Upgading to Budget Strobe System?

Alan Browne wrote:
Borghesia wrote:

My vote for Alien Bees, for price, reputation and being a complete
system.


On paper (or website) absolutely agree. The only thing I would have
reservations about would be location work. Not sure they would handle
the abuse as well.

Cheers,
Alan


I drag my Alien Bees to weddings all the time. I've never had a problem
with them. True, I'm not much of an abuser of equipment, but they do
seem to be pretty darn tough.

AB's service is excellent too. Well, I've just asked questions, but you
won't get much friendlier or knowledgeable.

My question for the original question is: Do you really need that much
power? I have the Alien Bees 400 strobes. I shoot wedding groups of all
sizes with them. At F8, I rarely have the power level much over half
power. I would think that with 800s you would have to crank it down to
1/32 all the time.

Highly recommend Alien Bees.

Clyde

Alan Browne wrote:
Borghesia wrote:

My vote for Alien Bees, for price, reputation and being a complete
system.


On paper (or website) absolutely agree. The only thing I would have
reservations about would be location work. Not sure they would handle
the abuse as well.

Cheers,
Alan


I drag my Alien Bees to weddings all the time. I've never had a problem
with them. True, I'm not much of an abuser of equipment, but they do
seem to be pretty darn tough.

AB's service is excellent too. Well, I've just asked questions, but you
won't get much friendlier or knowledgeable.

My question for the original question is: Do you really need that much
power? I have the Alien Bees 400 strobes. I shoot wedding groups of all
sizes with them. At F8, I rarely have the power level much over half
power. I would think that with 800s you would have to crank it down to
1/32 all the time.

Highly recommend Alien Bees.

Clyde

Clyde wrote:

My question for the original question is: Do you really need that much
power? I have the Alien Bees 400 strobes. I shoot wedding groups of all
sizes with them. At F8, I rarely have the power level much over half
power. I would think that with 800s you would have to crank it down to
1/32 all the time.

flexibilty in number of stops is as important as top end power. Having enough
power to blast through a softbox or off of an umbrella and light a widish scene
(10 - 15 people wide) is a nice luxury as well. Striking the balance is what
you need to do. I could see having 2 800's and a 400 for all the margin in the
world... but likely a few 400's would be more than enough for most situations.

Cheers,
Alan


--
-- rec.photo.equipment.35mm user resource:
-- http://www.aliasimages.com/rpe35mmur.htm
-- e-meil: there's no such thing as a FreeLunch.--

Clyde wrote:

My question for the original question is: Do you really need that much
power? I have the Alien Bees 400 strobes. I shoot wedding groups of all
sizes with them. At F8, I rarely have the power level much over half
power. I would think that with 800s you would have to crank it down to
1/32 all the time.

flexibilty in number of stops is as important as top end power. Having enough
power to blast through a softbox or off of an umbrella and light a widish scene
(10 - 15 people wide) is a nice luxury as well. Striking the balance is what
you need to do. I could see having 2 800's and a 400 for all the margin in the
world... but likely a few 400's would be more than enough for most situations.

Cheers,
Alan


--
-- rec.photo.equipment.35mm user resource:
-- http://www.aliasimages.com/rpe35mmur.htm
-- e-meil: there's no such thing as a FreeLunch.--

"Clyde" wrote in message
news:_B9ed.230368$wV.177422@attbi_s54...
My question for the original question is: Do you really need that much
power? I have the Alien Bees 400 strobes. I shoot wedding groups of all
sizes with them. At F8, I rarely have the power level much over half
power. I would think that with 800s you would have to crank it down to
1/32 all the time.

Highly recommend Alien Bees.

Interestingly, the only flash system listed that gets commented on is the
Alien Bees

My big worry is more the fact that all I hear is that the modeling lamps are
low powered. That they will not be usable in daylight, according to
several. Both of the other units are useable. My primary problem is in
truth, current budget, but that changes with time. Oddly enough, I now have
one more thing I need to do: photograph paintings (film for that, gonna need
another SLR I think, maybe a 167?). So softbox effect is needed.

As for power: I want an expandable system. They do not need to be
homogenous, but it must be expandble beyond my current limitations. I keep
ending up learning something that I want to go beyond, and end up needing
more capability. As such, I may at some point do some MF or even LF (I like
view cameras atually). And at that point, the more power the better.

Thanks all!

Robert Meyers

On Sat, 23 Oct 2004 01:41:15 -0700, "Robert Meyers"
wrote:

Interestingly, the only flash system listed that gets commented on is the
Alien Bees

Well, my opinion, for what it's worth: I love my Norman system. It's
pack and heads but it's got great power. I can get 2000 ws out of one
head or I can get 200 ws out of one head. Light modifiers like
different sized parabolics, barn doors, softboxes, etc. go cheap on
ebay and are plentiful. They have 150 watt quartz modelling lights
which put out enough light for any tungsten work you want to do.
For the price of a couple of alien bees you can have a complete system
with 4 heads and enough accessories to set up a complete portrait
studio.

On Sat, 23 Oct 2004 01:41:15 -0700, "Robert Meyers"
wrote:

Interestingly, the only flash system listed that gets commented on is the
Alien Bees

Well, my opinion, for what it's worth: I love my Norman system. It's
pack and heads but it's got great power. I can get 2000 ws out of one
head or I can get 200 ws out of one head. Light modifiers like
different sized parabolics, barn doors, softboxes, etc. go cheap on
ebay and are plentiful. They have 150 watt quartz modelling lights
which put out enough light for any tungsten work you want to do.
For the price of a couple of alien bees you can have a complete system
with 4 heads and enough accessories to set up a complete portrait
studio.