First day with some new Hensel lights!! But I have two questions....

[mcherry]

Thanks Andy, they indeed work that way. In fact the only reason I would go with the Hensel trigger is the ability to adjust the lights remotely (especially a hair light). And yes I can slave the rest. So maybe I will get one Hensel reciever and trigger and use then make sure when I buy more monolights I get the Plus models.

Thanks guys this has been a lot of help. Now if only anyone had some experience with the Beauty Dish!

[ChipBulgin]

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So what you're saying is, I'm an idiot?

LOL, I'll buy that - and I'll see if I can exchange them tomorrow...

Thanks, Chip.

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Not at all. I'm sure Hensel offers both because some people don't need/want the wireless capability and it saves them a few hundred dollars. Me, I went wireless over two years ago and I'll never go back. It's nice not to have long sync cords running between rooms and is more reliable than optical slaves when you're lighting more than one area separated by walls.

-Chip

[stevenD]

I have 6 of the Integra Pro's (not the Plus's) and use the Pocket Wizards to fire them, (actually it fires one Light and the rest are Slaved) this works fine for me with no problems.

I did NOT go with the Hensel wireless for one HUGE reason, yes you can adjust the power, BUT, the unit will adjust ALL lights power set to the same channel!

So that means if you have all your Lights on channel one and you want to turn down the Hair-Light, ALL the Lights will turn down (don't want that). The work around is to set you Lights to different channels, with Channel One being your Main Light and the others Slaved, that way you can change the power on each channel without effecting the other lights. The Main Unit (on your Camera) will ONLY fire the one slected channel.

BUT:
1) You need to have the Pro-Plus's to do this, not the add-on kit for the Pro's.
2) Do you really want to sit there and be messing around with the main controler switching Channels and powers settings? For me it is MUCH easier to simply WALK over to the Light and turn it up or down.
3) For the price difference between the Pro's and the Pro-Plus's being at about $100 each, I was able to buy 6 (Pro's) Lights for the price of 5 (Pro-Plus's).
4) It is not compatable with Sekonic/PW's. I have a Sekonic 558R and use it for all my set-ups, it fires the PW and works smooth.

As for the Beauty Dish, just slap it on and use it, (pretty much) the same way you would a Soft Box, I use mine ALL the time, here is a sample:

[mcherry]

Steven,

Thanks for the input. If I understand correctly, I will still need multiple receivers if i want to use the lightmeter to trigger each light independently. Of course I could always just shade the sensor from the other lights, but I was always in the habit of metering one light at a time. I may go with the PW setup only because it works with my meter... I don't know, still thinking this one through....

Regarding the beauty dish. I was wondering more about the grids as I've never used a beauty dish with them before (although I have used a spot with a grid on top of a softbox for what I think would be a similar result. What distance do you usually set your dish back from the subject. What grids do you usually use (or do you). Do you gel them ever?

Best,

Matt