Lexus/Riva Sb-3000AFp mini review

[longko]

I did my own little test with the Sb3000 and 540FGZ

SB3000 = GN 26 @ 85mm ISO100
540FGZ = GN 38 @ 85mm ISO100

So the GN for the SB3000 IS about 38 afterall!

You may be wondering how I do my maths...:bsmilie:

You see, the way they test the flash is very very different from the way we test ours.
They do it in a super optimised enviroment with minimum light lost.
Therefore whatever GN they quote, just minus 1 stop from it.
There... the result speaks - the official GN of the SB-3000AF is 38.

Make sense to me, it's all about making ur product looks good:bsmilie:

 

[gigahz]

Will do testing on cactus triggers this sat
hope it syncs 1/120 or more

 

[creampuff]

Anyway I'm not gonna lose sleep over the actual GN. I'm usually shooting not further than 6 meters max and the flash works fine over this distance on camera. At the price, I definitely have no complaints. In fact the flash is dead easy to use and I dare say even simpler to operate than the Pentax units.

 

[longko]

Will do testing on cactus triggers this sat
hope it syncs 1/120 or more

Do keep me updated^^

 

[adiknaim]

i tink this is really d new craze for us Pentaxians (esp the poorer ones.. haha)... coz i went to accompany my fren get on for her Nikon... when we asked for the model, he said "Pentax?".. haha.. guess many of us went alr till he expected all buyers of that model to be Pentaxian...haha...

 

[longko]

i tink this is really d new craze for us Pentaxians (esp the poorer ones.. haha)... coz i went to accompany my fren get on for her Nikon... when we asked for the model, he said "Pentax?".. haha.. guess many of us went alr till he expected all buyers of that model to be Pentaxian...haha...

lol I estimated he sold abt 8-10 pieces in 2 days:sweat: Not really poor then get this flash lah... I have the 540, 360, metz 48, end up still get 2 of these for fun strobist photography.

Edit: This is a good flash to get for those who came into thinking Pentax is value for money^^

 

[adiknaim]

haha...yalor... gd buy i tink... i will buy it if my manual flash gives up... or if i got a bit of spare cash...

only thing i realise is that for bounce, its manual rite?

 

[sbc]

There is a diff in the distance it reaches on the zoom head. That's why some flash published for GN on 50mm and 85mm.

Correct me if I'm wrong, I think GN for 50mm is calculate as this.
36 at 85mm so (36/85)*50mm = GN21.1
My est 30-32 at 85mm so (32/85)*50mm = GN18.8 or (30/85)*50mm = GN17.6 (closer to ur reading)

Cause when u on the flash without mount by default it's 50mm

I dont think it is that simple..
To check the GN for 50mm, the best way is to do an actual test.
To calculate the GN, you have to...
find out the angle of flash from 85mm and 50mm
from that, you have to calculate the area of illumination at a fixed distance for both settings
then you have to compare the area of both, remembering that it takes 1/4 the power to light up 1/2 the surface area.
So by that logic, it is exponentially dimmer as the area gets bigger. :sweatsm:

 

[longko]

haha...yalor... gd buy i tink... i will buy it if my manual flash gives up... or if i got a bit of spare cash...

only thing i realise is that for bounce, its manual rite?

Ya manual for bounce. Even for Pentax, Metz, Sigma u need use A or M mode to bounce.

I did a guide to bounce for this flash in M
http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4067197&postcount=40

 

[longko]

I dont think it is that simple..
To check the GN for 50mm, the best way is to do an actual test.
To calculate the GN, you have to...
find out the angle of flash from 85mm and 50mm
from that, you have to calculate the area of illumination at a fixed distance for both settings
then you have to compare the area of both, remembering that it takes 1/4 the power to light up 1/2 the surface area.
So by that logic, it is exponentially dimmer as the area gets bigger. :sweatsm:

Meaning u or I can't do an accurate test despite knowing the basic technical detail involved. Think I'll live with my estimated guide to say it works with a GN30 to 32 at 85mm in indoor.:bsmilie:

 

[woonsin]

Cannot believe what I saw you all discussing very hottest issues.:sweat::bigeyes:

Wow, too tempting for me to go and buy this one since you mostly rushed to grab one or two from Swissco. :lovegrin:

 

[gigahz]

Probably get the nikon mount if pentax mount already sold out.. will use it on strobes hehehe...

