I spend a lot of time traveling with lighting gear. Almost every assignment I get involves lighting, whether it be for portraits, action or travel. That means more gear, which means more weight. So anytime I find a new piece of gear that trims the weight I am carrying, I am happy. With tripods going carbon fiber and becoming much lighter, who would have thought you could do the same thing with light stands. Evidently Nissan did, because I just started using their carbon fiber light stands, and they are amazing.
These stands even look like a tripod. They have carbon fiber sections that use twist rings to loosen and tighten, similar to a tripod. When collapsed down the legs fold back onto the stand, resulting in a very compact design. But what is really going to blow you away is just how light they are. The Nissan LS-65C version, the taller of the two, extends to 106 inches (8.8 feet) and weighs 28 oz., or about 1.7 pounds. Incredible!
The LS-55C extends to 6.5 feet and weighs about 1.4 pounds. They collapse down to 19.1 inches for the LS-55c and 23.6 inches LS-65C version.
With the pandemic postponing many of my trips and assignments until next year, I’m going to be traveling a lot. But at least I know my bags will be a little lighter. The cost is $170 (LS-55C) and $200(LS-65C) for the stands.