Adorama Rovelight RL 600, thoughts?

Tried the rovelight yesterday before a client shoot....just took a pic of my wife. Tried getting some catchlights, but all in all happy with it. Need to buy a boom arm along with a smaller softbox, although the 48" Octobox works great. BTW sun was at full power high noon.

Canon 60D,
Sigma 17-50
1/5000,
2.8
RL at Full power
48" Octo camera left.

BlazingSkies wrote in post #17689546
Does anyone have a OVERHEAT problem with the Rovelight? I was shooting at full power HSS for quite a bit but not even a full battery worth and it started to show "OH" "OT" on the LCD in which I would reset the strobe and then get around 3-5 more pops until it did the same thing again... sigh

Last Saturday took about 225 Shots , pretty much continuous , with time gap for poses....Two Roverights at full power....I didnt come across this issue.
Check with Adorama soon as possible....

digitalduck wrote in post #17689768
Tried the rovelight yesterday before a client shoot....just took a pic of my wife. Tried getting some catchlights, but all in all happy with it. Need to buy a boom arm along with a smaller softbox, although the 48" Octobox works great. BTW sun was at full power high noon.

Canon 60D,
Sigma 17-50
1/5000,
2.8
RL at Full power
48" Octo camera left.

Good powerful light!

Just don't forget white balance. This is something I really had to wrap my head around moving some speedlites to a strobe, as I could gel my speedlites to match their temperature to the sun. Typically noon or so daylight white balance temp is pretty normal for strobes/speedlites, but if it's even a touch warm, the light from the strobe will look cold and stick out pretty pointedly.

Very best,

MalVeauX wrote in post #17690867
Good powerful light!

Just don't forget white balance. This is something I really had to wrap my head around moving some speedlites to a strobe, as I could gel my speedlites to match their temperature to the sun. Typically noon or so daylight white balance temp is pretty normal for strobes/speedlites, but if it's even a touch warm, the light from the strobe will look cold and stick out pretty pointedly.

Very best,

Hi MalVeauX, I took another look this morning, bumped up the white balance and yeah, it does look more natural, thanks for the tip. I recently purchased a grey card on a lanyard etc and want to give it a shot. A question i had was since id be using strobe, does the exposure of the grey card (from the strobe) have an overall effect on the balance of the overall image or is 18% grey the same no matter how brighter it may be? I'm assuming its the same because if the grey card is brighter so is the rest of the image so the result will be the same.


Also, I did have a couple questions for you or anyone, but I need to make another purchase and have it down to a boom stand or a smaller 24x36 or something, softbox. Reason being is that i love the 48"octo outside but was at my aunts house over the weekend taking some pics and while its a big house i brought my octo and found it a bit cumbersome inside.. Would I be better getting a regular bowens style box, even if its not the fotodiox pro style box we have.
The only other thing i have is a apollo stylebox that is a zipper underneath. I think you mentioned earlier that I would have to increase my power in order to achieve the same since its reflecting

Also, indoors, and this is going to sound obvious think, but if I want i can just use my RL as a regular strobe meaning I can go to my sync speed of 250 and still use my light meter if i want and yada yada the same way I had been since i wont be in HSS.

For a softbox that's more compact, consider Phottix's Luna Octo. They come in 70cm & 110cm sizes and are very easy to setup. The smaller ones have a primary reflector a la BD, while the larger one has 2 diffusion layers. The Phottix versions don't have grids, however there are Ebay copies now that do offer grids.

re Your last paragraph; the answer is yes. It's only HSS that messes things up slightly.

re Boom arms; I think MalVeaux's item is about as light as you can go with a RL /Jinbei 600. There are times where only a boom will do, but if you just want to shoot under the modifier with the stand slightly offset to one side . . consider an Extension Arm on a grip head, but you'd need a C stand or equivalent . . or . .

(two super-clamps with standard extension pieces & a 16mm aluminium rod) and you need some significant weight or a tie-down.

I have been playing with the idea of booming, but outdoors it seems to open up a whole new bag of worms when the wind pops up. If I want the light centered, which I often do, I just shoot a long focal length and kinda leave the light stand post right in between subject and I. Not the most elegant solution, but better than boom for me.

