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02/23/2012 12:35:53 AM · #1 |
| I recently purchased the Alien Bee 800 and i would like to be able to do some location shooting outdoors. I'm looking for low priced batter pack that would work well with the AB 800, by low priced I mean around the $300 mark... I live in Canada as well. I looked at some of the vagabon units on Paul C. Buff's site but some of them were to expensive and others looked like they didn't have the right outlets. Any ideas? |
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02/23/2012 12:45:10 AM · #2 |
Mini Vegabond it's the best piece of lighting equipment I put in my bag. You should be able to get it for under $300.
I can power 2 AB800's at full power for almost 200 photos.
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02/23/2012 12:48:05 AM · #3 |
I've been watching both the various AB's and the portable power to use with them, as I'm evaluating how feasible they are for my needs, and the best power I've found is the Mini Vagabond that Matt references. Here's a great breakdown of how it compares to MUCH more expensive other options.
//www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=7-11314-11226 |
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02/23/2012 06:12:16 AM · #4 |
Well you get what you pay for usually, I personally use studio lighting a lot outdoors far away from an AC outlet, for that I have three AcuteB powerpacks from Profoto and one Pro-B3 1200W battery powered generator as well. That mini vagabond looks nice, but one MAJOR drawback is the recycle times. The 1200 acute system takes according to robgalbraith, 9 seconds between blasts, wich is a LOT, compare that with the Pro-B3 wich takes 1.8 seconds to charge up to 1200 watts. You can see the specs on their site.
//www.profoto.com
Granted, we are talking about a LOT more money for profoto, but I used to use Bowens outdoors with a battery pack that came with it and if I needed a lot of power from it, it just took too long to charge up to full power, wich really disrupted "the flow" of the photoshoot, you can imagine photographing people for instance, getting 30 photos in a minute or just 6, the tempo of the shoot just really get´s thrown off.
But that mini vagabond looks nice, if you are on a budget, just go for it, you can always sell it and upgrade to something better later on, I am just letting you know that in "real world applications", waiting for the studio lights to charge is a pain in the ass if it´s not fast enough. You´ll only need full power when you are shooting in very bright circumbstances, like outdoors at noon on a clear day.
Message edited by author 2012-02-23 06:12:43. |
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02/23/2012 06:48:28 AM · #5 |
| I have the Vagabond II. It is a beast and quite heavy but despite the weight of carrying it around it works great when attached to a lightstand and will hold it down in wind. Very useful if you shoot by yourself. |
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02/23/2012 11:13:47 AM · #6 |
| I've got the mini and it's PERFECT for my needs. I rarely shoot bursts so I don't run into recycle issues. I turn off the modeling light on the head when I use it, to extend the battery life, plus I got an extra battery. It's absurdly light. |
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02/23/2012 01:12:44 PM · #7 |
| Thank you everyone this has helped me quite a bit! I don't shoot a lot of bursts so I think the Vagabond mini is going to be the way for me to go... it's a great price and seems to be exactly what i'm looking for. |
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