Who Uses Photogenic Lights?

[CanonSnob]

Anyone out there useing them. I just bought two 500ws and a 1Kws. I'm curious to find out from other owners what they use to power their lights on location. A generator? Power packs? What?

I ask because I need to shoot out a lot on location away from outlets. I think I'll end up using a generator but don't want to do anything that will damage the lights.

 

[Big Mike]

I'm not fully sure about this information, but I seem to remember reading that it would not be a good idea to power strobes directly with a generator. The power isn't as 'clean' as typical household power and it could shorten the life of your equipment. I've read that when you buy (or make) a battery system for strobes, you need a 'pure sine wave converter' which has something to do with making the power very clean.

From what I have seen/read...most people use a battery system of some sort. They may use a generator (or a vehicle) to charge the batteries but they run the strobes off of the battery.

 

[CanonSnob]

I contacted Photogenic about that. What a tech there told me was that it would be fine as long as the generator provided enough amps. I also asked if they had any sort of battery pack or power units for their lights to which he told me not in the making, and they had also not tested any other company's power packs with their lights, and wouldn't know if they would damage the lights or not. Not sure if that was a brand disspute reason he told me that. Or if he truely thought it could end up hurting/damageing my lights.

 

[sabbath999]

I am no expert, but a high quality battery backup UPS might be just the thing to stick between a generator and your lights... it will only send out clean power, and can take dirty power in very well.

 

[Mike_E]

You can but a battery pack set up or put one together yourself
by buying a good quality high capacity inverter and a large auto battery. Someone else asked this question and for kicks I looked into it and if I remember correctly you can put together two of your own for the price of one pre-made. The nice thing about a DIY is that you can charge the battery with a car charger in a couple of hours or a set of good jumper cables in about 30 minutes.

 

[jstuedle]

There are 2 types of UPS's. Online and offline. The offline is the more typical and cheaper type, and is out of the circuit until the power fails. It does no power conditioning. A cheaper solution might be a power conditioner of the type musicians use in there amp racks.

Also, if making a power source from a battery and inverter, I would suggest a marine batteries. They tolerate deep discharge without damage better than the normal auto battery will.