Got a surprise delivery this afternoon from UPS (a surprise because I'd received no shipping email from Zylight): My Zylight Z90 kit arrived.

Along with a "cash on delivery" UPS demand for £98.50 VAT, duty and collection fee (ouch!)

I'd ordered it a couple of weeks back despite the fact that it seems to be permanently "On Backorder" (still showing as On Backorder as I type).

Just thought this might give some encouragement to those keen to get their hands on one, but worried that the unit may not be available.

Ian is that an LED light ?
Could you post some screen grabs of the light on cam and in use.

Thanks,Paul.

Yes it's LED. Includes colour control (no gels needed :) ), daylight/tungsten switch and a ton of other features. Your best bet is to view the excellent videos over on Steve Cahill's blog (these are what persuaded me to order the Zylight):


Original interview with Zylight about the equipment together with stills of the light and shots showing it hooked up on PMW-EX1:
http://web.mac.com/stevecahill/Steve_Cahills_Blog/Blog/Entries/2008/2/7_Zylight.html

Video shot using the Zylight 'on camera' with the EX1: http://web.mac.com/stevecahill/Steve_Cahills_Blog/Blog/Entries/2008/3/12_Shot_with_Zylight.html

Video short made to promote the Zylight: http://web.mac.com/stevecahill/Steve_Cahills_Blog/Blog/Entries/2008/2/15_Zylight_Short.html


Disappointed to find the "Worldwide adapter (UK)" comes with a lead that has two US-style pins with an adapter that changes these to rounded pins - ie no 3-pin plug cable.

For some reason those clips won't play for me.
how are you powering the light Ian. ?

(sorry posted reply instead of new topic :()

For some reason those clips won't play for me.
how are you powering the light Ian. ?

I just checked all three and they all play fine here although they take a while to download, being high quality.

The videos show them being powered by an Anton Bauer battery. I ordered a power adapter and a battery with the unit direct from Zylight, although at the moment I'm struggling to understand how the light should be mounted on the camera. The hot shoe adapter has a "female" end, as does the light. An arm has been included in the kit but this has two threads that are smaller than that needed by the hot shoe adapter. Looking at the photo on Steve's blog I seem to be missing a bit that should come between the hot show adapter and the light itself :(

I received my two Zylights yesterday - I am also in the UK.
I ordered the shoe adapter and that fits the Zylight fine onto the camera.

I am very impressed with the lights.

I received my two Zylights yesterday - I am also in the UK.
I ordered the shoe adapter and that fits the Zylight fine onto the camera.

I am very impressed with the lights.

How many pieces are there to your shoe adapter? If I take mine apart I have the following:

- Washer (packaged separately in plastic bag)
- Main unit comprising shoe adapter with screw, lower wide gnarled grip for tightening, upper 1" thinner gnarled grip with threaded "female" hole for a screw. The problem being the threaded screw provided with the hot shoe connector is shorter than the two grips so that I effectively have a "female" connection on the hot shoe adapter and also on the light itself.

Looking at the silhouette photo on Steve Cahill's page it seems like I should have another piece to connect the hot shoe adapter to the light itself.

I also have a two piece folding arm with male threads at each end, but that can't be used because the thread on these is a smaller diameter than the thread on the hot shoe connector.

Can you by any chance show us a photo showing the hot shoe connector connected to the light so I can verify what I'm doing wrong or what is missing?

Thanks,
Ian

Female 1/4 20 thread on the bottom of the Zylight. I have a Manfrotto 482 That I use on the Zylight and attach that to the camera via a hotshoe the other end on the Manfotto has 1/4 x 20 thread. The Manfotto 482LCD has the hotshoe adapter on it that I use on the EX1

Works good.

I will take a photo over the weekend and post it.
I have dinner guests to entertain tonight so must hurry.
The shoe adapter screws straight into the light - there a threaded section at one end to do that and the shoe at the other with a few knobs to adjust things in between.

