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calumet travelites vs. AB's or WL
can anyone give me their postive or negative feedback about actual usage with these lights? I've read the forums where the AB's have inconsistent lights, but others say they are just fine. Looking to purchase lights that fit into a regular outlet. Maybe someone reading this can suggest other brand of lights I have not thought of here with my above specifications. Thanks! Joanne Apr 04 07 11:42 am Link I've used the Travelites for years with no problems. Highly recommended. Apr 04 07 11:44 am Link I have three AB800s that have worked flawlessly for me. I got my first one about two years ago. I can't tell you if they're a quarter stop off or not; I just use them and they work. I also have the new wireless trigger that came out just this year. I fire one flash with the wireless and the other two fire on the slave. YMMV, Rich Apr 04 07 11:51 am Link I have been doing some research on the same topic, as I am in the same boat. I have heard nothing but good reviews on the Travelites so far, and a bit of a mixed bag on the AB and WL. From what I have read, the AB are good for the cost, but may not be able to hold up to the abuse, that some higher price models can handle. Apr 04 07 11:56 am Link Frog516 wrote: Yea - From what I heard AB's are the low end. Apr 04 07 05:49 pm Link I've transitioned from Photogenic PowerLights to Calumet Travelites, and have no complaints. They're pretty durable from what I've seen - we currently have 35 out in the field, plus my couple at home. I can highly recommend them. I love the digitals with the remote control, but the analog units pack more power (750ws vs 500ws). I also have an AB1600 with a Vagabond as well - never had any problems with it either, but it's definitely not as robust. Lightweight is a plus, consistency is a minus, and the controls aren't as "friendly" IMHO. But it's great for portability on small shots. Apr 04 07 08:09 pm Link I own two Travelite 750 units. I haven't used them on location, just inside so far. The lights are excellent. The Travelites are consistent. AB are very good lights. I haven't heard anything negative about them. As a matter of fact, I know to professionals who recommend AB. WL units are also very good. Apr 04 07 08:27 pm Link . You might care to research the fairly new Elinchrom portable strobes for another data point to make your decision. . Apr 04 07 08:33 pm Link Alien Bees are the low end product of White Lightning. Not good for heavy softboxes, but the WL has an aluminum housing that is great. Apr 04 07 08:38 pm Link I'm using the Alien Bee's.. no problem with them thus far and I've had them for over a year. I also use a Photoflex 36x48 softbox on them, no problems. Apr 04 07 08:45 pm Link I've rented Travelites and love them. At this point it's actually more cost efective for me to rent. I can get them for an entire weekend for $55...(friday-monday) If I had the need, I'd buy them eventually. I have yet to try them with battery packs but that's another really cool option. ABs have that as well though. I also have to ask myself why I would buy anything that I can't put my hands on first and try out. Travelites are the workhorse of the Calumet rental stable... Apr 05 07 01:32 pm Link I have had Calumet Travellites and have nothing but positive things to say... in studio or on location they always get the job done. Apr 05 07 02:02 pm Link AB's are light weight and hold up to severe abuse in the field and the color is dead on just like my Balcars if you let them charge . The Balcars are on the shelf the AB's are on the stands in the studio. Apr 05 07 02:09 pm Link Wow! I love my Travelites and have been afraid to post up until now because I have seen absolutely no posts about the system (good or bad). Also, you have to think backwards. What kind of light modifiers will you be using. Using the Travelites you have access to the complete line of Bowens and Calumet products. I have the battery pack but haven't had a chance to use it yet. Apr 05 07 03:22 pm Link i have a calumet 750 travelite....its fine for use inside....no real problems asside from rather slow recycle times (2-3 secs at about 50% discharge)....but outside i have had major problems when trying to use the slave....the sunlight tends to cause it to fire at random....i have had to use it as a wiredd strobe when i am outside with it Apr 06 07 12:49 am Link Anyone that has bad info on bees read it from someone who heard it from some other guy that doesnât own any lololol . I