POSTED BY

Joel Johnson

AT 2:49 PM
Thursday March 19, 2009

Cameras

lp120 • lumopro

LumoPro LP120, a completely manual camera flash

LP120.jpg.jpgCharlie Sorrel got a hold of the LumoPro LP120 flash, a low-cost ($120) manual flash for disciplined photographers:

As we mentioned last week, the LP120 contains an embarrassment of options. Not only can you adjust the power down to 1/32, you can trigger it in a multitude of way, all of them open standards: A hotshoe, a slave trigger (which detects the light from another flash firing for wireless use), a PC (Prontor/Compur) socket and a mini-jack socket.
On top of this there is a manual zoom (push and pull the head to use it), a 270º swivel and 90º tilt. The body of the unit feels kind of plasticky, but it’s the good kind of lightweight, knock-resistant plasticky as opposed to the drop-it-and-crack kind.

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8 Comments

Anonymous Anonymous

#1 – 9:56 AM March 20, 2009

I think I must be missing something here. How is this different from other slave flashes? Seems like an old idea. Is it April 1st already?

hohum

#2 – 10:14 AM March 20, 2009

Agree with #1... My Metz flashes can either use TTL info, or be set up entirely manually. They can be triggered from a variety of slave sources. Manually programming them is wonderfully complex, satisfying both the photographer and the nerd in me.

Anonymous Anonymous

#3 – 8:00 PM March 20, 2009

The unique thing about the LP120 is that it has 4 ways of being triggered. There is of course the hot shoe (digital safe). Then there are the optical slave, and both a PC and miniphone port. With power control from 1/1 - 1/32, a manual zoom head, and 270 degrees of swivel, this flash is made for Strobist, by Strobists.

Patrick Austin

#4 – 10:35 AM March 23, 2009

Aren't viv 285's like $80-$100?

Patrick Austin

#5 – 10:37 AM March 23, 2009

Oh, except they don't have all the fancy ports and AREN'T BEING SOLD?

Sanfam

#6 – 10:35 PM March 26, 2009

@4: I'd second the Vivitar 285HV remark were it not for the brand's effective death somewhat recently. While it is now being produced under the Cactus brand, nobody seems to have solid feedback on how its build quality stands.

This, features a swivel base (which contains the optical slave) and somewhat similar features. It basically matches the price of a 285HV with a slave module and offers some extended control options on top of it. I have no doubt that version 2 will be better, though. I'm going to skip this generation and figure out if I actually need/want another flash.

luis Cerezo

#7 – 3:19 PM July 6, 2009

i think that the extra features are worth 30$. a wein peanut slave is 20$, and even the new cactus doesn't dial down to 1/32. I have 9 vivitars and I still don't have a good cable for each. 120 is a good deal. The closest thing could be the sb-26s which are still going for over 100$ on ebay, and they are 12 years old!

Roby Davis

#8 – 5:35 AM September 18, 2009

I have one of the first batches of the LP120 and must say I'm very impressed so far.

So why?
1. Price - $120 - For a the times when I just want light and nothing fancy, I think the price is fair.
2. Options to trigger - mini, pc, optical, hotshoe. Mini being the biggest deal for me!
3. Recycle time. Faster than my Vivtar 285 (non HV).
4. Easy to change the power level - Compared to my canon flashes this one is so simple to change the power on it's silly.

Those are the big four now here are the perks in my view
5. Swivel head
6. Brand new with warranty
7. Easy find more just like it
8. I'm sure there is more but....

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