Captur-ing My Heart Yet Again

on June 13, 2018
Remember Victor Kiam? He was the chap we used to see on television advertisements in the 1970's selling shavers. His signature line was that he was Victor Kiam and he liked the Remington electric razor so much that he bought the company. As he was a successful entrepreneur in lots of fields, he may very well have been telling the truth. His confidence sold a lot of razors and I bought one of them. Had it ever actually shaved my face comfortably I would have probably kept it. However... I don't blame Vic - he was selling, not shaving. Maybe he had one of those skins that don't grow whiskers. But we're not shaving here - we're shooting - specifically we're shooting dance shows that have a lot of things happening one after another and very little time to spare between shots. If you're going to shoot flash at the stage from the floor you're really going to heat up a small speedlight - heat it to the point where it either shuts down or shorts out. And yes, I've had both things happen on a number of occasions. Someone with more money than I would go buy the Profoto A1 or B1X and have done with it. I cast about to see if my current flashes could be helped along - and hit upon the expedient of using the Hähnel Captur transmitter and receiver set I already own...with a new set as well - and an old bracket made by Cullmann. The idea was to let one flash shoot for one act - 20 shots on average - and then let it cool while the other flash did the next dancer. Set onto a small Manfrotto nanostand, the off-camera flash meant that there would be no redeye return from the dancers' eyes. Note that the earlier Captur set was configured for Canon - the newer one for Fujifilm. D0 they both work together on the Fujifilm X-T2? You bet they do - Ricky Packham and I tried the combo out in the shop beforehand. Now they can stack acts on as fast as they can stage 'em, and the flashes don't run over temperature. Hähnel Captur uses plain old AA batteries and I haven't had a missed shot in three years with the original triggers. I even use a reverse connection when I need a remote camera trigger. Good value. If I were Victor Kiam, I'd buy the company.
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