have a 1600 ab with a heavy 5foot bank on it and two ab800 and they hold up great. The bees have many add on and or very consistent. if anyone has problem ab it because they donât know what they are doing. Ab get a lot of bad press form shops because they sale direct to the public. They have a 60 day return policy and you can get your money back in full so donât talk about it buy some try them you donât like them return them know body in the business is doing that kid Apr 06 07 02:11 am Link I have had ABs or WLs for 5 years and they are great lights. The ABs are lightweight and very portable yet very strong. I have never had a problem mounting a 48x36 SB on them. The WLs are all steel and build like a tank. Better features all around than the AB line. The WL 1600 (and up) also has a niffty button to cut the power by 3/4. Customer service is fantastic. Unfortunately, I can't compare them to the Calumet lights since I have never used them. Consider this.... can you rent the calumets for a weekend? If you can, then buy a couple of ABs or WLs.... Buff has a 60 day FREE return policy no questions asked.... compare them to the Calumets and decide for yourself. Buff actually encourages comparisions like this..... they know that they produce a very good product for the money. The entire reason behind the 60 day return policy is to let you do comparisions like this..... take them up on it. Also, keep in mind that Buff has an "upgrade" policy. If you buy a light now that years from now turns out to be "underpowered" for your needs you can send the light back in and they will add the new circuits to upgrade the power. Say you wanted to upgrade your AB800 to an AB1600. Send in your AB800 and they will make it into an AB1600. They will do this for the difference in price between and AB800 and AB1600 (about $80) plus a $25 charge for labor. So, for about $100 you get the light you need WITHOUT having to buy a new light. Nice deal. Apr 06 07 06:46 am Link I have 7 heads from WL. Been a WL customer for 21 years. No problems so far! Apr 06 07 06:53 am Link I have (2) AB 1600 and (1) AB 400. I love them. They work fine for what I'm doing...I do this part time. I asked about AB's before I bought them on another message board and got some of the "you get what you pay for" comments. Most of those comments come from the guys that do this full time and have their million-dollar lighting set up. Jay  Apr 06 07 07:08 am Link Have Nine AB1600's and the AB ringlight... no problems at all, and probably over 100,000 pops in the last 1.5 years (at 1/4-1/2 power) and I haven't replaced the flash bulb yet! How do I know I flashed them that much? I've sent TWO Canon 20D's to the shop for new shutters, and those camera's only get used in the studio. In the past I've toppled them from a 7' stand numerous times from tripping over the powercord and all that happened was the modeling light (100watt household bulb) broke. Just reach over to the nearest lampshade or bathroom light and you're back up and running! So that's my testament to the AB's! I have been a Speedotron Black Line / Norman power pack user for 10 years, but now THEY'RE the "backup" lights! Apr 06 07 07:20 am Link I have (4) Travelite 750's and (1) Travelite 250 for hair and love them. I shot with some AB's twice and one of the times, the slave didn't work 100% of the time which equals missed shots and the power adjustment slider feels flimsy. If I had to buy again, I would buy Calumets. Apr 06 07 07:34 am Link I work with AB and Wl's. Between myself and my friends we have 13 of them. Have we had problems -- yes. Were the problems taken care of in a timely matter -- yes. (Buff got a shipment of bad circuit boards) They called us to recall them before we had problems.) They paid shipping. I got some wrong sized reflectors - the barn doors slipped off. 7 years later Buff replaced the reflectors at no charge. These units are not erratic - the sliders are very precise. The output measured by meter is within a 1/10 of a stop. I taught a class where one student was asked to slow down - shooting like 60 frames a minute -- unit burnt up. He said he could not. Out of production Zap 1000 - Buff fixed it for $50 and said if they could not fix it they would give me a 50% discount toward any new unit of my choice. I have used and sold other brands of units - about the same amount of trouble with a lot worse service and a lot higher repair costs. Apr 06 07 07:50 am Link I have three travelite 750 heads, and they work GREAT. I mean seriously. 