You likely went to the same Navy schools as I did - Treasure Island in San Francisco. I went there as a Marine and was also ranked as an Aviation Radio Technician with control tower equipment specialty.
As to Vagabond II, I'll be totally honest . . . this has been a love hate product. It's wonderful most of the time, but there have been an excess number of field failures. We test and test and diagnose over and over, but the inverter vendor hasn't been as helpful as he should be.
BUT FANTASTIC NEWS WILL BE COMING OUT IN THE NEXT WEEK OR SO. QUICK PRELIMINARY VIEW . . . VAGABOND MINI LITHIUM
3 1/2 LBS TOTAL - INCLUDING BATTERY PACK, 500 640WS SHOTS FROM AN AB1600 PER CHARGE, 8.8AH 14.8V LITHIUM BATTERY (EQUIVALENT TO ABOUT 14AH SLA,) NO SULFATING, 3-4 HOUR CHARGER IN OR OUT OF THE UNIT, SOPHISTICATED MOLDED HOUSING DESIGN WITH INSTANT PLUG IN BATTERY PACK, STAND CLAMP AND SHOULDER STRAP AND LOTS MORE. IT'S BEEN COMPLETELY TESTED AND ALL PARTS ARE ON ORDER NOW, WITH ABOUT A 60 DAY ANTICIPATED PRODUCTION START TIME. THESE SHOULD HAVE NO SIGNIFICANT BACKLOG ONCE THEY START SHIPPING. AND THEY DON'T COST MUCH AND SHOULD BE AVAILABLE IN 120VAC AND 230VAC VERSIONS.
Looking forward to this... and I don't mind if it's a bit later than suggested in the above posts. Note: I don't see a promised shipping date and the "anticipated" production start in 60 days, of course is anticipated.
Shipping before Christmas would be fantastic and I'll be disapointed if it slides, but will NOT participate is any bashing threads if it goes into 2011!
At 500 flashes at 640WS, Vs 600 with the VII at fast cycle. Pretty nice. Of course if the V III needs slow cycle to meet the 500 - 640 WS Vs VII for 600 flashes at 640 WS on fast, then perhaps there is a market for both versions.
No mention of recycle time, hopefully it will be in the same charging rate as VII (about 335 Wattseconds per second). Since the battery is quick change, I hope it's designed more for faster recycle as opposed to battery life. Even if the battery doesn't last as many total WS, with quick change battery and light weight, VIII plus 2 extra batteries will still weigh less than VII.
Maybe there will be a lot of V II on the used market at year's end! Wonder about price... Is VIII worth more to you than the V II?
18.6 pounds or 3.5 pounds for 80% of the capacity. I like the specs!
Sounds great. Look forward to seeing them on sale, particularly here in Australia.
Please, please ditch the orange bag or at least make a black bag an option. Orange reflects in stuff. It's a bad idea for people like myself who regularly shoot reflective objects like cars.
I have little hopes for AB products in terms of aesthetics.
They've always looked silly to me, even the signature on the bags and softboxes makes me look away in shame.
The einsteins have shown some minor improvement, and the PLMs look beautiful !, so one can only hope for the V3.
I've been dying to get a some sort of DIY battery pack going, if i could expect this to be ready by christmas i think i could wait, but seeing the huge backlogs and launch problems with the previous products, i think i'll build my own for now and perhaps if the V3 is great, keep my diy as a backup.
You can't have it all in 3.5lbs and, yes, under $300. It's necessarily a smaller inverter and a no brainer for one or two monolights, but it can't compete with V@ for recycling Zeus and Dynalite, etc. We've cycled 2500WS Zeus with it with a recycle time a tad over 20 seconds . . . about the same as Vagabond 150. This is exactly the product that has been begged for on this forum.
I have placed almost $1.000,000 in purchase orders today so it is definitely real. It will be up on our site late next week in every detail. I believe you'll be surprised at the level of engineering and packaging I've put into this.
Good deal for under $300 - I spent about $250 making my own! Mine are a little lighter at 2.9lbs, but are only NiMH; so, with these AB units being Li and heavier, they'll likely pack much more punch. I'm looking forward to the specs.
^ I knew this was bound to happen. Every photgrapher will want to have one on each light.
The only forseeable issue is the recycle time. Not that i'm downplaying the product, but if the recycle time is significantly longer than the vagabond 2, then photographers might "might" stick with the original.
But the hype for this is already bubbling. I want one as badly as I want the plm II's
Paul Buff wrote:
You can't have it all in 3.5lbs and, yes, under $300. It's necessarily a smaller inverter and a no brainer for one or two monolights, but it can't compete with V@ for recycling Zeus and Dynalite, etc. We've cycled 2500WS Zeus with it with a recycle time a tad over 20 seconds . . . about the same as Vagabond 150. This is exactly the product that has been begged for on this forum.
I have placed almost $1.000,000 in purchase orders today so it is definitely real. It will be up on our site late next week in every detail. I believe you'll be surprised at the level of engineering and packaging I've put into this....Show more →
Would you be comfortable giving a recycle time for a full Einstein pop ?
I knew this was bound to happen. Every photgrapher will want to have one on each light.