First studio lights

[jojo]

Can any of the uber-knowledgable of you advise me on the following. I've gone and bought myself some second-hand lights off Ebay. They are Prolinca and there is one 250w and one 400w, two stands, a couple of brollies and a 90cm softbox. Now I know this sounds like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted, but...... are they safe to use plugged in to my 30D? I believe the sync voltage of the lights is 12v. I know they can only be used on full and half power but I got them for what I think is a reasonable price and I don't want to shell out big wads when I haven't got a clue how to use any form of studio lighting (but am going on a 2-day course in July)

Cheers,
jo

[Stephen]

Re: First studio lights

Can any of the uber-knowledgable of you advise me on the following. I've gone and bought myself some second-hand lights off Ebay. They are Prolinca and there is one 250w and one 400w, two stands, a couple of brollies and a 90cm softbox. Now I know this sounds like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted, but...... are they safe to use plugged in to my 30D? I believe the sync voltage of the lights is 12v. I know they can only be used on full and half power but I got them for what I think is a reasonable price and I don't want to shell out big wads when I haven't got a clue how to use any form of studio lighting (but am going on a 2-day course in July)

Cheers,
jo

Presumably you have a sync lead which will plug into the socket on your camera. They should be perfectly safe to use with your camera and firing one of the strobes should automatically set off the other with the built in slave. Did you get a flashmeter with the kit, though not essential with digital, they can be very useful to measure the output from the flash heads

[jojo]

Re: First studio lights

Thanks for that Stephen, I was worried about frying my camera. Yes, I do have the sync lead but haven't got a flash meter - is it worth buying second-hand or can you recommend one. I've got some way to go, coz I can't even work out how to erect and fit the softbox yet

jo

[Gina]

Re: First studio lights

Hi Jo,

You Tube has lots of helpful tutorials regarding photography, including how to set up a softbox. Take a look and good luck x

[jojo]

Re: First studio lights

Thanks for that Gina - I would never have thought of YouTube

jo