5 year waranty and so easy to travel with. I've never had any problems at all. I've had them for almost 4 years now! Apr 06 07 11:18 am Link well since posting, I had a chance to use a friends travelites with no softbox, just reflector with umbrella. The only annoying thing was the sync cord kept coming loose from the camera , which can be fixed using a pocket wizard I suppose and the other annoying thing is recycle time is slow. I guess I can call the Paul C. Buff company and ask if there are any places in Chicago that they know of that rent WL or AB since I see neither in the rental list for Calumet or Helix. Also, could the inconsistency of color be caused by a lightbulb that is losing life? Joanne Apr 07 07 06:43 am Link Joannes Photography wrote: u mean the bulb or the strobe? Apr 07 07 11:23 am Link Joannes Photography wrote: The problem with sync chords are that they are made on a one size fits ALL cameras basis. I was at a shoot once where 3 sync chords (non-Travelite) were bad. Pocket wizards (or some sort of radio transmitter) are the best way to go. Also, if you can afford it, the Sekonic meter with pocket wizard transmitter. They have worked flawlessly for me so far. Apr 07 07 12:16 pm Link William J Palank wrote: I'll be borrowing your pocket wizard tomorrow. Apr 07 07 12:32 pm Link I have 4 of the of Travelite 750s. I've used them in both location and studio work. I've never had a problem and I've had them for about 10 years. No problems whatsover in all that time. All of my work is done with the Travelites. Check out my sites if you want to see my work with these babies. My sites are: www.edflores.com www.bodyandline.com Apr 07 07 12:37 pm Link Travelite user here for just over a year. No complaints here! SW Apr 07 07 07:31 pm Link Joannes Photography wrote: Legacys 7 wrote: More info needed Joanne - modeling lamp (bulb) or flash tube (flash tube). Oct 16 07 08:24 pm Link I have a large set of Travelites, some of which I picked up for nearly nothing on Ebay. And they are great, of course. But I've also used the WL lights, and have a lot of friends who've used them for 10+ years and are thrilled with them. So does it really matter? Two huge bonuses if you use the Paul Buff lights are very inexpensive accessories, and the gigantic bonus which, had I known about it, I might have gone with WL.....this "Commander" thing which lets you wirelessly adjust power AND trigger ALL your WL strobes from a little unit mounted in your hotshoe!!!!! Anyone who's ever been endlessly running around and/or lowering lights on booms to change their power over and over again during a shoot can appreciate how massive that is. I'm too invested in my Travelites to easily change over, but that one accessory alone would have made me rethink my choice in strobes had I known that thing was coming soon. Ah, hindsight. But aside from manually having to change setting on the older Travelites, they are pretty damn rugged, and I've not yet had a single mishap ever. I am just days away from buying one or two of the Vagabond II batteries, since I read from the Buff people that you can use the original 750 Travelites with them (not the newer ones with micro-processors though). Cheers. Jul 19 11 10:30 pm Link I've used several ABs (400 + 800s) for several years- and yes there are slight color shifts though it's not quite that bad. I eventually traded up for Einsteins which are (according to Paul Buff) are more consistently color controlled than Profoto and Elinchrom units. I can attest they're pretty dead on, color-wise though their cyber commanders leave a lot to be desired, performance wise. Love the Einsteins- haven't had any problems at all. But back to AB's... loved them and never had a single problem with them. And while they have plastic bodies compared to the aluminum casings of the White Lightnings, they're still pretty darn good.  Jul 19 11 10:38 pm Link I just sent in a 20+ year old WL Ultra 1200 to Paul Buff for repair (it finally went out). Capacitors on power supply couldn't be repaired. Got a 50% trade-in on their X3200. Great service, great equipment! Jan 30 12 11:27 am Link I have six of them, been using them for years, no failures, plug in or battery pack, love "em. Jan 30 12 11:31 am Link I realize this is a 'zombie thread' so I'm just going to say is that I'm an Alien Bee 'fanboy'. 'Nuff said. Jan 30 12 11:32 am Link Wow 5 years ago I posted on this thread. Now I have one more AB and all of the others are still working. Two of my units are over 500,000 flashes. How do these Zombie threads come to life. Jan 30 12 01:03 pm Link |
