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http://andrewvanbeek.com/a-review-of-the-cheetah-light-cl-360/
Every so often and not very, I feel compelled to review a product because it impresses me so much, it hasnt been reviewed very much or not from the point of view that interests me. This is a case where all three apply Writing is not my forte and I tend to review things strictly from my point of view and experience as opposed to objectively and with tons of technical detail. Those of us who are combination wedding, portrait, and commercial photographers have a wide range of gear requirements. As a result we tend to collect a lot of items that do the same job but are better suited for some situations than others. This can apply to cameras, lenses, and in this review, lighting. What makes the Cheetah CL-360 so interesting is it kind of gives you the feeling that this is what you would get if you left a speedlight and a studio strobe alone for a weekend on a deserted island with nothing to do. It combines so many features of both which gives a high degree of versatility.
Fill light on a very bright, sunny day. Couple in the shade balanced with sunny back ground.
So many choices
Some (me) would argue that the Canon 600EX-RTspeedlight is one of the best things to happen to portable photography in years. It is small, powerful enough for many situations, its wireless (the useful radio kind), and can be used on camera and off. As a bonus (and its a big bonus), you can shoot in ETTL and high speed sync modes. Neither of these are perfect but they help when used properly and allow you to do things you just cant do otherwise. The downside of speedlights is the power output. They measure out at roughly the equivalent of 80ws. At the other end of the spectrum are studio strobes. The differences between on-camera speedlights are many but the most important for me is that studio strobes are very powerful when you need them to be. Unfortunately they are also large/heavy and they require a plug or hefty batteries (with the exception of a surprisingly reasonably sized battery from Alien Bees) so they dont exactly encourage you to bring them on wedding shoots. I personally dont enjoy lugging studio strobes to commercial shoots either since I often work alone so even then, Im reluctant to bring them along. To top it off they are quite top heavy and not great for carrying around during a wedding. This is where I started collecting lighting gear years ago. The rst set of lights I purchased after those above are some made by a very smart company of engineers called Quantum. The appeal at the time when I bought these was that they were double the power of a speedlight (150 ws), and they had very reliable radio control at a time when you could really only use Pocket Wizards to trigger a speedlight. I have to say that of all the gear that I have ever owned, these lights have been true workhorses that have always worked when I needed them to. They are fantastic for many applications from events, portrait shoots, ll lights, etc So then, why doesnt the story end here? They just are not quite powerful enough and while portable, they get heavy after awhile thanks to the batteries. They are also pretty expensive ($5000+) when you have 4 T5D-R lights, 4 Quantum Turbo batteries, and a wireless trigger. The Elinchrom Quadra Kit came out right at a time when I was looking for more power to overpower the sun. It does indeed overpower the sun when used with a silver softbox and no diffuser. The light is truly beautiful and the battery and transformer take up all the bulk while the light head is tiny and outputs as high as 400ws. The added bonus was that my studio lights were also Elinchrom so all of my Skyport triggers could be used simultaneously giving me all kinds of exibility. What I found was that I never used them together and often I wanted to use 2 Quadra lights. This would mean buying the kit with 2 heads, 2 batteries, and one transformer but then if you wanted to use 2 heads without being plugged into the same transformer, you would have to buy another transformer and battery at a very high price. This is where the wish to keep buying stuff ended and I never bought the second transformer. I only ever used one head while at weddings.
360 degree backlight not possible with a speed light At this point I have shot 3 weddings, an event, 1 commercial shoot, and 2 portrait shoots. At weddings I use one light on a mono-pod carried by an assistant as a ll light in the sun. With 300ws as my disposal, this is enough to overpower the sun as long as the sun is not in the shot and with no diffuser on your softbox. For the event, and wedding receptions, I use 2 CL-360s off camera on the dance oor and speeches for more dramatic lighting. Finally for the portrait shoots, I used one CL-360 in a large diffuser, a second in a stripbox for highlights, and a third studio strobe to blow out a white backdrop (this will be replaced by a third CL-360 asap).
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http://andrewvanbeek.com/a-review-of-the-cheetah-light-cl-360/
3 light setup. Main light, side light with strip box, third light to blow out back ground.
Cons
No TTL (this would be nice but not essential for me) The receiver attaches with a standard USB port and is easy to have fall off. Embedded into the light would be nice to have. No camera side indicator if your receiver and transmitter are on the same power channel. This can result in you thinking you are changing the power level of a light when youre not. This likely wont happen more than once. Flash wont work while camera is in live view. UPDATE: On the 5D Mark III, Live view defaults to Silent Mode. You have to disable this function from the menu. This will allow the ash to re in LV. Any of these shoots could have been done with only Speedlights, only with studio strobes, or only with Quadra lights but in all cases, it would have been, much more expensive to achieve or way more of a pain due to cords or heavy batteries.
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http://andrewvanbeek.com/a-review-of-the-cheetah-light-cl-360/
Andrew Van Beek is an Ottawa Wedding Photographer, Ottawa Commercial Photographer, and Ottawa Portrait Photographer with 12 years of professional photography experience, and over 30 years of general photography experience.
cool, I think I'll give it a run... Reply Like July 9, 2013 at 7:07am Chad Dahlquist Owner at HAPPYFISH DESIGN great review and great lights! I have one of the 360 and now wish I bought two :) but will be buying another one or two for sure! Reply Like July 5, 2013 at 2:28pm Andrew Van Beek Ottawa, Ontario Thanks Chad. I'll be getting a third as well. Reply Like July 5, 2013 at 6:50pm CheetahStand Wow! Reply Like July 5, 2013 at 8:04am View 2 more
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1 Comment
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Hochzeitsfotograf Hamburg
January 8, 2014 I have found this review over the link on cheetahstand website. Thanks for taking your time and sharing your experience. Looks like CL-360 is indeed a remarkable product!
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