Portable strobe - Need advice

Dave Clee

Well after the studio work I have been doing, its no doubt I love being able to move the light off camera and the use of a softbox. I am wanting to incorporate a more portable solution for my upcoming weddings and outdoor portrait sessions.
So far all of my weddings are shot using an SB800 and Gary Fong diffuser. To date that has served me well and would still be used in the ceremony, reception etc. But I think for the B&G portraits I would like to have my assistant be able to move a portable flash and softbox around.

I see that I can buy a nikon softbox kit that allows me to mount an SB800 in there. From there I could remotely fire it with a PW setup. Is this considered a decent setup ? Or would I need a bit more power. I would also consider stepping up to a SB900 if needed.

I know there are some of you that are using portable strobe solutions and was hoping to get some options. As far as budget, I would spend up to $1000 if needed.

Cheers

Dave

Village Idiot

Alien Bee B800 320w/s monolight - $279
Alien Bee Vagabond VII battery good for about 1200 shots at full power - $399

You can buy modifiers and such from the site.

www.alienbees.com

It's not the perfect strobe, but it's one of the cheapest solutions as far as portability & power go.

Believe me, I've been looking. Other portable monolight setups can't be touched for under $1000.

If you want a better strobe, you may be better off renting something like the elinchrom ranger kit.

ziggy53

A number of wedding and event photographers use 2 speedlights into an umbrella using a custom bracket. You can trim the power on the speedlights when you want faster recycling, or using them both full power can yield output similar to a small monolight.

Here are a couple of links to commercial brackets:

http://www.dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=950414&postcount=10

We did have a DGrinner that made his own dual bracket but I cannot find the thread just now.

tong

Village Idiot wrote:

Alien Bee B800 320w/s monolight - $279
Alien Bee Vagabond VII battery good for about 1200 shots at full power - $399

You can buy modifiers and such from the site.

www.alienbees.com

It's not the perfect strobe, but it's one of the cheapest solutions as far as portability & power go.

Believe me, I've been looking. Other portable monolight setups can't be touched for under $1000.

If you want a better strobe, you may be better off renting something like the elinchrom ranger kit.

Do you know of any good sites to rent from? I'm looking for some lights for a portrait shoot also. something easy to use. i was thinking of using two strobes and two umbrellas, one on each side. i need to figure out how to wirelessly trigger those too.

Cygnus Studios

tong wrote:

i need to figure out how to wirelessly trigger those too.

Add another vote for Alien Bees. I love them and trip them wireless with my SB900. They cycle fast and provide a pretty good amount of light. Dollar for dollar they great.

Village Idiot

tong wrote:

Do you know of any good sites to rent from? I'm looking for some lights for a portrait shoot also. something easy to use. i was thinking of using two strobes and two umbrellas, one on each side. i need to figure out how to wirelessly trigger those too.

I don't know of any sites. Local camera stores (not places like Ritz, Wolf, Etc...) usually rent gear. In the Capital area of the US, we have Penn Camera.

ChatKat

SunPak 622
I have a pair of Sunpak 622's that work really well with small chimera softboxes. They run off a portable battery pack and if that runs out D batteries work as well.

Village Idiot

jlw wrote:

Do you have a local dealer who handles Bowens? Calumet? Elinchrom? Norman? Photogenic? All these and more seem to have setups that would fit under the $1000 threshold. If you need DC power, can't the Vagabond battery be used with other brands?

Not that I want to get into a flame war with the fanatically loyal Alien Bees user community, but one advantage of buying a unit that's supported locally is that if it's Saturday morning and you find you need a flashtube/speed ring/bracket/some other weird thing for that day's wedding, there's a chance you may be able to get it immediately rather than having to deal with ordering and shipping...

I've read that digital strobes don't play nice with the Vagabond because of the power fluctuations. One works fine, two maybe, but more than that and you're bound to have problems.

Bowens makes the Gemini? I think that's the one with the travelpak kit. I think it's like $1800 for two 500w/s strobes and one travelpak. The part I don't like about that is that it uses a proprietery cable to go from the battery to the strobe which is 9' long. That's not a lot of room when attempting to use two strobes on one battery.

The Elinchrom Rangers are $$$$. I think $2500+ for one battery and one light. Do Norman and Photogenic have battery options? Paul C. Buff (Alien Bees) is supposed to be releasing a 500w/s and 1000w/s digital strobe that will run of any generic SLA battery and they'll have a 12v connection on the rear. I think PCB said something like 200 shots on a $20 battery at full power. Now, if they actually live up to the pre production specs will be another thing.

Alien Bees are definitely the best bang for the buck as far as portable monolights are concerned (that I know of), but I'm still not a fan of the slider adjustment, color shift issues, and over all construction of the units.

Ceazar77

I find a Quantum Q-flash to be powerful enough for B&G pictures (although somewhat underpowered for large group shots). When using it in an umbrella/softbox I will use a 580EX for fill. Otherwise I keep the Q-flash on my flash bracket.