Studio Strobes & LED Modeling Lights

[mawyatt]

For you folks that are using studio strobes that have incandescent modeling lights I've replaced the modeling lights with LED types. The results are nice and without the heat from incandescent as well as a more white color temperature. I used the dimmable type so I could vary the output and this also worked nicely.

The only issue I've found, and no surprise, is the LEDs flicker with the line frequency (50 or 60Hz depending on where you live) and they have a lower output. So you might see some banding while viewing in live view, this is easy to eliminate by just changing the shutter period.

Did some testing to see how the LEDs would behave if used for exposing rather than just viewing, results were very good I can report. Used 3 320M strobes and 2 DG600 (which already have built in LED modeling lights). setup was my horizontal setup with Nikon D850, Mitutoyo 20X with Sigma LSA and tiny (<1mm) chip as subject, and utilized long 3 second exposures to average the flicker. Results were good enough I might actually use these LEDs for long exposure mode for some non-criticle work rather than my normal flash.

Now my Adorama Studio 300 AC and Flashpoint 320M strobes have all been fitted with the LED bulbs rather than the supplied incandescent bulb. Here's the eBay link for the LED bulbs.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dimmable-E26-E ... 2749.l2649

Best,

Mike

[tevans9129]

I got mine after seeing your first post about these lights. They work great for me but then I only use them for setup. Thanks for posting about them.