 

[longko]

Cannot believe what I saw you all discussing very hottest issues.:sweat::bigeyes:

Wow, too tempting for me to go and buy this one since you mostly rushed to grab one or two from Swissco. :lovegrin:

To be honest the most irritating part of this flash is the slow charging. If you can live with 12-15secs charging after a full blast (with eneloop batt), then this flash is great.. I'm starting to like the build more and more (for its price).

Just look at how much ppl are selling a used copy for in Malaysia^^;
http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/659571/+0#entry16370234

 

[woonsin]

My friend has 10 days left to fly to Singapore from USA so my biggest difficult thinking is I have not decided which Pentax AF540G US$329.95 or Metz 48AF-1 US$249 to choose before ask him to buy for me yet. These are priced from Amazon.com Please advise

 

[longko]

My friend has 10 days left to fly to Singapore from USA so my biggest difficult thinking is I have not decided which Pentax AF540G US$329.95 or Metz 48AF-1 US$249 to choose before ask him to buy for me yet. These are priced from Amazon.com Please advise

If u want get the AF-540FGZ and ask for international warranty. The Metz is not worth risking if it's ur 1st flash. Metz 48 and 58 had reported zoom head jammed problem:sweat: If u want wait till there's local support

 

[gigahz]

@woonsin
Get the pentax flash first to learn about it.

 

[woonsin]

@woonsin
Get the pentax flash first to learn about it.

Hi, gigahz

Thank you for your advice. i will ask my friend to check online store and order this AF 540 for me.

 

[woonsin]

If u want get the AF-540FGZ and ask for international warranty. The Metz is not worth risking if it's ur 1st flash. Metz 48 and 58 had reported zoom head jammed problem:sweat: If u want wait till there's local support

Hi, Longko
I see. Ok, u are right. I rather not take risk by ordering Pentax AF 540. Thank you

 

[creampuff]

I dont think it is that simple..
To check the GN for 50mm, the best way is to do an actual test.
To calculate the GN, you have to...
find out the angle of flash from 85mm and 50mm
from that, you have to calculate the area of illumination at a fixed distance for both settings
then you have to compare the area of both, remembering that it takes 1/4 the power to light up 1/2 the surface area.
So by that logic, it is exponentially dimmer as the area gets bigger. :sweatsm:

Actually there is no need to calculate the area of illumination or anything like that because we're not measuring the illumination nor area of flash coverage.

The zoom feature of the flash head merely spreads or narrows the flash angle of coverage and manufacturers play this game of quoting their flash GNs at the narrowest angle to affect the flash to subject distance.

The GN formula = flash to subject distance x f-number of the aperture to expose correctly at a specified ISO setting.

Anyway the above GN formula also can be used this way:
f-number = GN / Flash-to-subject distance, or
flash-to-subject distance = GN / f-number

I've cross checked the measurements taken by my flash meter (incident flash meter reading) with actual camera exposures at different zoom settings on manual at full power plus actual distance measurements in a darkened room and the GN is definitely less than claimed on paper.

Most unusually, I recorded a drop of 1 stop in flash output when zoomed at the 70/85mm setting, which proves that this is indeed a budget product as the fresnel plastic lens doesn't really concentrate the light enough. IMO the zoom has little effect and you'd get the most output at the default 35mm/50mm setting.

Reality check, this is after all an $88 (before GST) product... :bsmilie:

 

[dnaxe]

Are the camelion battries any good, or do you think that it's better to just spring for the additional 4 bucks or so for eneloops? Eneloops are a known quantity, but I somehow suspect that these dudes may be the OEM.