Ezybox with Nikon CLS update

I have been using the 24x24 inch Ezybox with my Nikon SB800 triggered by CLS for over a month now. Here is how I mounted the flash on the Ezybox.

This is a summary on my experience on using this setup.

It's great for indoor shoot (small room). I could just set it up on a light stand and I could trigger it with CLS without any problem. I didn't even need to worry about the on camera flash needed to be line-of-sight of the SB-800 sensor. The CLS signal could bounce off the wall/ceiling and triggered the flash.

It's great for outdoor shoot if I used a long lens. If I used my 18-200mm or if I didn't get too close with my 50mm, the SB800 was triggered without problem. I need to make sure the on camera flash was on the line-of-sight to the SB-800 sensor. The results were great too as long as the flash was triggered.

It's not great for outdoort shoot if I use a wide lens. If I used my 12-24 and if I need to get close, the SB-800 sensor would not be on the sight of the on camera flash.

My conclusion is to use a long lens if I want to use CLS with the Ezybox outdoor. If I need to use a wide lens, then I will need other form of triggering instead of CLS, maybe a SU-800 or a pocket wizard.

Here is a picture taken using the Ezybox with Nikon SB-800, triggered by CLS via the on camera flash. The flash was set to TTL.

3 comments:

  1. You can use the Ezybox Hotshoe outdoors with wide lines too, but you'll need to make sure the signal can be seen by your speedlite. Since the camera flash is unable to do this you can use another speedlite or the Commander module. If you still are having problems you can also connect one of those devices to an off camera cord and point into the line of sight for the main speedlite.

    Mark Astmann
    Lighting Product Manager
    Bogen Imaging, Inc.

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  2. Yes, that's correct. If I want to use wide lenses, I will need to use a cord to connect the hot shoe on the camera to another SB800/SB900 or SU800 and use that as a commander. I need to make sense the SB800/SB900/SU800 points to the slave flash(es). With this setup, I am move the camera in closer while I still be able to trigger the flash. This setup works but will cost another extra $300 or so.

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  3. Thanks so much for posting info on the ezybox and the various ways to trigger the 800's - I'm afraid I've chosen the easier softer way - duct taping an attached pocket wizard (the ones I use for my regular strobes...) to the stand holding the ezybox and firing from a hotshoe(d) transmitter wizard on my d700 - that all works fine...now if I could just figure out a simple way to get the box back into it's box/container...what a pain that is...the guy on youtube makes it look so simple - that has not been my experience - by the way - your images are wonderful...david palmer
    http://mytpearl.blogspot.com/

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