Tonight I plan to go look at a couple lights a guy is selling locally on CL. I already hope to buy a couple of strobes I can add to what I have to complete a product shoot that requires more than I have. I think These will work with what I already have as snoots.

One of his other listings is for a PHOTOGENIC FLASHMASTER AA 01 LIGHTING SYSTEM with 2 lights. The price is pretty cheep for a power pack and two lights. Does anyone know what color these put out? if it is not in a close range to 5500k to 56 then plthth. If they are tungsten I just don't need anymore of that. Does the output decrease depending on what is all plugged in or do they just stay at the original power output? I hope it might so I could possibly have varying control but for 100 bucks I'm probably in dreamland. Would this system be closet clutter or helpful to a small budget studio?

Thanks in advance for any helpful info.

Pretty sure they're meant to be daylight balanced, though the bulbs may drift a little with age.  I would be inclined to use a radio slave to trigger the older units rather than attaching directly because of the high trigger voltages back in the day.

I think the power per light is decreased as more are plugged in.  I have two of the Photomaster packs and that seems to be the case with them.  Be sure to fire the pack up at least every few weeks or the capacitors will die, made that mistake with an old Novatron.

Perfect, er at least fore 100 bucks. thanks for the info. I might take this home tonight if it seems to be working alright.

I have two AA01A power packs and half a dozen heads that I bought in the mid-1970's. I've since switched to Photogenic Solairs and PowerLights. I haven't used the pack and head system since 2004, but it still worked great. In all the years I used them, I never had a problem, other than occasionally having to replace a flash tube, fuse or modeling lamp bulb.

The modeling lights use the same bulbs that were used back then for tail lights, brake lights, interior map lights, etc., in almost every car on the market, which meant you could buy them for a dollar or so at any auto supply store. Fuses for Flashmaster packs can also be purchased cheaply at an auto supply store. The flash tube “surrounds” the modeling light bulb. This made Flashmaster heads the first flash heads in which the modeling lights cast exactly the same light pattern as the flash tube, i.e., without parallax.

For several years Photogenic’s top-of-the-line pack and head system was Versatron, which had a 600 watt second power pack and some lights (mainly a spotlight) not available in the Flashmaster line. The Versatron line was discontinued several years ago.

The AA01 and AA01A packs are 400 watt seconds each (which was a lot back in the 70's). FlashMaster was the strobe of choice for school photographers who would set up in a corner somewhere and shoot every kid in a school for the yearbook and sell packages of prints to the parents. (I never did the school photography thing.)

The AA01 has plug-in sockets for four lights. The AA01A has a fifth socket (different from the others) for Photogenic's umbrella head (specifically designed for use with an umbrella). Other than the extra socket, the AA01 and the AA01A are the same.

The heads use round plugs (called “ratio plugs”) to allocate power between the flash heads. There were a couple dozen different ratio plugs. I used to have a list of the ratio plug part numbers and how each plug allocated power. But the three main plugs that everybody used were the ones that allocated the power in these ways:

400 w/s, equally divided among the heads that were plugged into the unit.

200/s to Outlets 1 and 2 (combined in one circuit) and 200 w/s to Outlets 3 and 4 (combined in another circuit). By outlets, I mean the sockets where the heads are connected to the power pack.

100 w/s each to Outlets 1, 2, 3 and 4. (Regardless of how many heads were connected, each head only got 100 w/s – even if there was only one head connected to the power pack).

The other ratio plugs just allocated power in different combinations, like 200 w/s to one outlet, 100 w/s to another outlet, and 50 w/s to each of the other two outlets.

