RSO – Quick Field Test of the Lumpro LP160

Let’s start this post with a bit of (recent) history. (Or you could just skip the first part):

Back in the days when Strobist started the small flash revolution, getting the right gear together wasn’t the easiest thing to do. Basically we mainly adapted pieces of gear that weren’t made for small off-camera flash lighting. No shop could give you a good answer and you had to research what was available, get some parts from your local store, buy the other stuff on eBay and then try to make it fit together. These days every serious store can provide you with all the bits and pieces (even in a kit) and many manufacturers make equipment specially designed for off-camera flash use. One of the first manufacturers that stepped up was MPEX. They started supporting Strobist and stocked up not only the right equipment but also the knowledge about it.

For many the reason to start using small off-camera flashes is that it’s an affordable way of lighting with artificial light. The most expensive part is usually the flash itself. A Canon 580 EXII or a Nikon SB900 doesn’t come cheap so people started looking for cheaper alternatives. You don’t need all the high tech mambo jambo in these state-of-the-art but expensive flashes anyway if you are going to shoot all manual. I’m not saying these flashes aren’t word their money (I even started to become a fan of all the automatic stuff for certain uses) but lighting manually is often still the best way to get the best results. People started to pay ridiculous prices for old Nikon SB flashes and brands like Vivitar revived their old models.
My 3 Vivitar 285HV’s have been my workshorses for a couple of years and I also used some old Nikons but you still sometimes got faced with the fact that these were never really designed as off-camera flashes. No build-in optical slaves on most of them, stupid pc or even more exotic connectors, …

Enter a couple of years later when MPEX decided to start Lumopro, a new brand that makes lots of toys for us small flash lovers. I was pretty impressed with the first flash they made, the LP120. So when they came out with a new and improved version, the LP160, I really needed to take it for a short test drive and took it with me on holiday.

Finally the review:

We all know the dynamic range that digital sensors can capture is much less than what we see with our eyes. On a little geocaching trip with Noa and Maya I encountered such a situation. High noon, kids in the shade and some beautiful clouds. Trouble is, you can’t capture it all in a photograph. If you expose for the kids, the background blows out.

And if you expose for the background, the kids become silhouettes.

But hey what does daddy have in his backpack? Diapers, cookies and a first aid kit. But also a couple of pocketwizards and a Lumopro LP160. Noa became the model, Maya acted as a VAL (voice activated light stand) and I shot with the Lumix GF1. It became clear very fast that the LP160 is one helluva powerful flash. It packs about the same power as a 580EX or an SB900. So that’s a step/stop up from the previous model.

Noa is not too much of a poser, so you have to be fast if you want to shoot her, so that was an excellent recycle speed test. Despite the fact that we fired the flash at full power, it recycled really fast. I didn’t measure it but the recycling time seems close or equal to a 580EXII and certainly waaaaay faster than my Vivitars. It also seems pretty friendly to the batteries, I seem to get more flashes out of a set of AA’s than with the Vivitars.

Time for Maya, who DOES like to pose. We went for a slightly larger frame and to get all attention to Maya, I zoomed in the Lumopro. It now has an electronic zoom motor build in which feels a bit more professional than the manual zooming in the previous model.

The only criticism I can think of is the battery door. You have to push the batteries with one hand and slide the door with the other to get it closed. The door also comes off completely so make sure you don’t forget it somewhere. The feel, the controls and the power have certainly improved compared to the LP120. Lumopro clearly listened to their user base and made syncing the flash a breeze. It has a pc sync connector so you can still use your pc cables until they break (which happens usually 2 weeks after you bought them). But it also has a mini-jack connector which is way better suited to the task. It also has a pretty sensitive build-in optical slave that can even set to ignore a pre-flash. Optical slaves can be a very handy and cheap way to sync a flash in controlled environments. In fact I shot a commercial assignment this morning with a Hensel Porty as my main light and the LP160 as a fill light, synced with the optical slave. Worked every time.

So yes, I really like this flash. I can’t predict if it will stand the test of hard use for many years, but it feels like it’s up to the task. I think Lumopro set the new benchmark for affordable off-camera flashes with the LP 160.

By the way, I know that last picture isn’t very impressive but believe me it’s not easy to trigger the 10 second self-timer and race up those rocks in time to have yourself in the picture too. I just couldn’t not include this picture after all the exhausting speed climbing