Thursday, November 15, 2018

New at the Studio. Savage MultiFlex Light Stand. Part 1

We were looking forward to the arrival of this light stand here at the photo studio even though we have a number of Savage Universal stands in the studio including the Drop stand which we featured a while back (you can check it out here  New at Studio Savage Drop stand ).
So you may notice the key word "studio" mentioned a couple of times already . For the most part our arsenal of lighting stands are pretty much "studio equipment",  we have used the Drop stand and other models out on location but the new Multiflex stand has quite a few nice features which makes location shoots easier so this will be our first two part blog feature. We'll go over the key features which make this stand the "all-terrain" go to stand for us as well as our new indoor location stand. So for part one we're headed out of the studio for show & tell.
Let's start with some specs :)

Savage sent the 6' extending version ,  it also comes in a 10' model.

The 6' model extends to 75" tall and collapses to 26".
Holds up to 9lbs  extended.
It weighs 5.5lbs.

The 10' version extends to 125" tall and collapses to 39.5" in height.
Max load at 8lbs when extended and weighs in at 6.5lbs.

The 6' MultiFlex with Nikon SB910,  Expoimaging Rogue grid. PocketWizard PLUSIII transceiver

Starting at the top the center post has a classic feature which we only find on a few light stands and its one of our favorites. The steel stud/spigot is removable and is double sided (1/4"-20 thread and 3/8") with a top vertical position or a side horizontal hole. This comes in really handy for a lot of macro photography lighting scenarios.



The center sections 
are also air cushioned to help prevent lighting
 from accidentally slamming down when
 tensioners are loosened.













The big feature are the legs, two of the adjustable legs work in unison while the third slides independently giving the stand the versatility for slopes, stairs, uneven ground and can even be slid under objects or against walls for confined spaces.

"What stands on stairs , alone or in pairs?"




























All of the legs are telescoping with flip locks for fine tuning the stance, a bubble level is attached for really getting things balanced out and all the legs have rubber feet that keeps stand from sliding around.

For the first trial we wanted to keep the lighting equipment light and simple with the speed light and another Rogue light bender. In the coming week we'll post about our studio set up with some heavier gear, speaking of heavy I decided to push on the stand to test the leg locking strength and discovered a minor issue that I informed my contact at Savage about. The  bottom leg sections were a bit slippery due to some oil residue,  this was easily corrected by spraying some window cleaner on the sections and wiping them down. I'm guessing it was some residue from the machining process.

Back to the first trial, we booked singer songwriter SØF , she's modeled for us a few times and always does a fantastic job. Cold blustery day for the shoot so going to apologize to her again and a big thanks for putting up with me and the weather :)

As you can see we switched the from the Rogue grid to the Rogue Flashbender 2 XL Pro

Warm blanket is a must, those leaves were cold and wet! What a trooper!

Still smiling...and hopefully not planning revenge

The stud moved to the side position. For safety we added a sandbag to the stand anyway, though it was pretty rock steady it was very windy and we don't take any chances with equipment that close to the model

Finally off the ground! The stud switched to the vertical position. We did take the sand bag off for this session, the stand was nice and level on the slope


Waiting for the sun to hit the tree
So moving from sessions the stand did a really good job in the low positions with a nice wide stance and moving to the slope it was no issue getting it level on the hill. Good part of adjustments can be made with one hand while some fine tuning was done with two. It does come with a removable strap and a cable guide 
/tool holder clipped to it and it all can be stowed in the travel bag it comes with. A little heavier than some of my studio stands but it makes up for that with stability and versatility! It's pretty snazzy looking as well, bit of a sci-fi look to it :)

Going to wrap up this chapter, we'll follow up with part 2 in the nice warm studio.
For more information check out this light stand and other equipment used on the Savage website.


Also some of the other brands/products contact,