge. For those of us who use Apollo-type modifiers, remote power control over even a single flash is a godsend.

Reliable line-of-sight triggering range during my testing was better than 500'. I aborted the test as I would have had to step out into traffic. It is, of course, impossible to predict range in anything other than a line-of-sight scenario. However, as Ralph mentioned, the flash has triggered reliably in my house when located several floors away from the transmitter.

jcolman wrote in post #15599114
Werd. I've broken pocketwizards when a stand has blown over but not the flash foot.

I have broken both easily.

Wow, amazing.

This really appears to satisfy a particular niche and wedding photographers in particular should be taking note. Having over a stop of extra power can be a big thing when in large halls or even large churches. I can recall a few churches where i certainly needed more power due to them being really old, really large and really dark.

Boy, i'd really like to test a pair of these and see if they can replace my 600RT's.

If anyone can report back that the radio function on a pair or even 3 can work together quite well from a decent distance i'd love to hear about it.

tetrode wrote in post #15599189
Reliable line-of-sight triggering range during my testing was better than 500'. I aborted the test as I would have had to step out into traffic. It is, of course, impossible to predict range in anything other than a line-of-sight scenario. However, as Ralph mentioned, the flash has triggered reliably in my house when located several floors away from the transmitter.

Yes, but will it trigger the lights while blindfolded and dancing "Gangnan style?"

On a more serious side, were the distance / different floor tests done with the transmitter on the camera or hand held? I have found that my pocket wizards distance suffers a bit when mounted on the cameras hot shoe compared with triggering the unit with the test button. Not sure that it really matters all that much but "some" members might complain, if you know what I mean.

dmward wrote in post #15599086
Looks like someone could fabricate base out of alum stock if they really wanted a 1/4 20 fitting.

I think you read my mind there could be a nice CNC alloy base machined for this.

I have broken the foot off speedlights though, no problem at all!

And give that thought, I would rather the shoe break than have a solid alloy base which would then break the plastic flash case instead if there was an accident. Its better to have a replaceable weak point (though a 1/4" mounting hole would still be nice).
.

elv wrote in post #15599462
I think you read my mind there could be a nice CNC alloy base machined for this.

I have broken the foot off speedlights though, no problem at all!

And give that thought, I would rather the shoe break than have a solid alloy base which would then break the plastic flash case instead if there was an accident. Its better to have a replaceable weak point (though a 1/4" mounting hole would still be nice).
.

Good point.

I had a 580ex break off at the foot when an over zealous hair dresser knocked my flash off my camera inside a limo. I was able to replace the foot for about $20 iirc.