Sunpak Auto Pro 120J TTL

I am lucky enough to be able to purchase 3 pieces of brand new Sunpak 120J TTL. Before I make the plunge, is there anything that I should consider? I would imagine that I am going to use this with Photoflex Medium and Large Litedome. Will I be able to get a decent amount of power if I use this flash inside a Softbox? Thanks.

I will take it that no one has tried this before. I will give it a try and report back.

Those are some fine flash units you're getting. You'll have no trouble using them with the Photoflex LiteDome's. If you need higher to shoot at smaller apertures then you can always raise your ISO to 200 or 400 without and problems.

Thanks for the reply Robert. I am going to pick them up today. I guess I am quite lucky to be able to get them brand new.

You sure are. Many people search high and low for those and can rarely find them. You're very lucky.

Do they come with the parabolic reflectors?

And when they are found they are quite expensive.

It comes brand new in a box with complete accessories along with the legit one year warranty from the Sunpak distributor. Less than US$300 complete with the STD-1D (standard non-dedicated shoe). I was actually looking for either a Metz potato masher or Quantum T5DR. I was horrified when a quantum system cost more than US$1000. I understand that it has E-TTLII compatibility along with other bell and whistle. I take a look at the quantum and I did not like the fact that the build felt quite flimsy for such a price. Then, I saw the Sunpak 120J almost in the corner of the showcase. I can get 3 pieces of the Sunpak for the price of a single Quantum (includes 3 pieces of optical slaves), and I can live with manual control. I also have pocket wizards so I am covered there.

Absolutely fantastic!!! Congratulations.

Tjong,

Please let me know how they work out for you. I bought one recently, but haven't had much time to play.

BTW, the Sunpak metal foot adapter doesn't fit my 20D. I'm going to have to have it milled.

Have Fun,

Rob

Rob,
I will report to the forum for the result, but it will have to wait until I got the chance to do it (in about one week). I also got the softbox mount from chimera which attached directly to the flash. I did not get the metal foot adapter.


I was thinking about purchasing the quantum battery Turbo 2x2 to power the flash. Do you think it is worth it?

Tjong,

I power all of my flashes with NiMH batteries. I picked up some Sony's, Energizers and some Kodak pre-charged at various stores. They all seem to work well and the pre-charged ones don't self-discharge as quickly, which is great for me. I would try the 120's out with NiMH's and see how you like them. You can also check out http://www.aljacobs.co​m for a larger battery alternative. There are plenty of threads on here regarding chargers for the NiMH with the most important thing being that the faster the charger works, the faster your batteries will die. the quick chargers are hard on the batteries.

You will have to determine what your needs are, probably through experimentation.

Have Fun

Rob

I just spent an hour on the phone yesterday with Al Jacobs. I'll be getting the Black Box in the Dual DIN version. Great alternative to AA's and to Quantum or Lumedyne.

Thanks for the good advice. I was thinking about getting Al Jacobs Black Box in the near future.

Finally, I got a chance to play around a bit with it. Using Chimera Speed Ring PN: 2705 and Photoflex Large Litedome, I got F8 at 1/125s at ISO 200. The power setting on the flash was full power. Quite a decent number I thought. What I really like was that the light spreaded evenly across the softbox with no sign of hotspot. Love the soft light quality that came out of it. The recycle time was quite horrible actually, I think it was about 10-15 seconds (I listened closely until the charging sound actually stoped). Has anyone used this flash with a quantum 2x2 by any chance?

Sorry, I forgot to mention the distance. It was around 2-3 metres between the surface of the softbox with the light meter.