Here's the headshot from the recent session. Rove HSS 1/4000 f/4.2 in 2pm sunlight slightly behind him.

digitalduck wrote in post #17691122
Also, indoors, and this is going to sound obvious think, but if I want i can just use my RL as a regular strobe meaning I can go to my sync speed of 250 and still use my light meter if i want and yada yada the same way I had been since i wont be in HSS.

Yes, but depends. Some camera do have problem at the exact limit of the aync speed to begin with. Eg, minor problem at 1/200s for FF and 1/250 for crop. If you have not have this problem before then you shouldn't. But just incase you could just use the 1/3 stop of the speed before the max sync speed.

digitalduck wrote in post #17691122
Hi MalVeauX, I took another look this morning, bumped up the white balance and yeah, it does look more natural, thanks for the tip. I recently purchased a grey card on a lanyard etc and want to give it a shot. A question i had was since id be using strobe, does the exposure of the grey card (from the strobe) have an overall effect on the balance of the overall image or is 18% grey the same no matter how brighter it may be? I'm assuming its the same because if the grey card is brighter so is the rest of the image so the result will be the same.

Also, I did have a couple questions for you or anyone, but I need to make another purchase and have it down to a boom stand or a smaller 24x36 or something, softbox. Reason being is that i love the 48"octo outside but was at my aunts house over the weekend taking some pics and while its a big house i brought my octo and found it a bit cumbersome inside.. Would I be better getting a regular bowens style box, even if its not the fotodiox pro style box we have.
The only other thing i have is a apollo stylebox that is a zipper underneath. I think you mentioned earlier that I would have to increase my power in order to achieve the same since its reflecting

Also, indoors, and this is going to sound obvious think, but if I want i can just use my RL as a regular strobe meaning I can go to my sync speed of 250 and still use my light meter if i want and yada yada the same way I had been since i wont be in HSS.

Heya,

The strobe is a specific temperature (or range). You can't change that. The grey card will not change the temperature of anything, it will just allow you to better represent the white balance of the ambient light at that time. You don't always want ambient to be "correct" temperature wise, because your strobe is something different. Sometimes this is why we gel our lights so match, or do creative things with the differing color temperatures. I don't use grey cards when I strobe, because I know I'm going to warm up my temperature in post regardless, because the strobe temp is fairly on the cool side of daylight temperature and I like the look of warm evening light more. So it doesn't matter to me what ambient temperature is (white balance), because it's going to be warmed up no matter what, and unless I can change it (which I cannot) then it doesn't matter, because my white balance will always mostly reflect the subject. I use gels on my speedlites often for this reason, so that the temps are the same, and I don't have that issue. But with the Rovelight, I don't have a gel for that, but I may look into a solution soon.

As for indoor, do you really need another big softbox? Why not get an umbrella? It's going to do everything you're wanting, be inexpensive, and super portable. Also, you really don't even need a Rovelight inside someone's home, where a speedlite can light up the room on less than full power even. That's up to you. I use my speedlites indoors with umbrella or 24" softboxes. Faster recycle speed too. I use the Rovelight for outdoor where I want to use HSS and over power the sun, or do creative stuff like that. Inside, a speedlite is more than enough. Up to you! But if you're on a budget, I would look at umbrellas. AND a boom!

Indoors you don't need HSS. But the funny thing about the Rovelight is you don't have to take it out of HSS. It doesn't lose much power in HSS compared to non-HSS mode. It loses maybe 1/3rd of a stop overall? Or less even if I remember correctly? And indoors, you will not be using it at 1/1 power most likely, it will white out the house inside at that power level. You'll be at minimal powers pretty quick indoors with it.

Very best,

Hi,

" .. But the funny thing about the Rovelight is you don't have to take it out of HSS. It doesn't lose much power in HSS compared to non-HSS mode. It loses maybe 1/3rd of a stop overall? Or less even if I remember correctly? And indoors, you will not be using it at 1/1 power most likely, it will white out the house inside at that power level. You'll be at minimal powers pretty quick indoors with it .. "

I'm keeping an open mind about this. When H is enabled on the Strobe there may only be a modest power penalty when shooting below max sync speed, but it's pretty significant above max sync speed (as expected). There may be semi hidden penalties to keeping H enabled; eg overlong flash duration & increased WB variability - possibly increased battery drain etcetc.

