So I shoot with a Canon 5D Mark II and it doesn't come with a pop up flash (which are useless imo anyways) so I decided to get a flash to mount to the top of it. After using it for a week (it was the Canon 430 EXII), I returned it and ordered an Alien Bees B800 studio flash. They can be set up away from the camera and are waaay more powerful than a small hot shoe flash. The only problem is that they require AC power so you can't really take them mobile. Alien Bees sells a power pack called the Vagabond II for $300 which uses a small 12V battery and a 150W inverter so you can take it anywhere. I decided to build my own using a 125Ah marine battery (the Vagabond uses a 15Ah battery) and a 1500w continuous/3000w peak pure sine wave inverter (10 times the power of the Vagabond)... for more than $100 less.
This morning I got to try it out at the beach at sunrise. I set it up to see how it would work balancing the light so both the model and the sun/clouds would be exposed properly. They were shot with Canon 135mm f/2L and Canon 50mm f/1.8 lenses, and one B800 flash bounced from a 60" umbrella. Here they are:
Blurred because I don't want them HQ on the internetz, but you get the idea.
This morning I got to try it out at the beach at sunrise. I set it up to see how it would work balancing the light so both the model and the sun/clouds would be exposed properly. They were shot with Canon 135mm f/2L and Canon 50mm f/1.8 lenses, and one B800 flash bounced from a 60" umbrella. Here they are:
Blurred because I don't want them HQ on the internetz, but you get the idea.