Anyone using the XPLOR 600 for sports?

Looking for examples of the XPLOR 600 used for sports. I’d love to know which modifiers you’re usi. As well. I’m going to take one of mine up to the mountain tomorrow for some ski/snowboarding photos.

Aressem wrote in post #18517719
Looking for examples of the XPLOR 600 used for sports. I’d love to know which modifiers you’re usi. As well. I’m going to take one of mine up to the mountain tomorrow for some ski/snowboarding photos.

I haven't used a 600 for sports but, based on experience with other action oriented activities where its not possible to get the light close, you'll want a long throw modifier.

The Cheetah Stand options are well regarded, and there are probably others.

http://www.cheetahstan​d.com/product-p/colt-45.htm

It won't be a consideration for the ski/snowboarding photos as I'm sure those will be shot using HSS; however, be mindful of the flash duration if you're going to over-power ambient. Staying at 1/2-power or less should be fine for many indoor sports.

pat.kane wrote in post #18519529
It won't be a consideration for the ski/snowboarding photos as I'm sure those will be shot using HSS; however, be mindful of the flash duration if you're going to over-power ambient. Staying at 1/2-power or less should be fine for many indoor sports.

Care to elaborate? Why would HSS matter? The light is HSS and TTL capable.

With HSS you'd be using the camera's shutter to freeze the action and the strobe to contribute to the exposure.

At sync speed or slower with exposure based strictly on the strobe (no ambient contributing to exposure), I would be using the strobe's flash duration to freeze the action. I posted flash duration in another post (https://photography-on-the.net …showthread.php?​p=18502760) as I was considering the XPLOR 600 as a replacement for other strobes I own due to the added features of HSS and TTL. In the end I decided to stay with what I have due to the following:

1/2 power = XPLOR 600 @ 1/740 vs Einstein @ 1/2,041
full power = XPLOR 600 @ 1/220 vs Einstein @ 1/568

I've needed full power before in a gym that has windows and 1/220-sec isn't going to freeze any movement. I could try covering the same gym with an XPLOR at ambient with HSS to see how well it would work, but there's no reason to do so as I know what I have works.

pat.kane wrote in post #18521266
With HSS you'd be using the camera's shutter to freeze the action and the strobe to contribute to the exposure.

At sync speed or slower with exposure based strictly on the strobe (no ambient contributing to exposure), I would be using the strobe's flash duration to freeze the action. I posted flash duration in another post (https://photography-on-the.net …showthread.php?​p=18502760) as I was considering the XPLOR 600 as a replacement for other strobes I own due to the added features of HSS and TTL. In the end I decided to stay with what I have due to the following:

1/2 power = XPLOR 600 @ 1/740 vs Einstein @ 1/2,041
full power = XPLOR 600 @ 1/220 vs Einstein @ 1/568

I've needed full power before in a gym that has windows and 1/220-sec isn't going to freeze any movement. I could try covering the same gym with an XPLOR at ambient with HSS to see how well it would work, but there's no reason to do so as I know what I have works.

I'm so confused. lol.

If you're shooting sports, why would you be shooting at a shutter speed lower than 1/250 with an HSS capable strobe?! Half the reason I bought this strobe (well, 3 of them), is because I can shoot using HSS. I spent thousands of dollars and several years doing research and shooting sports with strobes (everything from speedlights, to an elinchrom ranger kit, to a 1320 W/s white lighting in Hypersync with PW's...etc), to finally come to the conclusion that I was fed up with trying to stop a moving subject while shooting mixed ambient and strobes at a shutter speed of no greater than my camera's sync speed. The WL X3200 worked well in Hypersync due to it's extremely slow flash duration, although I would still get a gradient across the frame. That was the closest I came before giving up and eventually buying the XPLOR strobes.

The main reason I gave up on trying to freeze a moving subject with strobes is because... unless you're willing to totally slay your ambient light (usually involving an ND filter, which makes it nearly impossible to focus as well as frame your subject), you'll still always get ghosting at camera sync speed UNLESS your subject is moving towards the focal plane; not across it, so that the ghosting effectively happens "behind" your subject, if you understand what I mean.

I couldn't stand being forced to shoot with all those limitations, so I ditched the Elinchrom kit, and went to Paul C. Buff's White Lightning X3200, which packed a whole lot of power, along with a super slow flash duration, making it an ideal candidate for Hypersync, using the PW system (TT1 with the AC3 zone controller on camera and the TT5 + AC9 combo on the light). It did a decent job, although it did require some fine tuning using the PW utility to dial in the best settings to reduce the banding gradient. It was a huge light, heavy and still required the use of a battery pack (VML).

The minute these lights were brought to my attention, it was an immediate no-brainer.

All that said... I'd still like to hear back from you, in case I misunderstood something. Hope the info helps.

- Ryan

Ohhhh, I see what you're saying now. (clicked on the link you posted). See, I don't plan to completely kill the ambient though. Also, I was thinking about your situation - you mentioned that you can be 3-4 stops under ambient at f/5, ISO 800 and 1/250-sec with the strobes at 1/2 power. So why not shoot at 1/1000 @ f/5, ISO 3200? You're shooting with a 1DX, so I don't see that being an issue, in terms of IQ. Or, just leave the ISO at 800, maintaining the same flash exposure, while killing the ambient even more.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

I believe what you're asking is "So why not shoot at 1/1000 @ f/5, ISO 3200 using HSS," correct? Because the PCB Einstein doesn't do HSS and if it did, I'd have to direct fire the strobes instead of bouncing the light off the ceiling. In one gym I'm only allowed to bounce (no direct) and I really want to avoid complaints at other gyms.

Another reason for using the strobes at sync is I get an effective shutter speed of 1/2000-sec and that is better than 1/1000-sec, and I get it at a lower ISO, sometimes much lower than ISO 800.

I get back some "ambient" when using strobes in two ways: 1) I'm firing two strobes to cover the width of the court and get spill, and 2) now that I have another strobe I'll put it at half-court so the back court isn't as dark.

I see the value in the HSS-capable strobes, but for my specific use case, the Einstein is still the better solution... not that it matters as much this year as I likely won't have time to cover a couple of holiday tournaments I would like to shoot.