Zebralight SC51 mounted on Nikon DSLR

I thought you guys might like this. I bought a hotshoe-mountable microphone holder and by miraculous coincidence a zebralight fits it perfectly. I haven't taken any shots with it yet. Maybe I'll wander around tonight after dark and take a few test photos.

Apologies for the poor quality. I couldn't exactly take photos of good camera with my good camera, can I?

That's awesome!

Brilliant idea! I love it! I recently purchased an SC51W and this would be perfect for a project I have in mind using a D300S where night time flash is not the best option. With proper color balancing it could also make for an interesting daytime fill.

This the mic mount I bought: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...h_CM_21_Hot_Shoe_Shotgun_Microphone_Clip.html

Thanks for the link wludavid! Good ol' B&H Photo. I've been a costumer there since the mid 1970s. The mic mount seems very reasonably priced so that it might be worth buying one just to see how it works out.
On the other hand, I guess I could gaffer tape my SC51W to the camera or some old hot shoe gadget temporarily and find out for free if I want to invest in one of these.

I do this from time ago;



Work great to take pics and videos at night


SFMI4UT

Looks like a neat idea but I guess it depends on how fussy you are with your photos. Unless you have the diffused (floody) beam you may find your photos have very uneven brightness with a big drop-off towards the edges. Shorter focal lengths (ie. "wide angle" or "zoomed out") will suffer the most. The human eye is great for compensating "on the fly" but digicams are a lot less forgiving. Dynamic range is a term sometimes used to describe this ability to correct almost instantaneously for changes in illumination, and the eye (+brain) is a lot better at doing this than our current camera technology.

There is an interesting thread somewhere in here about diffusing film. Let me see if I can find it.
http://www.cpfmarketplace.com/mp/sh...haserburn-s-Diffusion-Film-DC-Fix-CPF-Service You may like to investigate this if your light is not the "floody" version. Apparently frosted scotch tape is almost as good.

I would be very interested in seeing some photos you have taken with this rig as I am on the verge of purchasing a Zebralight SC51 myself. Would you be able to post some in here?

Lastly, is your SC51 the warm version or the cool?

All the best
Trev

Thanks for the tip. With a little thrower (and maybe preferably with a pressure switch), I believe this would be a very useful focusing aid in night photography.

(Need to find it somewhere else though due to excessive international shipping costs.)

Esko said:

(Need to find it somewhere else though due to excessive international shipping costs.)

Click to expand...

As far as the ZL's go, Zebralight offer free International shipping via China Post according to their website. I was hoping to get it direct from them.

Shipping details are at http://www.zebralight.com/Free-Shipping-Worldwide_ep_43-1.html
(I hope it's OK to post this link here, mods, delete it if this is not appropriate)

Don't know of a pressure switch option for Zebralights though.

BTW, if you wan't help with low-light focus, you could try a laser pointer. I bought a green laser some weeks ago (shhh, not supposed to be able to get them here) with a few "pattern generating" heads. The green grid seems to help with AF - I find it works wonders with my Olympus E-30 at moderate distances.
Just don't point the single spot at people, traffic, planes, etc.

Trevtrain said:

As far as the ZL's go, Zebralight offer free International shipping via China Post according to their website. I was hoping to get it direct from them.

Shipping details are at http://www.zebralight.com/Free-Shipping-Worldwide_ep_43-1.html
(I hope it's OK to post this link here, mods, delete it if this is not appropriate)

Don't know of a pressure switch option for Zebralights though.

Click to expand...

Thanks, but I was referring to the shipping costs of the microphone mount (which would have been somewhere around $50+ for me). I do have H51Fc headlamp (ordered straight from ZL), but I was thinking that maybe I could use my Shiningbeam S-mini NW (light and small, not a thrower though) or possibly Fenix TK21 with the mount.

Thanks for the tip on the laser, too. Not too fond on them due to safety issues, but since I do have some kind of cheap red laser pointer, I might give it a try. It surely would be easier for night vision and less of disturbance for the surroundings. The flashlight would be quick and easy though. The wider beam could be aimed to the center of the picture beforehand (no need to fine tune for different distances or zoom positions) and it would also help in aiming. Light on - focus - aim - light of - take a photo. I have sometimes used a handheld flashlight to do the job, but this would certainly make the job easier.

On the other hand, now that illuminationsupply sells high cri neutral white leds, it could be a good idea to build a flexible camera light, too. A few bare leds for direct illumination, a few adjustable leds with lenses for ceiling bounce, another few for wall bounce etc...