I'm going to try to check some of these possibilities out . . .

OceanRipple* wrote in post #17692130
Hi,

" .. But the funny thing about the Rovelight is you don't have to take it out of HSS. It doesn't lose much power in HSS compared to non-HSS mode. It loses maybe 1/3rd of a stop overall? Or less even if I remember correctly? And indoors, you will not be using it at 1/1 power most likely, it will white out the house inside at that power level. You'll be at minimal powers pretty quick indoors with it .. "

I'm keeping an open mind about this. When H is enabled on the Strobe there may only be a modest power penalty when shooting below max sync speed, but it's pretty significant above max sync speed (as expected). There may be semi hidden penalties to keeping H enabled; eg overlong flash duration & increased WB variability - possibly increased battery drain etcetc.

I'm going to try to check some of these possibilities out . . .

Heya,

I think FlashHovoc did tests and showed it lost virtually no power at full power, and only had minor power drops at less than full power settings.

You're right that there are likely other things going on, since it doesn't do HSS as pulses but rather as a long duration (continuous) light when it does it's HSS. So I'm sure there is the possibility of temperature variability (not to a large degree though) depending on when your shutter is allowing an exposure during the cycle of that continuous light moment. Sure it uses more battery likely, especially on fast cycle. It's a long duration. But, do you need more than 400 pops at full power? Or way more at lower power, even using that? That's the question uniquely answered by the user at that point.

I leave mine in HSS and shoot it outside at all kinds of shutters, so far, haven't noticed anything significant or out of the norm.

Very best,

BlazingSkies wrote in post #17689546
Does anyone have a OVERHEAT problem with the Rovelight? I was shooting at full power HSS for quite a bit but not even a full battery worth and it started to show "OH" "OT" on the LCD in which I would reset the strobe and then get around 3-5 more pops until it did the same thing again... sigh

Please email me: Helen@adorama.com and I can have our Flashpoint tech team go through it with you.

MalVeauX wrote in post #17692126
Heya,

As for indoor, do you really need another big softbox? Why not get an umbrella? It's going to do everything you're wanting, be inexpensive, and super portable. Also, you really don't even need a Rovelight inside someone's home, where a speedlite can light up the room on less than full power even. That's up to you. I use my speedlites indoors with umbrella or 24" softboxes. Faster recycle speed too. I use the Rovelight for outdoor where I want to use HSS and over power the sun, or do creative stuff like that. Inside, a speedlite is more than enough. Up to you! But if you're on a budget, I would look at umbrellas. AND a boom!

Very best,

MalVeaux, thanks for the info! Good news about the grey card, you are right and I really like the look of warmer sun myself and it makes sense what you said about the grey card only getting a closer starting point for ambient. Yeah, I ca use my 568exiI indoors with softbox I just brought my RL to my Aunts house to try it but realized i wish I had something else so I could even bring my 60" shoot through lol, still big, but not 48" Octo lol.. I brought it because I have been learning for the last year or so with my budget flash point mono and a Vagabond mini... so now with the RL I have ot remember its not the only way to go... so yeah, still looks like a boom is the way to go and perhaps a smaller umbrella... thank you for your insight! Also, I did warm up that initial pic of my wife (see above) and yeah, it does look better... thank you, didn't realize it produces that style of light, but great tip!

It is possible to meter the light (specifically using the L-308s) when the RL600 is on high speed sync?

Hi, re External Flashmeter & High Shutter Speed use . . I think not.

Bobbyz posted somewhere to that effect and in my testing my L358 did not reflect what the camera's sensor captured. IMO essentially the meter has no way of knowing that 1) there is now a delay between the flash starting and the initiation of FP shutter opening and 2) the shutter opening is now a moving slot. If a meter has high shutter speeds associated with flash, I think their engineers had leaf shutters in mind.

So with an FP shutter body and above max sync speed shutter setting, I think the 'Terry toweling / blinkies' approach is probably the best to go for.

I emailed you a week ago about my overheating problem, no reply...
I called Adorama and they are making to an RMA and I have to pay for the shipping label... from Canada! No less.

I am able to repeat the problem over and over. The unit overheats for NO reason after 5-10 full power HSS shots and then I have to reset the strobe to only let it happen again.