Alienbees or Genesis

mayassa

I have a choice of getting the genesis 400, I already have the 200 (works great) and would keep the same line of equipment or an alienbees 800 the specs for the genesis are very vague so its hard to compare.

Any suggestions?

http://www.alienbees.com/specs.html

http://www.calumetphoto.com/pdfs/RangefinderGenesisReview.pdf

Art Scott

I know nothing of Genisis but Calumet is a great company......I do have first hand experience with customer service from Paul Buff's group and I will say it is fantastic.....they know that when a light comes in for repair that photog is out 1 light and the turn around is very fast...even on my White Lightning 5000's........Are the genisis' mad in the USA ......the Paul Buff company is in Nashville TN......if that means anything to you........I do prefer equipment that is made here and serviced here.......

jmo ....... I would go Alien Bees......You can call them and complain.....with Genisis you ahve to call Calumet..............

mayassa

I agree the warranty is two years on the Aliens and one on the genesis. Not sure what the customer service is from calumet yet hopefully they will step up if needed. I really don't mind products built or produced overseas, if we did no one on this board would have a camera, or parts like capacitors for the strobes......
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I just don't understand how the specs line up, but thanks for our input

Shane422

Another thing to consider is that you can buy flash triggers from Alienbees or radiopopper.com that will allow manual control of the power output of Alienbees, but not the Genesis lights.

mayassa

Shane422 wrote:

Another thing to consider is that you can buy flash triggers from Alienbees or radiopopper.com that will allow manual control of the power output of Alienbees, but not the Genesis lights.

Another good point the new radiopopper's are sweet!

ziggy53

Mayassa,

Do you have any flash attachments exclusively for the Genesis flashes? (Softbox or snoot, for instance.) I doubt that speedrings and such are compatible between the 2 systems so if you are already "vested" in one system that should influence your decision.

mayassa

ziggy53 wrote:

Mayassa,

Do you have any flash attachments exclusively for the Genesis flashes? (Softbox or snoot, for instance.) I doubt that speedrings and such are compatible between the 2 systems so if you are already "vested" in one system that should influence your decision.

That's what I was thinking down the line to have similar equiptment so everything is standard across the lighting. I was also thinking long term buying a better product then upgrade the genesis if it fails or down the line.

lenskap

Hi guys - first post here!

These units are comparable and are a great bang for the buck but you should consider that they have one relative flaw in common: their modeling light is only 150 watts. This means that it is somewhat difficult to see what your lighting is actually going to do, especially if you are shooting in a room with other light (like windows or normal ceiling lights). For occasional shooting this shouldn't be problem but if you shoot daily you may find it becoming a pain. This is my main criticism of most low-end lights, including my personal favorite, the Elinchrom D-Lite (which has an even more anemic 100w modeling light).

If you think you may be doing more than periodic lighting I'd strongly suggest that you look for the most affordable lighting that takes a 250w modeling light.

Best regards,

ziggy53

lenskap wrote:

...

If you think you may be doing more than periodic lighting I'd strongly suggest that you look for the most affordable lighting that takes a 250w modeling light.

Best regards,

Lenskap, welcome to the Digital Grin.

You make a good point. Additionally I recommend a modeling light output that "follows" the output level of the flash. This allows you to check ratios of light as well as the direction of light.