DIY (200ws) Lencarta Safari kit.

[Blukoo]

I have effectively converted my Lencarta Smartflash 200 into a portable flash kit, and all it took was a power inverter and a 12v dc car battery.

Although my smartflash head is only 200ws and the Safari kit is 600ws I'm very happy. I have all the kit I need (at the moment) and it does exactly what I need it to do and I saved myself a load of money

A breakdown of what it cost:
Lencarta smartflash 200 head & standard reflector: £120
Stand: £20
600w pure sine wave power inverter: £88

Total: £228

Compare that to the Safari kit and that's a saving of £572.

I assume others done this before? I wouldn't imagine i'm the first...

[markmullen]

Do you have to get someone to sit in the car and keep the revs up?

[Blukoo]

No it runs fine when the car isn't running. The inverter has an automatic shut off when the battery level gets low so I can always start it to make sure it never runs flat.

I forgot to mention that I have a 25m extension cable plugged into the inverter so I can get a decent distance from the car, but I will be buying a separate battery so I can use it anywhere.

Here's a quick pic of the set up.


IMG_1384 by Murray 1986, on Flickr

[GlenMH]

Blukoo said:

but I will be buying a separate battery so I can use it anywhere.

You might want to make that a leisure battery rather than a regular car battery so it can take deeper discharge cycles.

[Blukoo]

GlenMH said:

You might want to make that a leisure battery rather than a regular car battery so it can take deeper discharge cycles.

Spot on. I never thought of that. Thanks

[iiyama]

Hence the reason you shouldn't be using the battery in the car!

[Blukoo]

iiyama said:

Hence the reason you shouldn't be using the battery in the car!

I've only used it for short periods, and sometimes I keep the engine running.