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Look what I made :)

thrice

Active member
I'll take some proper shots of the setup soon.

I will probably also make another one, but I will install a relay or something else to only allow a very quick flash, I will explain the fault and design decisions with the current one.

So, it's a ringlight, not a ringflash. It is triggered by the hotshoe and uses two 9V batteries connected in series, it is quite bright but will mostly be used for catchlights in portraits and for a little fill when I shoot live bands.

The downside compared to a regular flash, is as soon as the M9 opens the flash circuit, it stays open, so I have installed another switch on the battery housing so I can power cycle the circuit and have the M9 shoe 'reset' as it were. If any electronics gurus can tell me the part I need to basically make the circuit shut off within say 1/50s after being opened I would be all ears.

I originally put it on a step-up ring but it obscured too much finder space so I got a tiny quick release clamp and attached it to that, so now it is suspended just in front of the body around the lens mount, makes changing lenses difficult but leaves the finder very open and unobscured.

All in all a fun exercise and a pleasant result. Please excuse the white balance and my obviously dirty mirror.
 

Fates

New member
Do the lights overwhelm the viewfinder being that close? Seems like they would overpower and bounce light around in there. Unless you have a flange blocking them. Looking forward to pics of the rig!
 

Chuck Jones

Subscriber Member
Daniel, how are you finding the color temperature of the LED's? I've tried a few experiments such as this myself, but every one of them the light quality is not where it needs to be... usually too cool and fails to color correct to the right temperature due to the LED natural color temperature. The ones that looked most promising were using a red and yellow LED set along with the white. Great to see someone else experimenting though!

As far as your circuit problem, what you need is a timer circuit inline with your hot shoe connection. Something like this $14 unit should work just fine:
http://www.apogeekits.com/555_timer_module.htm
Best of luck with the project, and do let us know how it turns out! Looking forward to seeing some shots with it.
 

thrice

Active member
Daniel, how are you finding the color temperature of the LED's? I've tried a few experiments such as this myself, but every one of them the light quality is not where it needs to be... usually too cool and fails to color correct to the right temperature due to the LED natural color temperature. The ones that looked most promising were using a red and yellow LED set along with the white. Great to see someone else experimenting though!

As far as your circuit problem, what you need is a timer circuit inline with your hot shoe connection. Something like this $14 unit should work just fine:
http://www.apogeekits.com/555_timer_module.htm
Best of luck with the project, and do let us know how it turns out! Looking forward to seeing some shots with it.
You are right, they are quite cool, but for fill light when shooting live bands, colour temperature is far from essential, and for catchlights they will be massively overpowered by studio strobes. A gel filter could be cut into a ring to convert the colour temperature.

Do the lights overwhelm the viewfinder being that close? Seems like they would overpower and bounce light around in there. Unless you have a flange blocking them. Looking forward to pics of the rig!
I can't see the LED's in the viewfinder at all, I can *just* see the edge of the rear of the circular circuit board but have to look for the illumination of the subject to tell that they are firing.
 

Chuck Jones

Subscriber Member
Daniel, I shoot the same types of subjects myself, so I well understand the need for more light and your hunt for a very portable solution. I've tried gelling but the problem is the wavelengths you need are just NOT present in the LED's I've tried so far, so all I've had is a darker frame not an accurate color correction from gels. There are supposed to be some newer LED's though that have a wider temperature spectrum. I was just wondering if possibly the ones your using were some of those.
 

Brian S

New member
What type of circuit are you using to sync up with the camera? Are you using a control signal, or putting the full voltage through the camera?

A 555 timer is controlled using a resistor and capacitor with the circuit. These are cheap, available at Radio Shack.
 

thrice

Active member
What type of circuit are you using to sync up with the camera? Are you using a control signal, or putting the full voltage through the camera?

A 555 timer is controlled using a resistor and capacitor with the circuit. These are cheap, available at Radio Shack.
Full 18V through the camera. M9 is fine up to 600V.

I know about 555 timers but I just dunno if I can be bothered, and the small enclosure doesn't really seem to have enough space for a small circuit, maybe with some tidier wiring :p
 
Daniel,

I know it's not quite the same end result, but I've mounted a small video led in the hotshoe. It has an on off switch on the back of the light.

But nothing beats a good ring light for sure.
 
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