I also have the manfrotto shoe adapter which works just the same.

The light certainly looks amazing. Curious about the battery, though. I'd hoped the light could be powered by the camera battery, but this isn't the case? It needs a separate battery?
Malcolm

I will take a photo over the weekend and post it.
I have dinner guests to entertain tonight so must hurry.
The shoe adapter screws straight into the light - there a threaded section at one end to do that and the shoe at the other with a few knobs to adjust things in between.

I also have the manfrotto shoe adapter which works just the same.

Thanks Paul. Don't worry if it's too much hassle. Looking at the photo on the Zylight page it seems I've got everything I'm supposed to have. It looks like the taller grip needs removing which then leaves enough thread to screw into the light, although it looks a bit fragile to me having so much thread exposed, and doesn't explain why the supplied the second 1" thumb grip in the first place.

I've ordered the Manfrotto (thanks Steve!) shoe adapter and will probably use that in preference.

Now I just need to work out how you stop the soft box adapter for the light sliding round as there's no stops on the ring adapter to keep it square on.

And work out logistically how to handle battery power.

The light certainly looks amazing. Curious about the battery, though. I'd hoped the light could be powered by the camera battery, but this isn't the case? It needs a separate battery?
Malcolm


Hard to see how it could be powered by the camera battery given that there's no connection on the camera battery.

The manual talks about using an Anton Bauer Gold Plate which seems to be a way of connecting to a battery that can be used on the older Sony cameras to power both camera and light, but I see no way of doing this on the EX1.

You can order the Zylight Z90 unit with either a D-tap connector or an XLR adapter but at the moment I haven't sorted a battery out. The one I ordered from Zylight is a general purpose one with a whole bunch of connections for different devices that looks like it will just plug direct into the light, but it came with a US plug so I need to get a US-UK adapter.

The Z90 draws 30W watts, even if you could probably not a good look expecting the camera battery to run the light and the camera.

We just got two Zacuto rail / shoulder mount systems for our EX1s. With a Comer battery hung out the back we have two D Taps available or we can wire directly into the V Lock plate. This arrangement gives plenty of power to run the EX1, a monitor and the Z90 plus the weight of the battery balances out the weight of the camera.
You don't really need to spend as much as the Zacuto system costs to get an elegant solution, there's a couple of other shoulder bracket systems around that solve all the problems in one go although they do lack the bling and configurability of the Zacuto.

Now I just need to work out how you stop the soft box adapter for the light sliding round as there's no stops on the ring adapter to keep it square on.

Please let me know if you figure that one out. I've had the Z90 (along with their barndoors and the Chimera softbox) since the day it was released, and I also immediately was surprised that the accessories just spin around on the mount.

In theory you might want to rotate the softbox, for example, from horizontal to vertical orientation...but it would be nice if things were tight enough that you could rotate but not have it flop around so freely. I think I actually emailed Zylight about this, but I never heard back...

Please let me know if you figure that one out. I've had the Z90 (along with their barndoors and the Chimera softbox) since the day it was released, and I also immediately was surprised that the accessories just spin around on the mount.

In theory you might want to rotate the softbox, for example, from horizontal to vertical orientation...but it would be nice if things were tight enough that you could rotate but not have it flop around so freely. I think I actually emailed Zylight about this, but I never heard back...

No, nor me. I think this is clearly a "young" company as their customer service is not great and they haven't thought some things through (it's not great advertising to have a web site that permanently shows your items 'on backorder' and the site navigation/explanations are confusing - Steve Cahill's video's do a far better job of promoting the product). Fortunately they have a great basic product so can get away with it. Perhaps someone going to NAB can ask them about this on behalf of the rest of us as this strikes me as a pretty serious design defect.

The barn doors accessopry suffers from the same problem (although thankfully being heavier they're far less prone to spinning wildly without provocation) so to me this is a design fault with the accessory adapter.