Photogenic still makes the Flashmaster line.  As far as I know, you can still get flash tubes, modeling light bulbs and most parts for the earlier versions. The current power packs are 600 and 800 watt-seconds and use rectangular ratio plugs, presumably so the round AA01 plugs won’t be used in a pack with twice the power they were designed for. The current ratio plugs are not interchangeable with the older ones.

http://www.photogenic.com/department/98 … 0&%20kits/

Daylight comes in many colors – with color temperatures ranging from about 3500 degrees K at sunrise and sunset to about 10,000 degrees K from a clear blue sky. Flashmaster tubes back then were slightly cooler than today’s “color corrected” flash tubes, which have a UV coating that is the rough equivalent of putting a UV “haze” filter on a lens. (Photogenic now sells clear, frosted and color-corrected tubes for Solairs and Powerlights. The color corrected tube is standard with these lights.)

I don’t know whether current Flashmaster flash tubes are available with a UV coating or not. However, the color temperatures of the two (clear and color corrected) are very close. With the ability to set adjust white balance in the camera or in Adobe Camera Raw, Lightroom, etc., the UV coating seems superfluous.



The current Photogenic Quick-Change reflectors don't work with the older Flashmaster heads. They changed the reflector mounts about the time the original Powerlight was introduced. I have an older 20-inch reflector that has been adapted to the newer mount by a machine shop.

I have a bunch of these units and i love them!! Mainly i use the 400 ws units for background lights and the newer 600 and 800 packs as mains  (only reason is they are a little more adjustable)

A few more notes to the above. 

They have several types of heads,  The simple 6" or so round unit.  The "pan head"  (11" or 12" ??),  The removable reflector type many sizes and acessories .  The daylighter  unit  (huge long tube that can actually use 2 power packs!  And a special "umbrella head (uses the special extra plug to run a 110 v modeling light.  And also a large group head with a special reflector and tube.

Caution the very old AA packs (from what i have seen all have 4 plugs only and a "Blue" case  origionaly had a vacuum tube trigger.  They used a 410 volt trigger!!   the newer units are still 12v triggers.  I always use a "Safe Sync" or radio trigger.  Some older units were converted to solid state triggers and also use 12 v...  The special trigger plug with 4 prongs is a pain to find but places like Allied electronics carry them at a reasonable cost  I just made up a short convertor to standard phono plug works great!  Only 2 wires are used for the trigger so you have to open an origional plug to figure out the wiring.

the "ratio plugs" came in about 25+ varieties, still prety common to find them on ebay at reasonable prices ($2-3 each)  "Splitter cables
are also common as well as extension cables.

Sometimes the light can be a little harsh so i use the cheap  elastic"socks" over them, seems to work fine.

I also hear about charging/discharging them to protect the capacitors,  Dosen't seem to be necessary.  Some of mine sat on the shelf for years before i got them and they work perfectly every time.  Tubes are cheap and common on Ebay also very expensive to buy new from Photogenic suppliers.  Basic modeling light is a 12 v auto bulb 2 different ones are used one just a little brighter than the other.   Photogenic list about $9 each!!   AutoZone about a buck!!

Main safety concern is NEVER pull the ratio plug out while powered on!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There are 6 caps in there the size of beer cans!!  they have the power to knock you across the room!!   Units will automaticly and safely discharge when you turn off the power.

Don't be fooled by them ONLY being 400 WS, they put out mega light1  In a small area you will be shooting at F8 or smaller all the time with just 2 or 3 heads

Overall they are bulletproof.  They were dragged around by school photographers who set them up by number or color code!  Didn't have a clue as to why just did as they were told!!  Some manuals are still availabe on the photogenic web site or sites for old camera collectors

Thanks you guys are awesome!
Yah I'm not afraid of 400 not being enough as my 300's at times are way to hot. That's why I was hoping I could dial them down even if it's from a bleed light. As far as the live power pull I already have to live that style with my bosses and schools speedotron stuff. I really want to get black line some day but I have to earn them with what I can afford to dot that. I might be doubling my kit size tonight for pretty cheap cash.

This was very encouraging.

thanks to all of you for the reply's.

Here it is Jan 2023. And this old post just simplified my life.

I bought the same set for $25.00 off Facebook.And was wanting information about trigger for the power pak. And you all helped very much  ** high five **