Sb-600 / 800 recycle times

[lowlight_junkie]

Am I right in thinking that a pair of sb-600's on the same bank (CLS) would recycle faster than a single SB-800? I just bought another pair of 600's off jeff and am thinking it may be worthwhile for me to also get rid of one of my
sb-800's in order to get another 2 600's.
I would then have the SU-800, 1 x sb-800 and 6 x sb-600's
I am going to be doing a lot of portraits any time soon and am wondering would 3 x pairs of 600's and a snoot and sb-800 would be better than 4 x 600's and 2 x 800's?
I am also thinking that this would add a lot of diversity to interior shots with 7 speedlights mounted around a room.
Opinions are appreciated.

 

[bep207]

i completely support the decisions you're making......

ps. wtb a sb800 CHEEEAAAAP! :biggrin:

 

[Gr8Tr1x]

Maybe 2 sb800's....in case one craps out during a shoot, you have a backup commander.

 

[lowlight_junkie]

I have the SU-800 as my commander now Joshua, and still have the one sb-800 as backup to that.

 

[j_b_l]

Chris, as far as your original question about recycle times...

If what you're asking is if 2 SB600s will recyle faster than 1 SB800, I'm going to assume that what you're asking is "Will 2 SB600s firing at 1/2 power recycle faster than 1 SB800 firing at full power?" Is this correct?

If so, then I think the answer is yes, for 2 reasons. First, the SB600s recycle faster at full power than the SB800, mostly because full power isn't as high for the SB600, so less to charge the capacitor. And second, a flash can recycle faster to 1/2 power than to full power. So I think in the end, if you can light the scene with either 1 SB800 or 2 SB600s, then IMHO the SB600s will recycle faster.

Not sure if you'll agree, but that's just my opinion...I haven't done any scientific tests to confirm...

One other thing...if you're going to do portraits, I highly recommend a studio strobe. I just finished shooting my son's pre-school class with an SB800 in a softbox...and I was only able to get f5 out of it. I missed focus on a few 2-kid shots because the DOF was not deep enough to keep both of their faces in focus. You can put the strobe on optical slave mode and still fire it from the SU-800 (the su-800 will fire your "fill" SB600 flash and then that flash will optically trigger your studio strobe). JMHO...

 

[lowlight_junkie]

If what you're asking is if 2 SB600s will recyle faster than 1 SB800, I'm going to assume that what you're asking is "Will 2 SB600s firing at 1/2 power recycle faster than 1 SB800 firing at full power?" Is this correct?

Hi John,
yes that is exactly what I meant, i also thought it made sense.