I am in the web business and offered them some helpful criticism about their site which is not good
They took the advice and thanked me for my help.
I think they are good people with a good product - they just need some tuning in to catch up with themselves.

The Anton Bauer Softbox fits perfect on the Zylight, without the plastic adapter plate that Zylight supplies. It is called the Anton-Bauer UL Softbox. I had a Chimera but it was too big so it was returned.

See the other blog about the Zylight with stills @
http://web.mac.com/stevecahill/Steve_Cahills_Blog/Blog/Entries/2008/2/7_Zylight.html

All the interviews were shot with the Zylight 90 and the Anton-Bauer UL Softbox @ http://web.mac.com/stevecahill/Steve_Cahills_Blog/Blog/Entries/2008/3/12_Shot_with_Zylight.html

The Anton Bauer Softbox fits perfect on the Zylight, without the plastic adapter plate that Zylight supplies. It is called the Anton-Bauer UL Softbox. I had a Chimera but it was too big so it was returned.

See the other blog about the Zylight with stills @
http://web.mac.com/stevecahill/Steve_Cahills_Blog/Blog/Entries/2008/2/7_Zylight.html

All the interviews were shot with the Zylight 90 and the Anton-Bauer UL Softbox @ http://web.mac.com/stevecahill/Steve_Cahills_Blog/Blog/Entries/2008/3/12_Shot_with_Zylight.html

Thanks for the information Steve.

It's a shame that Zylight sell the Chimera softbox and not the Anton-Bauer one in their accessory list. Same issue with the barn doors. There's something wrong when your blog is so much more helpful than the supplier's own web site or any attempts to contact them!

Must say I'm struggling to find suppliers of Anton-Bauer stuff here in the UK. Even when Google shows a hit when I follow the link through the item isn't there.

The Anton Bauer Softbox fits perfect on the Zylight, without the plastic adapter plate that Zylight supplies. It is called the Anton-Bauer UL Softbox. I had a Chimera but it was too big so it was returned.

Steve,

Do you have any other pics of how the AB softbox attaches to the Zylight without the plastic adapter? I can't really make it out from that picture or the one on your blog...

I don't know how much the AB one runs, but that Chimera cost a small fortune for what it is...and I hate having to wrangle that ugly adapter plate on and off the light.

I also have a two piece folding arm with male threads at each end, but that can't be used because the thread on these is a smaller diameter than the thread on the hot shoe connector.

Can you by any chance show us a photo showing the hot shoe connector connected to the light so I can verify what I'm doing wrong or what is missing?



See this photo of the articulating arm and the hotshoe adapter:

http://www.palsomedia.com/ex1_test/hotshoe_adapter.jpg

The cylinder part of the hotshoe adapter has a threaded hole. One end of the hole is 1/4" and the other end is 3/8".

The bottom part which mounts on the camera hotshoe has long 1/4" screw that goes into the threaded hole in the cylinder. You can actually screw it at either end of the cylinder. Because the screw is long, you can screw it at the 3/8" hole and it will mate into the 1/4" thread portion in the cylinder.

The hotshoe comes packaged with the bottom part screwed into the 1/4" thread end of the cylinder. You'd need to remove it and reverse it and screw it at the 3/8" end so that you can screw the articulating arm into the 1/4" end of the cylinder.

Thanks Bernard. Now sorted :)

The AB has two metal tabs that slip into the fins on the light. Not meant or designed to do so but it works and stays in place.

The AB has two metal tabs that slip into the fins on the light. Not meant or designed to do so but it works and stays in place.


Thanks for that, Steve. Damn -- it looks like I paid like 60% more for the Chimera, direct from Zylight, than it would have cost for the apparently more convenient A/B model...

If you don't mind another question, is the AB softbox rectangular or square, and if rectangular -- which way does it end up when you clip it to the Zylight fins?

I need to go change my pants!

This is the solution to so many of my problems!

Yay for technology!