Name: Flashpoint 400 w/s Battery Powered Flash Kit - with Power Dial-down
Brand: Flashpoint
SKU: FPBPL
Price: 259.95 USD
Availability: Discontinued
Rating: 3.29 (7 reviews)

Flashpoint 400 w/s Battery Powered Flash Kit - with Power Dial-down

Flashpoint CD400 400W/S Battery Powered Flash Kit

Flashpoint

Adorama

Photography

Lighting & Studio

Flashes & On-Camera Lighting

On Camera Flashes

Flashpoint On Camera Flashes

Flashpoint CD400 400W/S Battery Powered ...

Buy: Flashpoint 400 w/s Battery Powered Flash Kit - with Power Dial-down

I have modified my new unit with a 100k potentiometer.  Read about it here:

http://pentonstudio.blogspot.com/2013/06/flashpoint-400-watt-battery-portable.html

Flashpoint 400 wat battery powered flash

I bought this unit for location bridal formals.  For the price, I was expecting the unit to be shipped in a cardboard box with styrofoam and was pleasently surprised with the nicely made metal carrying case that I was not expecting.  In the case of the dial down feature, I am getting f5.6 with 100 iso with the sock diffusor in place with the unit about 12' from the subject with the dial all way down to lowest.  I also like the modeling light for night time composing and focusing.  I put a 1/4 20 stud in the cold shoe holder on the flash head and locked it into an adjustable umbrella holder so that I can use an umbrella or softbox.  Because of the cold shoe, it could be mounted anywhere a large camera mounted flash would go.  Haven't tested the upper end of the power dial for my large group shots in church yet, but at full power it lets out a whoop of flash that you can feel with your hand and it only takes to the count of four to green ready light.  I like the beep that accompanies the ready status.  I have used flashes that tone when fired and tone when misfires, but a tone when ready to flash makes most sense!  I'd still buy at double this price.

surprising value

Saw the price and thought I could go wrong.

Love the size  and weight of it and how simple it is to use.

Its limited of what light shapers you can use with it, there isn't an easy option for light banks.

I wish you could reduce the power a lot more. I read Johnny from Tipp City, OH review and how he changed the Potentiometer. So I am going to try and do the same, however he said that it was an 8k Potentiometer and having opened mine up the Potentiometer says B250K so I'm not sure what to change it to.

Good for the price but one big issue

Have used it at two weddings to date and a couple informal shoots. Allowed me to knock down ambient enough for some nice mid-day shoots. You will need to 'McGuyver' a DIY beauty dish; I used a large and small translucent bowl from dollar store and gutter strap with velcro...you can too!  You will be moving the distance to adjust power; not the switch so much. Used with Cybersynch remotes. Hasn't let me down in over a year to date. Would be nice to find second battery for it if really going to do a long gig.

Works well; need a DIY beauty dish

I have 600w version of this light and its pretty decent wee light for the price. Power adjusted via dial, which is bad IMHO, but then - so do Alien Bees , which people like. Kit comes with radio trigger, which makes life of beginning/intermediate user so much easier. It uses popular bowens mount - plenty of accessories for it. Its fairly light kit (not as light as Elinchrom Quadra of course, but hey).  Recycles fast enough.  Main issue - base of light is plastic. So once you put it on strut on light stand, there is tilt movement which is held by plastic and restrained by wee bolt. Its not strong enough to hold any large size beauty dish (with grid) or soft box - head will tilt down or may just break. 

However - mount itself is metal, so if you can live with that - this unit will work nice for single light outdoor setups. Oh and cable is not securable, so it may pop out from power pack. And its not too long either.

Overwise - i'd recommend this unit to anyone who is thinking about getting into world of off-camera flashy lights - it packs WAY more power than anything that comes with similar price tag and accepts (and works well) with most bowens-compatible light modifiers.

Not a bad unit

Well, this light was certainly cheap, and I had reasonable expectations about build quality. It's pretty much what you would expect, quality-wise, from a light in this price range.
There are two things that keep this light from being a poor-man's Elinchrom Ranger Quadra, however:
First, the light has a built-in reflector. I knew that when buying it, so it wasn't a big deal to me, but it wouldn't be that hard to dispense with the built-in reflector and put a cheap Bowens mount on the light. I'd gladly shell out another $40 for the light in that case. On the bright side, my Photoflex softbox speedring fits PERFECTLY around the built-in reflector.
The second problem with this light is much more serious. Out of the box, it only has about 1.5 stops of adjustment in light output, just as another reviewer pointed out. I got around this by swapping out the 8k ohm potentiometer that dials down the light and replacing it with a 100k pot. Now I can get from full power to 1/16th power, maybe a little less. If you're not comfortable monkeying with electronics or don't want to completely void your warranty, then this light is not for you. I can't even be sure that my mods won't kill this light somewhere down the road, but so far it's working fine.
Other than that, there's not a whole lot to say. Recharge takes 4-5 seconds at full power; no big deal to me, but you won't be trading in your Profoto 7b for it anytime soon :)
All in all, if they could fix the power dial-down issue and give the light the capability to accept light modifiers, I'm sure that the Strobist horde would be beating down the door to buy it. After all, it's comparable in price to an SB-600, but with a ton more output.
As it stands, though, I can't really recommend this unit on account of its shortcomings.

Great concept, poor execution

I bought this on a limb and structurally it has been very nice. The flash comes packaged in a nice case and is relativity sturdy. It takes a while to charge up for each flash, but the power is there. Now for the problem: my unit does not stop-down to 1/16th as advertised. I can only get 1-2 stops of adjustment. [...] Overall, nice idea..just needs a little refinement.