I'm hoping this will be a relatively quick and painless question, over there in the states you have all kinds of Alien Bees etc etc that are decently powerful strobes that you can also use on location (ie battery powered)
Over here in the UK it seems like we have one option and one option alone - the Elinchrom Ranger Quadra which costs the equivilent of well over $2500, this seems very expensive for what it is and what you get when comparing prices to the aforementioned AB products.
So...my question is - firstly hopefully there's just some sort of standard battery or powerpack I can buy 'off the shelf' to take a standard set of 400w/s strobes (c. £400/$6-700) onto location shoots with me, and if not, how difficult would it be to rig up some sort of battery/power pack and what parts I need to do it (I have a number of electrician friends/contacts whom I could get to put it all together for me)
I can't speak to the do-it-yourself battery options, but there are also alot of Bowens battery options in the UK. Likewise, Hensel makes the Visit MPG battery pack to plug existing A/C/ strobes into.
The explorer XT looks to be a good option priced at c.$350 dollars, the Bowens and Hensel options don't work out much or any cheaper than buying the quadra kit unfortunately.
Thank you both for your replies, any other options ?
I'm also wondering this - but for use in a portable studio.
I originally thought the ranger quadra was my only option at £1500, then I found these kits from Lencarta which also fit Bowens accessories.
The price seems reasonable but I can't find any other choices..
Profoto - too expensive!
Bowens travel pack + heads - too expensive and poor battery performance compared to safari
The Flash Centre flashfeeder and any flash heads - too expensive...
I don't know of any other brands than the ones I have mentioned - perhaps somebody else does though?
hardlyboring wrote:
why not paypal someone from fm the money for some AB's and then just have them order and ship them to you?
doug
I know a few people in the states who'd probably do that for me, it's definitely an option, however the lack of support/having to ship back to states in event of problem is slightly off-putting for a saving that isn't that huge (lights aren't ridiculous over here, it's more the lack of options for portable power)
well if you ever wanna go that route let me know I would be happy to help out. My AB's are great and I suppose if you took care of them chances are you wouldn't need service. And for major service unless warranty covers it, it would most likely be cheaper just to buy a new light.
freetime101 wrote:
Do AB's work on UK voltage? I thought you guys were on 110V, we have 240V
Alienbees do their own proprietary power pack, as long as you transform the mains down to recharge that I believe it wouldn't be any trouble, the lights don't know where they are when you take them outside
Lumedyne are good. I have a variety of these up to 800w/s. The Quantum QPaq's are also good, although the batteries don't last as long as the Lumedynes and the base pack is only 200w/s and you really need at least 400w/s. The Quantum heads offer radio TTL and other gizmos, but no real modeling light (apart from the X and X2) unlike the Lumedynes. The modifiers are all interchangeable between the Quantums and Lumedynes so you can switch systems using the best for each application. You can often get Lumedyne and Quantum stuff off that auction site too.
As the poster referenced above, the QuadX are good, but if you're shooting in the middle of a field and need to traipse a powerpack (heavy) and seperate heads and head extensions it all gets a bit cumbersome and stays in the car.
4 Lumedyne 400w/s heads, packs, batteries and stands all fit in a Pelican 1610. A couple of Quantum X5d-R's at 400w/s each 2 stands, modifiers, radio stuff, batteries and spares all fit in a Pelican 1600. Both will go out and get used a lot more than a battery pack like an Innovatronix.
Chris Beaumont wrote:
Over here in the UK it seems like we have one option and one option alone - the Elinchrom Ranger Quadra...
...my question is - firstly hopefully there's just some sort of standard battery or powerpack I can buy 'off the shelf' to take a standard set of 400w/s strobes (c. £400/$6-700) onto location shoots with me, and if not, how difficult would it be to rig up some sort of battery/power pack and what parts I need to do it (I have a number of electrician friends/contacts whom I could get to put it all together for me)
As others have said, the Innovatronix Explorer XT should handle your 400 WS strobes, though the thing is kind of heavy.
You are mistaken about your options for monolights. Bowens make AC/DC lights that will stand up to heavy use. There is also the less expensive Interfit Stellar Extreme kit, which is AC/DC and comes with a battery pack. I have no personal experience with it, but have heard good things about Interfit in general and there are dealers in the UK.
Get an innovatronix xt. It can easily handle my rx 600 units.
I'm about to sell my unit (buyer should be here in 10 mins), because I have a ranger speed and since last week a quadra (which is, by the way, the equivalent of about 1800 usd here in the Netherlands), so I'm covered. They are great units, but you'll pay for it, too.
For the money, the innovatronix is a great deal. You can order them direct from the factory. About 400 USD.
What you'd need for a DIY outdoor power solution is called a "pure-sine-wave" inverter. Inverters used for applications such as computer UPS are typically square-wave, which can damage flash units.
Saminex http://www.samlexamerica.com/pure_sine_wave_inverters.htm is a source frequently used for DIY versions of the AB Vagabond / Vagabond II. Google "DIY Vagabond". Nothing complicated. Connect the inverter to a 12V battery with correctly sized wire and fusing and you are in business. But be aware that some inverters under heavy peak load may revert to non-square wave mode and have a "beep" warning that it is occurring. The advantage here in the US of buying a Vagabond II vs DIY is that Paul Buff has worked with his component suppliers to tailor them to the load characteristics of his flash units so that does not occur.
hardlyboring wrote:
why not paypal someone from fm the money for some AB's and then just have them order and ship them to you?
Once you pay import duties and customs fees, there may be little if any savings over what's available locally.
In fact, unless there's a CE mark on them, they may not be legal to import at all; you'd have to check with Her Majesty's customs officials about that.
