Hammer head flash units are not that popular anymore. Sunpak and Metz were the 2 main manufacturers of Hammer Heads back in the day. They were popular with wedding and event photographers who needed the awesome power these flash units produced. I never really got into Sunpak, but I do have several Metz Hammer Heads which include the 45-CT4, the 50 Mz5, 70, Mz5 and 60 CT. They are mostly collecting dust since I can't find any use for them. These days speed-lights from Canon, Nikon and other manufactures come very close power wise to those old flash units, plus they are more convenient since they are smaller and you can attach them directly on the cameras hot-shoe. Dedicated speed lights come with all the bells and whistles so there is no need to purchase exotic and complicated adapters and batteries like you had to do with the Hammer heads. This and other problems became a big headache for many photographers who decided to ditch the cumbersome hammer heads altogether.
Two great thing about hammer heads was their ability to bounce the light off walls and ceilings. This is where that extra power came in handy. Bounced light just looks better than direct light for 'people' pictures. Also, the bigger swivel head of the hammer heads made for cleaner wrap-around light compared to speed lights even when not bouncing. Unfortunately, these two positives were not enough to start any major comeback for hammer head flash units. Currently the Nissin MG10 is the only hammer head flash in production, but I'm not sure how popular they are with other portable flash units such as the Godox AD100/AD200 on the market. Not only are the Godox flash units more powerful than the hammer heads, they are way more convenient for Wedding and Event photographers. What makes them even better is that they have wireless capabilities just like the speed lights so you can set up Groups of flash units on the go. How reliabe they are, I don' know since I don't own any of those units (yet) ?
Thinking that the only use I (anybody) would have for the hammer heads would be for the occasional large group shot where bounce light might be required, I reluctantly decided to sell them on eBay. But wait, one day I decided to actually read the Manual for my Metz 50 Mz5 of which I have 3 units. Apparently you can set up multiple light systems in a Master/Slave relationship with no finicky adapters . There is a function/button on the Control Unit Labeled 'Remote' that turns your main flash into a Master and the other flash units in the set-up into Slaves. The manual did not state how many flash units you could use as slaves, but since I only have 3 units, 2 of the units could be used as slaves and one as the master for a nifty 3 light set up. It took me a few minutes for me to connect the 2 slave unit to the master wirelessly, but once done it seemed pretty reliable. Unfortunately, Metz decided that you could only use the wireless/remote function in Automatic mode and TTL mode ? Since TTL is now obsolete for digital cameras, I could only use the Automatic mode which is the old Thyristor technology from the 1970's. Oh well you can't have everything !
The old Thirystor technology supposedly cuts off the flash output once the subject is properly illuminated which is not as good as iTTl, ETTl, pTTL etc, but is still used on some modern speed lights. With that said, I created a 3 light set up with my main light(Master) off-camera reflecting of a back wall for fill. One of the slaves was placed off-camera at a 45 degree angle above and closer to my subject whith the light bouncing off the nearby wall and ceiling. The second slave(off camera) was pointing to the wall behind the subject which provided both hair-light and background illumination. The Thirystor technology prevented any hot spots on all 3 lights as I had predicted. The results were amazingly beautiful soft light with incredible smooth shadows that reminded me of natural light coming through a window. IMHO much better than a Sofboxt and much easier to set up ! Maybe I might not have to sell them after all ?
Two great thing about hammer heads was their ability to bounce the light off walls and ceilings. This is where that extra power came in handy. Bounced light just looks better than direct light for 'people' pictures. Also, the bigger swivel head of the hammer heads made for cleaner wrap-around light compared to speed lights even when not bouncing. Unfortunately, these two positives were not enough to start any major comeback for hammer head flash units. Currently the Nissin MG10 is the only hammer head flash in production, but I'm not sure how popular they are with other portable flash units such as the Godox AD100/AD200 on the market. Not only are the Godox flash units more powerful than the hammer heads, they are way more convenient for Wedding and Event photographers. What makes them even better is that they have wireless capabilities just like the speed lights so you can set up Groups of flash units on the go. How reliabe they are, I don' know since I don't own any of those units (yet) ?
Thinking that the only use I (anybody) would have for the hammer heads would be for the occasional large group shot where bounce light might be required, I reluctantly decided to sell them on eBay. But wait, one day I decided to actually read the Manual for my Metz 50 Mz5 of which I have 3 units. Apparently you can set up multiple light systems in a Master/Slave relationship with no finicky adapters . There is a function/button on the Control Unit Labeled 'Remote' that turns your main flash into a Master and the other flash units in the set-up into Slaves. The manual did not state how many flash units you could use as slaves, but since I only have 3 units, 2 of the units could be used as slaves and one as the master for a nifty 3 light set up. It took me a few minutes for me to connect the 2 slave unit to the master wirelessly, but once done it seemed pretty reliable. Unfortunately, Metz decided that you could only use the wireless/remote function in Automatic mode and TTL mode ? Since TTL is now obsolete for digital cameras, I could only use the Automatic mode which is the old Thyristor technology from the 1970's. Oh well you can't have everything !
The old Thirystor technology supposedly cuts off the flash output once the subject is properly illuminated which is not as good as iTTl, ETTl, pTTL etc, but is still used on some modern speed lights. With that said, I created a 3 light set up with my main light(Master) off-camera reflecting of a back wall for fill. One of the slaves was placed off-camera at a 45 degree angle above and closer to my subject whith the light bouncing off the nearby wall and ceiling. The second slave(off camera) was pointing to the wall behind the subject which provided both hair-light and background illumination. The Thirystor technology prevented any hot spots on all 3 lights as I had predicted. The results were amazingly beautiful soft light with incredible smooth shadows that reminded me of natural light coming through a window. IMHO much better than a Sofboxt and much easier to set up ! Maybe I might not have to sell them after all ?
Last edited:
