I'm travelling to Ethiopia and Nagaland later this year to do some ethnographic photography and will be bringing some lighting gear to shoot portraits.
Naturally, travel brings some restrictions - I can't just lug the heavy stands and booms I would use locally. I'll also have wildlife and landscape gear with me for other parts of the trip, so that has to be taken into account too.
So, I'm looking for a light stand with the following characteristics, to be able to support the gear, get it high enough and fit into luggage:
- Collapsed length 76cm/30" at most - it can be longer, as long as it can be easily disassembled so that no single piece is longer than that length, or a bit shorter.
- Maximum height at least 230cm/7'8"
- Load capacity as much as possible, given the other parameters. At minimum, it will have to support a Godox AD300pro and 42" collapsible beauty dish (combined weight around 3.3kg/6lb)
Weight doesn't matter so much, as long as it's portable and not something ridiculous. I'm expecting to have to use tie downs and tent pegs whenever there is more than a light breeze, too.
(I also have a much smaller, light-duty stand, but that will mostly be used for holding an unmodified speedlight or AD200pro to use as a hair light and isn't suitable for holding a key light with modifier)
Anyone have suggestions for such a light stand? I can see quite a few stands on Adorama and BHphoto, but I wouldn't trust anything rated to merely 6-10lb to actually hold that weight outdoors at full height, when that weight includes a decent-sized modifier (or even a wind-catching umbrella) - probably need something rated for a greater load. I also saw the Kupo Shorty stand, which comes close, but I'd probably want something a bit taller than 7'.