Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

This could very easily fall into the "stupid question" category, but I'm brand new to big boy lights so forgive my ignorance.

I did a little time lapse video a few weeks back - it was of a water lily closing. I used available light, which varied a LOT during the video. I'd like to repeat it with controlled lighting, but knew speedlights would be a PITA because of battery life on them - so now that I have lights that plug in ...

I'll probably setup for a frame every 15 seconds. Power required on the lights should be pretty low as the subject is small and I can have the lights within a few feet of the flower.

Could be looking at 2000-3000 frames total as I'd like to get it opening and closing.

Are there any life or duty-cycle issues with the Einsteins that would make this a bad idea? I'd hate to stress them on a frivolous project having owned them just a few days. I figure modeling light off so it doesn't have to cycle.

Flash tube life cycles are in the quarter to half million shots (more flashes can be obtained at low power vs. high power), and are easily and inexpensively replaceable. We have customers actively using lights they purchased almost 30 years ago, sometimes even without a tube change.

I think the shutter in the camera would be the first to go under "wear and tear". This is not to say a light, or stand, or camera, or memory card, or... cant fail sooner, but not really due to wear and tear.

Thanks. That's kind of what I figured, but didn't want to be wrong. :o