Off-Camera Flash, Recycle Question

[mishmatta]

For portable indoor sessions, I use two off-camera flash units and one shoot through umbrella and one reflective umbrella.

The setup gives me what I need, especially with portability. I've tossed around either getting one photogenic or alienbees instead.....but I'm still unsure.

The reason I'm here is to find out if there is a better flash solution. I currently use two cheap flashes (a pentax AF200 & an adorma universal flash).

Surprisingly, my $50 adorma flash recycles at about 3 seconds. Pretty nice. My pentax after the first 10 shots or so starts to slow down on the recycle time. It can take 10-15 seconds for it to regenerate. I find that I miss a lot of shots this way.

My initial thought was to pick up another adorma flash to accomplish the recylce time I need, but thought I'd put it out here for some ideas.

Thanks!

mish

[sk66]

Well, studio strobes will recycle much quicker, but yo have the cords etc...
You could consider adding external power (battery packs) to the flash units to improve their recycle times.

[zona5101]

The Af200 is pretty dinky and that is one reason why it is having trouble keeping up. If you like the portability and results going the "strobist" way with your lighting then you may want to get a more powerful flash... another adorama if thats doing the job or a used Nikon SB24/25 - vivitar 283/285 etc... something with good manual controls.

[autofocus]

What batteries are you using? We use Energizer Ultimate Lithium in our SB800 and they hold up, and work great..pricy though, but worth it.

[mishmatta]

Thanks for the input!

I'm not sure they make battery packs for the adorama flash I have. Or how that would work on a light stand......

I may pick up another cheap flash and see how that goes.

I wouldn't mind a photogenic right now, but the flash is a more cost effective solution right now.