Railfan Technology > New flashes! Yongnuo YN560-IV

So after using a borrowed set of Vivitar 285HV's from a friend, I decided to get me a late birthday present and order myself some flashes.  I wasn't thoroughly impressed with the Vivitar's, so I gave another budget option a shot, being the Yongnuo YN560-IV (well, 8 of them).  Similar to a Canon Speedlite in design, the units were $70 apiece, plus tripods (cheap ones, about $9 apiece), and a transmitter which was basically a 560 without the flash element.

First impressions - After the problems I had waiting for delivery including the units being in town on Saturday (following a Friday order) but due to the 2 Day shipping Amazon Prime offers, I had to wait for them to come today, and the fact that 7 of them were shipped in one box via UPS Smartpost, while the other flash and transmitter were shipped via FedEx...makes sense right?  Anyways...those problems aside the flashes and tripods came in this afternoon before fire training.  The flashes come in individual boxes, with a soft carrying case that contains the flash unit and the hotshoe/tripod mount.  A bit clunky for a tripod mount, but on a standard tripod it's not any larger than the tripod mount.  I mounted mine up and, following training, put some batteries in and gave them a test.  I tried one unit alone on the camera, and it lit up the side of our station (an approx. 60ft L x 25ft H wall) with no problem.  Mind you, I have a T3i which HAD to have an ISO of 800 to get a shot worth anything, meanwhile one flash at around ISO 200 is lighting the station up without a problem.  Of course we tried a couple shots of the station, but that's not what this is for..

Anyways, down to the rails.  At the station, I mounted the units on their hotshoe mounts and locked them on their tripods for quick deployment, and laid them down in the back seat of my truck.  Set them all up with the transmitter via Radio RX, which was actually really easy to do, and got on the road.Took a few test shots to get used to the flashes, but MAN they are bright.  Even at the highest possible exposure time (1/200, f/4) I was able to shoot great shots with a low ISO rating, compared to the other flashes I've used.  With full batteries, the flashes recharge in under 5 seconds easily, with an audible "beep" once the flash has recharged.  The units have a guide rating of 58M, which is a 20% improvement over the Vivitar's, but it seems to make a MAJOR difference on the brightness.  The built in 2.4GHz transmitters had no problem firing at a reasonable distance (up to 100ft without a problem from what I could see) and were just as bright down that way.  For $80 apiece with tripods (from B&H) the units can't be beat for someone who is looking to get into flash photography for cheap.  I will be spending a lot of late nights trackside now, that's for sure!

If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.  I know my little "first impressions" topic was a bit of a rambler, but it's been a long day as it is.  Remember, these are cheap flashes from China, not a $1000+/unit AlienBee set.

msullivan1993 Wrote:
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> So after using a borrowed set of Vivitar 285HV's
> from a friend, I decided to get me a late birthday
> present and order myself some flashes.  I wasn't
> thoroughly impressed with the Vivitar's, so I gave
> another budget option a shot, being the Yongnuo
> YN560-IV (well, 8 of them).  Similar to a Canon
> Speedlite in design, the units were $70 apiece,
> plus tripods (cheap ones, about $9 apiece), and a
> transmitter which was basically a 560 without the
> flash element.
>
> First impressions - After the problems I had
> waiting for delivery including the units being in
> town on Saturday (following a Friday order) but
> due to the 2 Day shipping Amazon Prime offers, I
> had to wait for them to come today, and the fact
> that 7 of them were shipped in one box via UPS
> Smartpost, while the other flash and transmitter
> were shipped via FedEx...makes sense right? 
> Anyways...those problems aside the flashes and
> tripods came in this afternoon before fire
> training.  The flashes come in individual boxes,
> with a soft carrying case that contains the flash
> unit and the hotshoe/tripod mount.  A bit clunky
> for a tripod mount, but on a standard tripod it's
> not any larger than the tripod mount.  I mounted
> mine up and, following training, put some
> batteries in and gave them a test.  I tried one
> unit alone on the camera, and it lit up the side
> of our station (an approx. 60ft L x 25ft H wall)
> with no problem.  Mind you, I have a T3i which
> HAD to have an ISO of 800 to get a shot worth
> anything, meanwhile one flash at around ISO 200 is
> lighting the station up without a problem.  Of
> course we tried a couple shots of the station, but
> that's not what this is for..
>
> Anyways, down to the rails.  At the station, I
> mounted the units on their hotshoe mounts and
> locked them on their tripods for quick deployment,
> and laid them down in the back seat of my truck. 
> Set them all up with the transmitter via Radio RX,
> which was actually really easy to do, and got on
> the road.Took a few test shots to get used to the
> flashes, but MAN they are bright.  Even at the
> highest possible exposure time (1/200, f/4) I was
> able to shoot great shots with a low ISO rating,
> compared to the other flashes I've used.  With
> full batteries, the flashes recharge in under 5
> seconds easily, with an audible "beep" once the
> flash has recharged.  The units have a guide
> rating of 58M, which is a 20% improvement over the
> Vivitar's, but it seems to make a MAJOR difference
> on the brightness.  The built in 2.4GHz
> transmitters had no problem firing at a reasonable
> distance (up to 100ft without a problem from what
> I could see) and were just as bright down that
> way.  For $80 apiece with tripods (from B&H) the
> units can't be beat for someone who is looking to
> get into flash photography for cheap.  I will be
> spending a lot of late nights trackside now,
> that's for sure!
>
> If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.  I
> know my little "first impressions" topic was a bit
> of a rambler, but it's been a long day as it is. 
> Remember, these are cheap flashes from China, not
> a $1000+/unit AlienBee set.

I am NOT a fan of Alien Bee monolights, period.  Too many guys are buying them for brand recognition and not realizing that they really are overkill for most railfan applications.  I can appreciate that they need fewer of them; and as such that makes for much faster setups.  But, the key to having success with OCF railroad photos is proper planning and execution, not speed and power.  

I scout all of my locations carefully, often in daylight just so I can get an idea of terrain and where my various flashes are going to be placed.  I've found locations that would make for very nice photos that I haven't yet shot because I'm still waiting for a train that'll make the photo worth the effort. My goal is to keep the flashes OUT of the photo and as far away from the tracks so as to allow maximum diffusion of light across the scene.  (Ground splash is one of my personal pet peeves.) 

This is my opinion only, but I truly believe that it's about quality over quantity.  Most guys will go out on a daylight railfan trip and come back with a couple dozen shots, good nightshooters go out on a single night and come back with one or two quality photos if we're really lucky. 


 

Thanks for the write up, looking forward to test shots, I do wish that night owls would include a diagram of the set up to help others figure it out.
AND a big thanks for letting us know there is less than a gold bar flash units that can be used.  To soon but keep us, me, up to date on the reliability.

dave j
 

SandPatch1 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks for the write up, looking forward to test
> shots, I do wish that night owls would include a
> diagram of the set up to help others figure it
> out.
> AND a big thanks for letting us know there is less
> than a gold bar flash units that can be used. 
> To soon but keep us, me, up to date on the
> reliability.
>
> dave j
>  

No problem.  The set up was actually really easy, at least for the model IV's.  I had them set up and connected & ready to go within seconds.  Haven't changed the channel and group yet either.