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| This yoke is not slipping from the weight of the big fresnel! It's got a 2nd locking lever knob. |
One of my favorite lights are my Nanlite Forza 720Bs. They are bright, bi-color COB lights, with high output and great color quality. A big reason I bought these are their exceptionally good spotlight lenses.
A major downside to these lights is a weak yoke lock. There is only one lock on the right side. It is small and it shares space with an umbrella clamp giving it even less clamping surface area. It is not a good yoke lock for light of this size.
In fairness to Nanlite, I use heavier accessories than they likely anticipated; an Aputure 10X fresnel with barndoors, and an Aputure Light Dome 150. The Aputure 10X fresnel and barndoors are superior to the Nanlite FL-20G. The Nanlite FL-20G fresnel and barndoors were really engineered for the Forza 500. They never made a fresnel specifically for the Forza 720.
I came up with the idea of adding a second yoke lock on the left side. It turned out to be a simple hack which keeps the yokes from slipping.
(I have emailed Nanlite a couple times about this issue and the possibility of upgrading the yoke but with no response.)
I removed the bolt on the left side of the yoke and replaced it with a lever knob M6x25mm. I also used course sandpaper to roughen the clamping surfaces.
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| The new lever knob for the left-side is bottom center and the existing one for the right side is above it. |
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| The clamping surface is polished smooth from use. |
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| Here is the one of the surfaces after roughing it with sandpaper. |
Since the upgrade, my 720s have had no problems with staying locked.
A small issue, the handle now sticks out a little bit in the case. Potentially the light could get damaged if you stacked something heavy on top of the case. It's something, I'll have to watch out for.
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Normally when I use these lights, they are packed sideways on the bottom shelf of a rubbermaid cart, so it should not be an issue for me.
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| Here is one of my modified 720s with a Light Dome 150. There's no slipping. |
The handles on the new knobs could be longer. The only ones I could find in the M6x25mm size have these smaller handles.
PS: If you are not familiar with these lights, you may be wondering how they handle the weight of their spotlight lenses. Like most spotlight lenses, the Nanlite lenses have their own yoke which supports the weight of the lens and the light. The Nanlite spotlight yoke is rock solid holding the weight without any issues.