your new portable portrait setup!!!!

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Nikon D80 (nicknamed Cylopsoid)
Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 Lovin' it. I could glue it to my camera and be happy.
Tamron 28-75mm f2.8 It's the older model w/o the AF motor and it focuses FAST. It's just like the 17-50, only longer.
Nikkor 50mm f1.8d <------creammmmmy
Nikkor 18-55 kit Now in a deep slumber.
Quantaray 28-82 Somewhere in the house.
Nikon N65 Back for the resurrection tour! Coming to defend the faith...
(This spot being saved for hopefully a G9 or G11) Shhhh, I know those are Canons...

Wow. It's been a long time since I've seen something that can be so cool and so stupid at once. Forget how the photographer looks, can this getup be that much more effective than putting a simple diffuser over the strobe? I mean, the concept is cool, but I would have preferred a head-to-head Pepsi-challenge to one of those flashes simply mounted to, say, one of those big strobe holders that takes the strobe off-camera by a couple of feet.

For those who watched me Sunday, they know I would opt for something like this.

I don't think there's enough power in the strobes he was using though, Perhaps a Quantum is better.

Brian, A diffuser is better than none, But what tops the cake here is the angle the bounced light comes from. It has a nice natural look and wraps around the subject.

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Yes, but my point is, wouldn't one of those off-camera flash grips that wedding photographers use (for example) work almost as well and be a lot less hassle?

This is what I'm talking about: CBDIGITALS Custom Brackets CB Digital-S Flash Rotating Bracket (for short cameras and cameras without add-on power grip)

"Go Go Gadget...!!"

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Brian- This would have a more desklamp effect compared to the sun-simulating angle the jet pack could offer. One could use the jet pack to hold a hairlight while an on camera flash or bracket could do the key.

Nick- a quantum would be cool, but your legs would have to be like Arnold's to carry the pack, Quantum AND the required counterweight... Hey, shoot pictures AND workout at the same time. Woohoo!

__________________
Check out the San Diego Strobist Meetup!

Throw a little light. If it doesn't come back, it probably fell off...
Cheers
John
Flickr
Nikon D80 (nicknamed Cylopsoid)
Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 Lovin' it. I could glue it to my camera and be happy.
Tamron 28-75mm f2.8 It's the older model w/o the AF motor and it focuses FAST. It's just like the 17-50, only longer.
Nikkor 50mm f1.8d <------creammmmmy
Nikkor 18-55 kit Now in a deep slumber.
Quantaray 28-82 Somewhere in the house.
Nikon N65 Back for the resurrection tour! Coming to defend the faith...
(This spot being saved for hopefully a G9 or G11) Shhhh, I know those are Canons...

Okay, I guess I'm sold on the basic idea of the "jetpack." I agree that maybe the flash in the demo was a little underpowered...

Here's a question, then. I play with LED electronics as a hobby; I've made many an interesting lamp, including a totally red-only LED darkroom light. Wouldn't a high power LED be lighter and easier to deal with? You could fit both a small assembly of high-power LEDs (say, 3) PLUS the batteries in a package smaller than a large flash unit. Since there is no real "lensing" system (aside from the little lenses that are part of the LED body), and since there is no bulky flash tube, the uber-hiker-backpack would not be necessary; I'm thinking a simple padded strap, maybe with something wrapping around the collarbone. I've described a continuous lighting setup here, but keep in mind that LEDs respond with 1/1000th of a second, so they're still feasible as flash (sort of).

I guess I could armchair this getup all day long; it definately was pretty cool that someone actually went out and built it. Still, it's an awful lot of work, and is only slightly more portable, when you compare it with a disc reflector+stand.

From an energy (= brightness) standpoint, it's hard to beat a flash or strobe. Take for example a 1000 Watt halogen light - that seems pretty bright. Now, 1 watt = 1 Joule in one second, so 1000W halogen would deliver 1000 Joules in one second. Take a hot shoe flash rated at 50 Watt-second = 50 Joules. However, a typical flash duration is say 1/10,000th of a second. This means that if the flash could maintain the pulse width for one second, it would deliver 50X10,000 = 500,000 Watts compared to 1000 watts of the halogen. This roughly equates (assuming similar electrical to optical efficiency) to having to use 500 halogen lamps to produce the same brightness as the anemic hot shoe flash. LED's are much dimmer than halogens....which means that if you want to evenly light up a couple of people...you'd need a boat load of LED's - not to mention that it wouldn't be able to produce the kind of brightness and coverage that a flash could do. LED flashlights may look bright but it covers a very small area. The brightness falls with the square of the distance and area...so to cover an area 7 feet by 4 feet with LED's won't work very well. I've been working on this high power LED light source for some time with another electrical engineer and we can't come up with a practical solution with LED lighting yet (at least something comparable to a strobe). My friend has designed and built LED flash lights that can light up a small street sign from 100 yards away but again, the area of coverage is quite small (I believe these flashlights sell for well over $100 each).

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Well, as far as the $100 each figure goes, LEDs actually housed and built-in all pretty and professional looking cost WAY more than parts. I used a new-old-stock Plasma Ireland 660nm LED taped around a watch battery as a rather effective dark room light; I can only imagine what it would cost for someone to package that getup and mark it up.

It's pretty cool/interesting that you've been playing with LEDs and lighting solutions, Ty. I guess the fact that I've only ever seen LED "flash" units on macro lighting supports the idea that LEDs can only ever cover a small area. Yokohama optio-electric has some really impressive, car-headlight-level LEDs, but when I saw the demo a couple of years ago they were still in development.

Have you documented your LED experiments online anywhere? I'd LOVE to take a gander at what you've been doing...

Here's a tangental idea: a softbox that is really a wall of LEDs... god that would be a thing of beauty