Studio Flash - how do I choose?

[brucemuir]

The modeling lights on these are regular 150watts incandescent lights. Is this a disadvantage compared to ones that use halogen type?

The incandescent 100-150w modeling lights are indeed useless even indoors unless maybe for tabletop work at extreme short working distance.

The 250w halogens in my Normans and other more modern units are adaquate for portrait distances but outdoors...

forget it.

[polyglot]

For comparison purposes, the largest hotshoe flashes are 100-150Ws. Most are closer to 80-100Ws. I can get about f/22 at 1m from my 5600HS(D) in a 60cm softbox; my friend's 580EX gets only f/16 at most. If you know what light level you get from your existing flashes with a particular modifier, assume 100Ws output and then you can compute what you'll get from a larger studio flash accordingly.

Putting a 40" umbrella 15' away is pretty pointless as it will be such a tiny lightsource that you might as well have a point light. In other words, don't bother with the umbrella and its associated light wastage; flash the subject directly if you need to be at that range. The whole point of having big light modifiers is to make the source look big, so don't put them a long way from your subject unless you absolutely need very minimal light fall-off with respect to distance from the flash.

1/32 on a B1600 is 20Ws, which is about 1/4 power on a hotshoe flash. Try for yourself - is that too much power? So much that stopping down one stop or moving the light 40% further away will be problematic? Probably not unless you're trying to balance against really dim ambient light, in which case just go back to using the hotshoe flashes! In the worst case, there's always an ND gel or bits of black cardboard.

[tkamiya]

I am now looking at Einstein E640. Adjustable 9 stops (2.5ws to 640ws) and has 250 watts halogen modeling light. That ought to cover everything....

[jp498]

Even pre lighting the dance floor with the bees was good. Two with gels and two were white light. The Bees are hard to beat and survive my drop prone hands too.

Lee

Yes, if a reception is in a tent outdoor, you can light up the roof of the tent well with a powerful flash and it will diffuse light all through the place! The big benefit of the off camera flash is you don't have to change aperture or flash power as you change camera-subject distance.

[daleeman]

Do you EVER find at 1/32th power (that B1600 goes to) you STILL had too much light? While you do wedding, I might do head shots. The light will be pretty close to the subject, say 4 to 10 feet.

Great question. The heads do actually go low enough, and I have gels and spun glass difusers. Umbrellas and soft boxes work well too.

The idea of buying over the power you think you need is that running at 60 to 75% gives long life to the capacitors and flash tubes.

Lee

[cmo]

Or - are there recommendable units rather than AlienBees? I know these are considered a lower end Volkswagen kind of units.

I know people in Europe that imported AlienBees from the US because they could not afford the famous brands like Broncolor, Elinchrom, Hensel or Multiblitz. AlienBees are reportedly much better than all the cheap lighting sets made in China (available with dozens of different brand labels). Here they have a nickname that translates to "Chinese Firecrackers" because sooner or later they all die with a bang or a short-circuit fault.

"Always buy over the power level you will need" is a very good recommendation. Sooner or later you will need more light.

[SafetyBob]

I am not a lighting expert, but recently a guy who does sports photography (I saw him at a kiddie gymnastics photo shoot) had 2 Alien Bee 1600s. He had OK lighting but with those Bees, I had no doubt he was prepared to shoot in any sized gym there is. I spent a lot of time asking him about his Bees.....it is what I will get when I get around to it and stop buying cameras.......

Bob E.

[2F/2F]

I am a huge fan of Dynalites, myself. They are affordable, and of quite good build quality. I also find their power packs very easy to use, and nice and small and light. I like their accessories, and they attach very solidly. I like them way better than Profotos in every way, actually, in the same way that I prefer driving a Ford truck to a Volvo wagon. It's not that they are better built or technically superior to Profotos...they just feel more sensible to me. I think Profotos are over-engineered in many ways.

My boss has an Alien Bees mono head that I have used. I forgot the output. Maybe 1200 Ws or thereabout? It works fine, but it feels like a good healthy fart would blow it apart, and I don't like working with the attachments. They feel chintzy and not very solidly attached. I would say that they are definitely worth looking at, and they are a good option for many people, but maybe not the best choice unless you are easy on the equipment. In my hands, the Alien Bees stuff would not last long. I have a bad habit of breaking stuff by being rough/clumsy with it.

In terms of the light itself, both are just as capable in capable hands. But I hate working with chintzy-feeling stuff. It is annoying to me. Dynalites are not "high-end," but they feel solid to me. I would opt for used Dynalites before new Alien Bees. YMMV.

My preferred Dynalite setup is two 500's, rather than a single 1000. It allows more, and easier, fine tuning. And you don't need the fancy (read "more expensive") heads to handle the packs' power.