Portable flash

[kacey]

Does anyone know where I can buy Alien Bees other than from Paul C Buff?
Any other recommendations for portable lighting equipment on a bit of a budget?
Would I be better off with the 8oow or 1600w, I plan to use it in midday-ish sunlight at times?

[ricktas]

hi Kacey, good to see you back on the site, but how about using the site for what it is, a FORUM. you only ever post when you want to know something, how about GIVING back to the other members as well, with advice or critique at times

[jjphoto]

Does anyone know where I can buy Alien Bees other than from Paul C Buff?
Any other recommendations for portable lighting equipment on a bit of a budget?
Would I be better off with the 8oow or 1600w, I plan to use it in midday-ish sunlight at times?

The "1600W" unit is actually a 640Ws flash and bearing in mind that you can always turn it down then you are far better off with that than the "800W" unit.

They are only available from Paul C Buff, or second hand. They don't have a distribution network like other brands (ie you can't buy them at B+H, Adorama, Vanbar etc).

The Australian Paul C Buff distributor is in QLD, Google it.

Not having used either (read: this opinion is not worth a pinch of poo) the Elinchrom Ranger RX (http://www.elinchrom.com/products.php?cat=4)is an 1100Ws unit and although much more expensive than the Einstein (640Ws) is probably better suited to daytime use, due to power alone.

JJ

[peterb666]

I cannot comment on the Alien Bees but have worked with studio lights from 300W to 800W (maybe a bit more) and generally find them too powerfull even when throttled down especially in a small studio type setup. I have a reluctance to woring at f/16 and more. I quite often wind up shooting with just the modelling lights (which of course are generally not powerful enough).

I would look at getting a mix of heads or other lighting that provide more variation in output levels than yku can obtain in a normal head unit.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

[98kellrs]

JJphoto nailed it, you can only order directly from Paul C Buff, although be aware that the Australian site has a fairly heft markup (as always) compared to the US site, so if you know anyone over in the US that can forward it on it would certainly be worth it!

I'm looking at making a similar purchase, and a few of the guys on this forum have been using a B1600 for location shoots. I'm sure the B800 would be fine but it might not give the flexibilty of aperture choice. For sunny locational shoots, I don't think you need to worry about getting anything "too powerful", just move the strobe further away from the model...

Keen to see what other's thoughts are though!

[kacey]

Bit hard to contribute when I dont know much yet. I would be happy to 'give back' if I knew what everyone was on about in other threads.
I have obviously mistaken this site as a place to go to for help from those more experienced.

Thank you to everyone else for your help