What’s the difference between a monolight and a studio strobe?
Asked 11/21/2019
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I’ve seen lighting products from the same brand described as both “monolights” and “studio strobes,” sometimes with very similar specs and pricing. Are these terms interchangeable, or is there a real technical difference between them?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
6y ago
2 Answers
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There's no difference nor specific meaning in the usage of the terms. These are basically the same thing. Like saying car or automobile, same meaning. However, to me, the term Strobe means a very rapidly flashing continuing light (like seen in some dance halls), which these are NOT. And Flash means a single flash for photography, which these ARE, but some people do imagine any flash is also called strobe.
Monolight just means the power supply is built into the individual flash unit, a standalone unit offering greater control. Old time studio lights often shared a common power supply and battery using power cables. Technology makes change possible.
The actual distinction for flash mode is Speedlight, which is typically all camera mounted flash, however some few newer studio lights are adapting that principle now. A studio flash typically controls low power with lower flash tube voltage, and therefore lower power is slower (longer) speed duration. But Speedlights are always recycled to full power, but they control power by abruptly cutting it off for low power levels, and they become very fast then (at lower power levels), called speedlights.
Another resulting difference is that flashes at lower voltage for lower power become more reddish at low power (technically cooler temperature, but the art world calls it warmer color). Speedlights at truncated high power become more blue at low power (truncating the cooler red trailing-off tail of power). But White Balance correction is important for flash, there is no one color of flash, it typically changes a bit with power level.
I don't know, but suspect that these Godox may be speedlight construction, meaning being faster at low power whereas most studio "flash" are slower at low power. The Godox manual does not specify duration speed at each power level to know which it is.
Originally by user38978. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user38978
6y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
They’re related terms, but not perfectly interchangeable.
A strobe is the broad term for any flash unit that emits a brief burst of light rather than continuous light. In studio photography, this can include both self-contained lights and systems with a separate power pack.
A monolight is a specific type of studio strobe: the flash tube and power supply are built into one standalone unit. By contrast, a pack-and-head system uses a separate power pack connected to one or more flash heads.
So, all monolights are studio strobes, but not all studio strobes are monolights.
In casual marketing, though, brands and retailers often use “studio strobe” loosely to mean a monolight, so product lines can overlap in naming even when the gear is very similar. “Speedlight” usually refers to smaller hot-shoe style flash units, while “strobe” usually refers to larger studio flash equipment.
Some people also associate monolights with features like a modeling light, but that’s not the core definition.
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