Torch instead of FLash... would it work ?


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marcwang

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Jan 9, 2003
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I just thought about this......

If you could engineer a LED torch (white light) to fit on top of a camera (on the hot shoe), you could provide some fill light in the day while using very wide apertures. This applies to close up portraits. Because torches are so low in light intensity compared to flashes, I dont think there will be exposure problems.

This is an alternative to flash sync limitations when using largish apertures.

What do u think ?
 

marcwang said:
I just thought about this......

If you could engineer a LED torch (white light) to fit on top of a camera (on the hot shoe), you could provide some fill light in the day while using very wide apertures. This applies to close up portraits. Because torches are so low in light intensity compared to flashes, I dont think there will be exposure problems.

This is an alternative to flash sync limitations when using largish apertures.

What do u think ?
An LED array with a Hot-shoe attachment? I think we will need a lot of LEDs to use for fill in light... About 7-8 LEDs?
 

There are quite a number of DIY projects posted on the Internet related to LED based macro ring lights. Do a google search for "led ring light" or something like that and you should be able to get to quite a few.

It should be quite easy to change the form factor into a hot-shoe mounted light panel using white LEDs.

Even though LEDs have very high efficiency you will need a lot of them to give you the amount of light required for portrait work. For macro, most of the DIY projects I have read use more than 20 LEDs. For portrait, because of the larger subject distance I guess the number of LEDs required may reach 50 ~ 100 easily.

If you have electrical engineering training you can design the control circuit to be strobed by the flash trigger signal from the camera's hot shoe. The turn on time can be set to the slowest shutter speed that you would expect to use.

Also, check out "Zenon Magneflash" which is a flat panel flash light that is hotshoe mounted. The review on Steve's Digicam can be found here:

http://www.steves-digicams.com/2004_reviews/zenon_magneflash68.html
 

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