Rotolight II

[rpcrowe]

This unit really looks interesting...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQY5KfftWaM&t=430s

I like the ease of use of this unit and also like the quality of light that it seems to be able to pump out. It is an LED which can produce a higher intensity flash as well as a constant light.

Although this light is really low powered. I think that it could be used as a specialized tool which would be great for portraits, especially of female subjects. The incorporation of the constant LED light gives you a modeling light.

They tout it as being HSS capable but, I strongly suspect that this is not the standard HSS in which a strobe pumps out a series of bursts. I have a tiny LED hotshoe flash that I can shoot at a high shutter speed. This doesn't emit a series of flashes but, rather emits a light that is longer in duration and will allow the camera's shutter to cover the entire frame without the notorious black bar that we get when shooting at a shutter speed faster than our maximum sync speed without HSS selected. However, this tiny flash doesn't have a constant light capability and the flash tube (like the 270EX) is simply tiny. Also, of course, this type of flash will not freeze action...

The advantage to this type of HSS is that it can be measured with a standard (no need for a Sekonic 858D) flash meter.

The ability to dial in your camera shutter speed as well as the Kelvin color is another nice bonus.

It seems like this unit does quite well on the camera hotshoe in either horizontal or vertical camera positions.

I am wondering it this diffuser for a standard hotshoe flash might not also do well on camera in both the horizontal and vertical camera positions. Of course, it would not have many of the other advantages of the Rotolight II... https://www.ebay.com/itm/16-40cm-Rou...oAAOSwqlha9Q6O

OTOH: the Rotolight II costs $400 USD while this diffuser costs only ten bucks. But, this would be significantly lighter in weight than a flash on a bracket with a large modifier.

Actually, the price of the Rotolight II is the reason I am not going to purchase one. But, if GODOX comes out with a copy... Well

[DanK]

Very interesting. I do wonder why a sufficiently low-powered flash plus diffuser wouldn't give similar results, but this seems like an interesting tool.

It's low-power, and I noticed that in the video, the photographer got good results when shooting on a very cloudy London day. I wonder if it would be powerful enough to serve as fill flash in brighter light. If you read the reviews on B&H, this seems to be an issue for some of the reviewers. Also, AFAIK, it is not TTL, and at full power, the results are distance-dependent. The video includes a comment about that, and it also shows up in the B&H reviews.

Re the price: B&H currently has this for half price, $200: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...amera_led.html. I didn't see any indication of how long this special will last.

[Manfred M]

I have recently asked a number of the commercial photographers that I have gotten to know well over the years about shooting with continuous light.

Without exception they suggested that while the continuous lights have gotten better, they are generally no match for flash for shooting non still life subjects. The one exception that they mentioned were the Kino Flo line, but even with these, the subject has to be relatively still.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/K...5/N/4232862101

Small light sources like the RotoLight are fine for small, still objects. It is still a small light source and can't be effectively used with light modifiers that will produce good quality light as the light loss is just too great. These are modified video lights and not much more.

[Manfred M]

Very interesting. I do wonder why a sufficiently low-powered flash plus diffuser wouldn't give similar results, but this seems like an interesting tool.

It's low-power, and I noticed that in the video, the photographer got good results when shooting on a very cloudy London day. I wonder if it would be powerful enough to serve as fill flash in brighter light. If you read the reviews on B&H, this seems to be an issue for some of the reviewers. Also, AFAIK, it is not TTL, and at full power, the results are distance-dependent. The video includes a comment about that, and it also shows up in the B&H reviews.

Re the price: B&H currently has this for half price, $200: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...amera_led.html. I didn't see any indication of how long this special will last.

Dan - my experience with B&H on these specials is that they are clearing out stock and the unit in question will likely be replaced with a newer model within a few weeks. I got a great deal on a carbon fiber table top tripod that way.

[DanK]

Manfred,

Thanks. If I knew I wanted this, I think I would go ahead and purchase it tomorrow, but on balance, I think it isn't sufficiently useful for my purposes. I'll mull it over a bit.

My experience with B&H customer service has been consistently excellent, so I wonder if they would tell buyers that if they asked.

Dan

[rpcrowe]

After perusing the reviews on B&H (Thanks Manfred, I had not thought of looking at B&H) I also think that, while this SEEMED a good idea, it is not what I need.

Indoors, I have a plethora of lights and stands to use. Studio type strobes with modeling lights and all sorts of modifiers. I certainly DON'T need this little flash for that use.

What I am always looking for is a very lightweight and very portable solution to run and gun shooting out doors. Right now, my two flash brackets work just fine. I can use just about any type of modifier on the larger of the two brackets along with any of my strobes including the Streaklight 360TTL; shown here without any modifier except the diffuser on the standard 7-inch reflector.



This is a lighter weight bracket that I use for standard hotshoe lashes and lighter weight modifiers. I rotate the camera using the tripod ring of my 70-200mm lens...



I I shoot with a lens that doesn't have a tripod ring, I use an Arca Compatible L bracket to switch the camera from horizontal to vertical. Not a problem since when I am doing a run and gun outdoor model shoot, I am mostly shooting in the portrait position.



I like to flip my camera better than flipping the flash...

[rpcrowe]

I was correct in that the RotoLight doesn't use a series of pulsating flashes to obtain high speed sync like a standard HSS strobe will do. I received this email from Darren Fellows at RotoLight:

"You are correct that a traditional flash would pulse to get the HSS. As we have an LED light we are able to keep the light on for the duration of the sync speed and just overpower the light for the amount of time that the shutter is open.

This is a new way of doing HSS but we have found it effective. "

I was incorrect in thinking that I wanted one. The lack of power and inability to obtain TTL exposure control are some of the reasons why I will not be purchasing the RotoLight. Given more power, I could
live without the TTL capability since much of my flash work is done in manual exposure control.

However, I am making a calculated guess that this is just the tip of the iceberg and that there will be more powerful LED Type flashes coming in the future. We already have LED ring light flashes for macro work. These are quite inexpensive and if they work, should be a good addition to a macro photographers kit. However, I once tried one of these units by Newer https://www.ebay.com/itm/Neewer-Macr...ing+light.TRS0 and the darn thing was pretty much a piece of junk...

[Manfred M]

I was correct in that the RotoLight doesn't use a series of pulsating flashes to obtain high speed sync like a standard HSS strobe will do.

This is hardly surprising as LEDs are a continuous light source, unlike a flash tube, which is a discharge tube that outputs a single pulse of light.

The downside is, of course, that LED light sources do not even come close to the light output of even a low cost flash.