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“Pocket, Medium, Full Strobe?”

Pocket versus medium versus full stroke what the heck is all the difference in the terms that we constantly here in regards to simply flashes? Some people call them flashes that people call them strobes. We have mon alights, which actually there is a difference. So sometimes there are differences. Sometimes there simply are not now many of you out there would say that no pie, the differences that flash is small like this, we don't guy right here, but a strobe is something that big like this big guy right here. But I would say, I beg to differ my friends, because if you go on to be in ages, website or any other retailers website and you look, you will find many times that full strobes are named flashes. They call it the pro photo, be one flash or look all that profile, toby to flash, there isn't a consistent naming system for whether something's a flash of whether it's a strobe, to be honest, they all do the exact same thing. They all put out white light for a split second, so why aren'...

t they all called the exact same thing? I don't know, I don't know why we all can't be friends on this, I just think it's time to make up our own words, which is what we've done in the studio. For a long time we've called these guys and I don't know why we call these guys this maybe I heard it from somewhere else maybe it's something we actually can with ourselves I claim nothing as original anymore these days because who knows where I might have heard it from in the past or if we actually just were crazy enough to make it up on our own but anyway we call these well guys these are pocket strobes now pocket strobes are just small flashes okay, so this like the photo metro's plus is a pocket strobe all the little guys the five eighty exes nikon f b nine tens new hours young ones that they're all pocket strobes okay and then we have medium strobes like for example the pro photo be too down there and this bolt those would be medium strobes and then we have full strobes again these are our own names because it's going to make a simple going through this course when aiken reference pocket medium full okay and you'll understand this guy this is I think I just broke it. This is the einstein six forty second by policy buff it's a fantastic inexpensive studio strobe so for a budget and it's absolutely awesome and then we have way wicked cool guys like the pro photo be one which you can see down there which that we would classify as a full stroke as well so what the heck is the difference between pocket medium and full stroke? If you said pi, I think the difference is size, I would say guys and gals that you are one hundred percent correct. The difference is indeed size and more importantly, not just size, but also power. Okay, so let's talk about this a typical the most, the easiest way to distinguish these, and we're kind of separated into three different classes. Ok, so the easiest way to distinguish is, by its typical power, a pocket strobe like this guy. The typical power for it is rated in guide numbers. Okay, so with smaller flashes, their typically measured in guy numbers. But the problem with guide numbers are that every manufacturer kind of has different ways of measuring them and sometimes different ways of presenting them, which makes them kind of unreliable but here's the thing from our testing, whether using a five eighty x to whether using a six hundred yaks artie or a limb a pro or outside, this is a little bit. This is the foe takes, whether using looming pro or any other of these flashes, even the chinese made flashes. They all say guy numbers of between fifty and seventy, and in practice we got the exact same power reading out of every single one of them okay, so they have very little difference in power, and the easy way to kind of think about it is that most of them are guy number, sixties or their equivalent to around fifty. What seconds plus or minus? Just a bit. We'll talk about what seconds in just a moment, but what are the main prose of a pocket strobe? The pros, obviously, is its small size. This thing is far more portable than even a medium strobe, which is like twice as big right it's, also less expensive. But we say less expensive to and a extent meaning that if we're simply buying one of these flashes, then it's less expensive than buying a bigger flash, right? One foe takes meters, plus a foreigner bucks is cheaper than a bolt at five hundred fifty bucks or whatever that costs, but is cheaper to an extent, because if we need the additional power like let's, say, we need five times the power of this photo. Metro's buying five of these would cost you two thousand dollars buying one einstein, which is like ten times the power would cost you well, more intent of the power that would cost you, like six hundred dollars. Okay, so it's cheaper to an extent, meaning that when we want the small form factor in a pocket, strobe that is less expensive but if we're trying to use pocket strobes to match the power of a medium or of a full strobe then it becomes expensive and it becomes cumbersome all right, so the cons it's low power output relatively we can still use these to overpower the sun but compared to a medium or full strobe it's much, much less power it's also expensive like we said and cumbersome when you are trying to get more power our favorites in the pocket strobe lineup is for full feature we have the faux takes metro's plus for manual side we have the lumen pro lp one eighty again we'll talk about more of our favorite stuff later on. All right, so let's jump to the medium strobe now a medium strobe and by the way, sometimes people call pakistan robes, flashes or speed lights. Those are other names for them. We call them strobes to what everyone go medium strobe a k a flash strobe, call it whatever the heck you want not going to argue on this tomato tomato tomato we actually tomato we is an incorrect pronunciation, but tomato tomato kind of work. Ok, ok, so a typical power reading for a medium strobe is again sometimes they're measured in guide numbers for these because these are sort of in between pocket full strobes so sometimes the manufacturer measure and guide number sometimes they will measure in watt seconds but they're roughly around a two sixty two three sixty guide number and they are roughly around two hundred eighty watt seconds to around three hundred one second okay, so a basic medium strobe is about five times as powerful when it's used at full power than a pocket strobe which is a lot that's a lot of power so we have five times the power here four to five times the power roughly it's also smaller than a full stroke so these are the pros of these medium strobes they're smaller than full stroke so they're still portable but they're four to five times the power of a pocket strobe there still less expensive than full strips as well those are the pros. Okay, so what are the cons of medium strobes? Well, medium scrubs are larger than pocket strobe this means that they are going to be a little more cumbersome to carry around. They're going a little bit less portable but still very portable and more portable than a full stroke. They're also more expensive than pocket strobes and that's on ly when