Octabox for location?

[olleorama]

Need a semi-haulable octabox for a sort of macabre portrait job. Anybody got a suggestion? Needs to be available in europe.

 

[ArtTwisted]

One of the small Chimera's folds down pretty tiny but they still give a nice quality to the light. Guessing Chimera is available in europe ? but not sure.

 

[olleorama]

I don't want small. I want big but portable. Or is that an oxymoron?

So light weight, easy handling, but big area. That sorta thing.

 

[Mike Wilde]

It is a bit oxymoronic. Big octa's that I have looked at folded inwards, but their rods did not fold down, so they were perhaps 200mm around, but over 1000mm long.

Then there is the issue of holding it up, so there is a sturdy stand, and the need to support the octa speed ring off the stand, and hang the light head off the speed ring.

I do portable location work for portraits. My light modifiers, backdrop, stool, light stands, black window blocking sheets, sundry a clips, gaff tape, etc all go into a 400mm x500mm x 1200mm foam padded nylon flight bag. My heads, accumulators and batteries go in a second (heavy) suitcase style case.

I ould not worry about the size of your modifiers until the rest of the supporting kit;'s needs are worked out.

That said, yes, they are inter-related, so some iterations are needed before modifiers, light sources, and stands all suit one another and the format in which you are working.

 

[olleorama]

It is a bit oxymoronic. Big octa's that I have looked at folded inwards, but their rods did not fold down, so they were perhaps 200mm around, but over 1000mm long.

Then there is the issue of holding it up, so there is a sturdy stand, and the need to support the octa speed ring off the stand, and hang the light head off the speed ring.

I do portable location work for portraits. My light modifiers, backdrop, stool, light stands, black window blocking sheets, sundry a clips, gaff tape, etc all go into a 400mm x500mm x 1200mm foam padded nylon flight bag. My heads, accumulators and batteries go in a second (heavy) suitcase style case.

I ould not worry about the size of your modifiers until the rest of the supporting kit;'s needs are worked out.

That said, yes, they are inter-related, so some iterations are needed before modifiers, light sources, and stands all suit one another and the format in which you are working.

Thank you for you reply. I like canadians, using millimeters!

I will work in either MF or LF for this. I saw elinchroms octabank, it looked pretty slick, like a big umbrella. That would be ideal. It comes with a non-ideal price tag though.

I will use a portable 640 WS battery flash. I need a big light source to produce an even, low intensity light. I want to shoot quite open. I think a diameter of around 1500-1800 mm would be good.

I tried a soft box of this size. It was not pleasant to work with. I was hoping there would be some kind of umbrella style octaboxes intead. Also gives a nice catch light.