off camera strobes are they allowed in SX

I've never seen it and I don't imagine you could get in the gate with a strobe.

You could use a few 580EX II's with pocket wizards to trigger them. That would be small enough not to have to carry around too much gear all day and it would be powerful enough to light your subject.

I have seen Tedesco do this at a couple events last year. He had a smaller strobe mounted to a small cart with the strobe clamped on the top of the handle. The battery was in the bag on the cart. Nice idea. It seamed small enough to move around fairly easily.

Sorry, I mis-read the original post. I agree with russerbe. It would be difficult to get past security with it. Even if you did you still might get caught later on depending on what your definition of 'strobe' is. You will be fine with a 580EX type of strobe, but if it is too strong you would get asked to stop. My guess anyways.

You guys are talking about doing it from the stands? With a 580? Good luck with that.

I don't see where the OP said from the stands?

I had read on TOE's site he got permission to use strobes from PACE and it was a trial deal but ended that night. as it was deemed a safety issue.

Obviously that was years ago, as the photo's Kardy posted shows they (pass guys) are using them, although I haven't seen many photo's that looked like strobes were used. I'd like to see more though.

I was referring more to the other replies. They mention getting them "in the gate" or "past security". I'd figured the OP meant from the floor, hence my self-explanatory photo-essay response to that...

I would imagine if the OP was shooting from the floor he would already know what he could and couldn't get away with. My guess would be he meant stands. I agree that he might be able to get in with a 580 or SB 800 for Nikon users but, I can't imagine ti would do much from the stands unless you were in the front row shooting the outside race line.

I guess the "light stands" comment lead me to believe he'd have a, uh, floor, to put them on. Certainly he hadn't intended on putting light stands up while in the stands, right?

And believe me, just because someone shoots from the floor doesn't mean they have a clue about the "rules". Hell I've shot 50 or 60 races from the floor and still don't know what the rules are.

I agree Kardy. It could be he (OP) is shooting his 1st SX from the floor and just asked a simple question that someone took in another direction, that's why I made my comment about the OP not mentioning the stands, not directed towards your reply, sorry bout that.

You also crack me up, but man, I sure do enjoy your pics from your site.

I dunno, whatever a Qflash X2D 400W at 1/4 to 1/2 power will do, which is plenty. It's not really that important in these stadiums since you get the flash real close to the riders and it's easy to put a stop or two underexposure on the background and really make them pop (hence freezing the action). It's not like when the strobes are up in the rafters for stick and ball sports. Outdoors I use an Elinchrom Ranger with an A head, which I think will go as fast as 1/3750th and does a decent job of freezing the action when that's what i'm after.

I see guys running SB800, etc. as remote pretty regularly. It ties you down to one spot too much though, so I rarely do it. Only on special request, really and even then, usually only during practice.

Jbo, thanks for the comment.

You can pick up your pass and vest Friday but there's not much to shoot at that point.