alienbees 800 or 1600

SethAlbritton · Jun 22, 2010

I love power, but I love saving money too.

I want to get two 800s. This is what I want to do.

I want to be able to over power the sun and light groups for wedding shots.

How many people will two 800's light up. I really don't want to spend more money on the 1600's so can anyone give me a reason why you had to have them or thought about considering them. I'll probably shoot through softboxes alot. I'm not sure if that deminishes your power or not so that is a concern. Thanks in advance.

Christie Photo · Jun 22, 2010

To overpower any sunlight spilling in, speed up the shutter. It won't affect the strobe exposure as long as you're in sync.

-Pete

Big Mike · Jun 22, 2010

There are a lot of factors to be considered when you say that you want to 'overpower the sun'.

It's one thing to shoot with strobes on a sunny day, and it's another thing to shoot into the sun or underexpose the sunlight into nothingness. So what are you trying to do?

Yes, the light modifiers you use, will certainly determine the amount of light you get on your subjects. Softboxes do absorb some light. Umbrellas spread the light rather wide, possibly wasting a lot of it, although there is the parabolic umbrella which constrains the light more. Another factor is the distance from the light to the subject. If you can get the lights fairly close, you don't need as much power...but if you are shooting a large group, you may need to back the lights off, just to get the right coverage, and the farther you go, the more power you need...especially if you are shooting at smaller apertures to 'overpower the sun'.

Something else to consider, if fighting the sun is your priority...with studio lights, you are pretty much limited to the max sync speed of your camera...probably 1/200 or 1/250....so when shooting in bright light, you are required to use small apertures to control the ambient light...and smaller apertures require more flash power. However, you you use Speedlite (Speedlight) flashes with your Canon/Nikon camera, you can use a feature called High Speed Sync, which allows you to shoot at any shutter speed with flash. So you could shoot at 1/4000, which would allow you to control the ambient sunlight at larger apertures, thus not requiring as much flash power. But H.S.S. has it's own limitations in terms of working distance etc.

So without knowing all the specifics, I can't tell you whether you'll need/want B800 or B1600 lights....but more power is seldom a bad option to have.

SethAlbritton · Jun 22, 2010

Mike dead on with knowledge I need to hear.

I have sb900's and I over power the sun with them with high speed sync. I wasn't even thinking about that with these. I think I'm going to get the ab1600's 60 dollars more isn't bad.

Do you know how bad the recharge time is with two 1600's powered by vagabond ll. I know you can not be specific, but is it reasonable.

Thanks for the info guys, helped me think of things I was not

SethAlbritton · Jun 23, 2010

I've been looking at the alienbees flickr pool. All the pictures I see inside are done with a 800 or 400. Is the 1600 to powerful for indoors. I read that it doesn't do very well with lower power. Is this true?

Big Mike · Jun 23, 2010

Do you know how bad the recharge time is with two 1600's powered by vagabond ll. I know you can not be specific, but is it reasonable.

I'm fairly sure that it's pretty quick. Especially if you're not using full power.

I've been looking at the alienbees flickr pool. All the pictures I see inside are done with a 800 or 400. Is the 1600 to powerful for indoors. I read that it doesn't do very well with lower power. Is this true?

I think that most people buying AB lights are in the 'entry level' crowd, and as such, the cheaper lights are going to be the best sellers...which may be why you see more B400 and B800 lights. Also, I think the best value is probably the B800.

There may be an issue when using a more powerful light indoors. I think they only have a 5 stop range of power, so there might be some situations where you can't turn the power down as much as you would like. It's really only a problem if you are dead set on using larger apertures though.

One of the 'issues' that is often talked about with AB lights, is that they tend to exhibit a color/WB shift at lower power settings. If you are a stickler for accurate color, it may be something to worry about...and if so, then buying a lower powered light and using it at higher power settings, may be a way to avoid the lower power range.

I know they are pretty pricey, but have you looked at the new Einstein light from PCB? Looks pretty interesting.

Derrel · Jun 23, 2010

Seth,
I think this particular article might be of interest to you, both in regard to flash power for overpowering the sun, as well as tips, exposures, and the new Paul C. Buff parabolic light modifiers or PLM umbrellas as many people refer to them. The PLMs are very high efficiency umbrellas that seem to be designed with group shots and lighting of large areas in mind.

Rob Galbraith DPI: PLM umbrellas offer sweet combo of efficiency and softness