hey there mayhemers!

i have a budget of about $2000 to invest in a professional lighting setup.  i shoot on location often, usually relying on battery power while there.  i have evaluated my options and alienbees seem like a good choice for me.  a concern of mine is as follows.  i have been looking at some of their units, and they are advertised as such: "640 true Ws, 1600 effective Ws,  28,000 Ls". 

which is the industry standard - true or effective?  the profoto 7b pack that i rent occasionally is simply advertised as 1200ws with no specification given.  clarification is needed!

i am currently considering buying 3 of the self-contained flash heads (probably a 1600 and 2 800's), using their new cheap radio slave to sync it all, and powering it via vagabond.  i used speedotron units throughout school and was often frustrated by how complicated it could be to stop an individual light down.  this is what makes the bees appealing to me - simple power adjustments.

so, please clarify effective vs true ws.  also, input on my proposed lighting kit would be appreciated also (is there something that would suit me better in a similar price range?).

no standard, go by guide number, they list what each modifier does at feet/iso  thats what is of use.

http://stepheneastwood.com/tutorials/sk … ychart.htm

that lists alienbee power and shows what is needed for what power on daylight.


Stephen Eastwood
http://www.StephenEastwood.com

Watt seconds  is a statement of power. Effective watt seconds was a marketing idea from Paul Buff pointing out that the Light Output from his units was equal to or higher than units of greater watt seconds than some of his competitors.
Light output is a result of power (watt seconds) and reflector design and size. If you have a small highly polished reflector you will get more light output than if you have a larger deep dish satin finish reflector and the quality of the light will be very different.
When picking out a system you want to look at the F stop that the system will deliver with the type reflector you will be using, the recycling time and consistancy of flash output. Some inexpensive systems can have a plus or minus difference of a third of a stop from flas to flash.

I believe I read somewhere that the "effective W/S" was in regards to comparison with pack and head systems where there is a loss of power due to the resistance of the cable which is not required for monolights. In that sense, every monolight could have an "effective W/S" rating. I've not experienced the kind of drop off in power that they claim occurs with my pack and head system, so to a great extent I consider it a marketing ploy. As Stephen suggested, the guide number is a better way to evaluate the performance of the head in terms of output.

Effective ws is just marketing bs, as Stephen said the GN is more important, still that is bs because if they say it gives f22 at x feet, they are going to say that because they are placing the most reflective and concentrated reflector they have on the light, that f22 is never going to happen if you use a big octa with baffle and grid.

My recomendation is that you should check other brands than AB because in monolights they stop with 800ws, I say this because you are going to do location/outdoors.

IMHO go Bowens-Calumet monolights. a) They have a 1500ws monolight (expensive crap) but it gives you enough power to over power the sun with big grided modifiers, b) You can find really cheap mods from ebay for bowens S bayonet because all the chinese strobes use that fitting, c) You can find the really expensive mods in Bowens S if you want like Plume, Light Works and the like and evidently original Bowens mods, d) With time if you need to go bigger Bowens has the QuadX power packs with 2400 ws and the heads use Bowens S bayonet so all your mods and e) Because as I said the Chinese monolights use Bowens so you can get a cheap Fotodiox monolight for dangerous work or you can add a 300ws for a kicker, background with really small money.

Hope this helps and good luck.