we're talking about when you don't need the power right if you go on by a medium strobe just for the sake of having it but you don't really need the power than you're paying mohr and you don't necessarily need it but if you need the power than it's considered a value because again like like I said, the bolt five hundred, six hundred bucks whatever that price range is that if you need the power there then it's absolutely a value for what you're getting because you're getting five of these little guys four to five of them if you buy four to five days you're looking at like sixty hundred two thousand dollars right same thing with the pro photo be too if you need the power even at its professional price range of twenty two hundred bucks that's still beats carrying around five of these guys and trying to hook up five these guys and use them as one single light okay, so in terms of basically the power to the ease of using and so forth there a great value when you need that power our two favorites on the full feature side our favorite is by far the pro photo be too and it's packed it's absolutely fantastic and it has, you know, high speed sync rickard and sink all the full feature functions that you'd want on the manual side we have the bolt v b twenty two this is also a basically rebrand if you buy through being h is the bolt v b twenty two but it's also the go docks it's also list under cheetah they're all basically the same unit made by this sing factory just listed in our different brands so if you're in a different area or purchasing from somebody else, just look at the other brand name versions of that but for the price and performance it's absolutely fantastic we're looking at like the proposal be too with a single head is twenty two hundred and with e v b twenty two with five hundred bucks with a battery pack so you're looking at pretty different big difference in price range, but we'll talk about maura these flashes when we get into them to give you a better idea full strobes a k a flash a strobe a mon alight now there is a difference in why something called a monolith we'll get to that in just one second but the pros to these guys well let's talk about the typical power the typical power is measured now in watt seconds when you get to full strobes, they're measured in what second, which is why we gave you a rough conversion numbers so you can get an idea, but we would measure anything we would consider anything as a full stroke just on our own terminology anything it's above five hundred watt seconds, which is roughly equivalent to ten pocket strobes so anything that's above that number we would call basically a full stroke so they're generally larger in size like the pro photo be one like the einstein okay, this guy has six hundred forty one seconds and every time I smack it always feel like I'm like banging around stuff. I'm signs the policy, but fine signs are extremely inexpensive now that means that the build quality isn't fantastic on them, but for a starter studio. Strobe, you can't really beat it. These air like six hundred bucks and they're six and forty one seconds, twelve to thirteen pocket stroh's basically built into one of these guys. So it's absolutely fantastic. Okay, so that's, the pro you have anywhere between five hundred watt seconds all the way up to three thousand plus wa second so it could be anywhere between ten toe up to sixty times more powerful than a pocket strobe when you count that when you measure that into the value of these units yes, they are more expensive, but the value is there because ten of these guys is four thousand dollars. Okay, one of these guys is six hundred bucks. One beat be one is two thousand dollars roughly around that range, so the value is still there. Ok, it's two to ten times more powerful than medium strokes. So again, even when you compare price points, you need to factor that power in to that price point because there's still a value compared to the power that you're getting from them what are the main cons? The units are fairly large. Right? So these air large, this has a straight up plug that goes right in the wall. Or you need a separate power pack for it. The cool thing about the profile, toby ones, is that the power pack for a b one is this widow guy. This is the profile of the one power pack, and it can have, like, two hundred fifty full power recycled. I mean, in one single battery on you can get multiple batteries and take him on set their fantastic and still quite portable for a full stroke. Okay, so each one of these is gonna have its own little version. Why are some called mon alights? Well, because basically a mon alight the difference minute monologue versus a strobe in battery pack is that monolith has all the power built into this. So all you do is plug this into some sort of power device, right? And it's it's, its own self contained, flashing it same thing with the b one that's a monologue because it's it's self contained flash unit, but something like the profile toby to that is not a monologue because it requires a battery pack meeting that I can't just plug the flash head into the wall. It doesn't work that way. So that's, the term mon alight is used to reference those types of life. Mon alights our lives that have all the power, everything built in the one self contained unit vs a battery pack. Strobe is one that you have to plug into a battery pack. Okay, so other cons they are, of course, larger and less portable. Our favorites in the full strobe range is the pro photo, the one that's, the one that you see right over here. It's a full feature stroke, which means you have tpl rear curtains. Think you have all those full function, you know, stroke functionality in it. It's twenty a hundred dollars to start. And you also need the remote, which is another foreigner bucks so it's about twenty five hundred bucks for the full kit, but it's, fantastic and professional will talk more about the differences, but they're incredibly easy to use. And professionally reliable. Our favorite budget model light is the one we mentioned earlier. Thie einstein six forty one second. Uh, little guy right here, because why these air like six hundred bucks? And for a studio strobe that you're using inside of the studio, you don't need to be very portable, it's fantastic, it's absolutely awesome, has a very fast tea time. The duration is incredibly quick, and also, if you're taking on site, you can still get the vagabonds, the batteries that policy but has and it's still a fairly inexpensive solution for a very powerful light, by the way, that be ones are listed at five hundred watt seconds. These are six, forty seconds. So anything about five hundred, we'd call a full strobe between two, fifty two, three hundred watt seconds or that guide number range. We call medium strobe and pocket strobe czar right around that fifty one second or sixty guide number range and that's a pocket strobe. So hopefully this helps to kind of distinguish all of these different, you know, strobes. The really the big difference here that we're talking about is simply power and size. Okay, we have pocket. We have medium we have full and that's, how we're going to reference them throughout the entire course. So knowing that now feel free to move to the next video.