Introduction
I was looking for some cheap monolights to use for very formal school portraits – the yearbook committee had decided that we where going to take the photos ourselves, and we simply didn't have the kit required. My aim was to set up a 4-flash mini-studio using my two existing hotshoe strobes.
The GY-180 seemed to fit the bill. It's cheap – if I wanted to buy one on its own I'd only pay £40 or so – it was available in kits with significant savings, it was compatible with things like soft-boxes that simply aren't easy to use on a hotshoe flash, and it used mains power – if I'm doing 120 portraits with 2 or 3 images per person, the number of batteries I'd need to buy, let alone the charging time, in order to keep going constantly would be uneconomical. I will have to charge AA's for my Sigma, but not for the two main lights.
The GY-180 is advertised by a number of ebay sellers, almost all based in Hong Kong. I purchased mine off-ebay from a user called “Mr.Studio.One”, after negotiating with him. It's worth noting that the sellers are normally happy to give you deals or modify the package available.
The strobe itself isn't very powerful. The advertised Guide Number of 48M is comparable with a hotshoe flash like the Sigma EF-500 Super, but certainly not in the realms of AB's or any other higher power strobe. I can't give any comparisons to 150Ws branded strobes. However, after doing some test shots it seems like, with 2 strobes and a Sigma EF 500 DG Super, I'll have enough power. If I ever want to upgrade in the future, the strobes cost so little (even the 300Ws and 600Ws strobes offered on Ebay are pretty good value) that I can keep these lights for hair-lighting and background lighting, and not be any worse off.
My requirements where for two strobes, a softbox or two and some umbrellas. I already had a silver umbrella I purchased from china a few months ago as part of a strobist kit. I initially contacted him to request a quote for just the strobes, the umbrellas and the softboxes, but decided to add in a light stand as well. I already had two from my strobist kit, but I decided that I'd probably need more.
The ebay item I initially based my purchase on can be seen here: Clicky
If that doesn't work, I've made an image of the auction (click here, 500KB PNG)
The seller can be found here:
Mr-Studio-One
I changed some aspects of the purchase though, asking for white umbrellas instead of gold (retroactively I wish I'd gone with 1 silver and 1 white) and I only asked for one lightstand (as I already had 2). My total order cost including postage came to £118.
Postage was fast, via Hong Kong Post and then Parcelforce Worldwide. I ordered Thursday and they tried to deliver on Wednesday. The largest delay was in fact Parcelforce (or Parcelfarce as they're known), with the package sitting in Heathrow airport for no less than 4 days.
The Kit
 | HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'text/html' | Byte size: ZERO |
It all arrived in a big box. The softboxes were folded up in bags, the umbrellas, strobes and stand were in their own boxes. The strobes were well packed, with styrofoam surrounding them in the box.
| HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'text/html' | Byte size: ZERO |
| HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'text/html' | Byte size: ZERO |
The strobe and it's packaging and cables.
Each strobe came with a very long power cable and an equally long sync cable. My only criticism of anything that came in the kit is the sync cables – the connector was too tight, and completely ripped the sync port off one of my ebay triggers. Because the strobes use a standard 3.5mm sync, I simply found another cable (the one that comes with the triggers) and used that with my other trigger. It seems somewhat looser. The weak sync port has long been a criticism of the ebay triggers though, so I guess it is to be expected. I have a hotshoe>PC adapter from my 350D that I can use if for whatever reason I destroy both sync ports.
The umbrellas where small by some studio standards, but the same size as my pre-existing silver one. Because I'm working in small rooms for the main use of the strobes, it's not really an issue as I'll need to have the lights relatively close to the subject. If I find myself in a bigger room in the future, I can always get a 300 or 600Ws strobe/umbrella combination and easily relegate what I have to other duties.
| HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'text/html' | Byte size: ZERO |
The softboxes are pretty much what it says on the tin. Again, they are not very big – 50x70cm leaves quite a lot to be desired. However, in the distances available to me they don't have to be very big. The test shots I've done seemed perfectly acceptable, and certainly not harsh.
The lighting stand is certainly very good. In terms of cost to me, it would have been about £93 delivered without the stand, and £118 with it, so an overall posted cost of £25. It is certainly a step up on the cheap portaflash ones I've already got in use and feel. I'm not sure whether the added cost was worth it, but it will definitely get good use
. As well as air suspension (drop the flash, it sinks slowly), it is adaptable and allows the flash to be mounted at a 90 degree angle. It also has a reversible small/big stud.In Use
I set it all up to try and work out the best settings for the application – my school yearbook. All the portraits I took are relatively formal, as that's the kind of image expected for the yearbook. The background is a sheet (I'm going to get something nicer for the proper portraits
).The main light was at about ½ power on camera left, about 2 meters from the subject with a softbox. The fill light was at ¾ power behind me and slightly camera right, with a silver umbrella.
The Sigma was on camera right and behind the model as a hair light. A very cheap small flash I bought for £1 from a charity shop was providing a bit of fill for the background behind and below the model. The PP on the images may not be very good as my monitor is broken and I'm connecting to my computer via Windows remote desktop, so the colour depth of anything I view isn't very good.
Conclusion
My overall impression so far is very good. Time will tell how the flashes stand up to regular use, but from what I've achieved in my house I'm certainly happy that I'll be able to achieve what the yearbook guys want – easily recognisable nicely posed formal photos...
If anyone has any questions, comments, suggestions, criticisms, wants to edit my images or ask for more shots, please feel free.
Update: 29th Mar 08
Having used these strobes for what I bought them for, I'm still happy. To see the yearbook pictures I used them for, please PM me for the password. Some of the other images on my website (http://www.lrampen.com
) also used them.The softboxes are a little small, but otherwise work well. The light output is certainly not enough for a big multi-person shoot (as more than fill anyway) but for single 3/4 lengths and less it is more than adequate. In a dark room it could also be used for more. The light stands that come with the strobes are excellent.
The only negative I've found so far is that one of the extra-long IEC leads that came with the strobe doesn't fit in properly (I know it's the lead as it does the same thing in both strobes). I could either find a way of fixing it, or replace it for not very much. It's normally not an issue, but moving the flash around can sometimes cause it to fall out.
Update, 6th Jan 10
I'm not on these forums very often. Send me a PM and I'm more likely to respond.
