I have so many modifiers and accessories for my Norman power pack that I hesitate letting go of them, but I'm beginning to hunger for a more versatile and mobile setup in terms of output adjustment and packing up for the road.

I'd love to hear from others who are/were using old school Normans and have either:

(a) Switched (what did you switch to, and how does it compare?  Any tips?)
-or-
(b) Decided to stay with the Normans (any tips of how you maximize the versatility of your light output, packing for the road, favorite uses for your Norman)

Thanks in advance ...

(b) Decided to stay with the Normans (any tips of how you maximize the versatility of your light output, packing for the road, favorite uses for your Norman)

I have two Normans P1250 and one 200B for travel. They're easier to haul than the P2000s. I've worked with lots of others (Speedotron, Balcor, Calumet), but stayed with the Normans. The first P1250 was a transformer unit and it was converted to voltage multiplier by Norman (after I  blew a capacitor and burned the transformer).  The P2000s get used mostly for architectural, product, car and large format work.

Mostly carry umbrellas and Chimera softboxes on location. A friend started Chimera with Tom Frost, so I'm partial to them. Plus I got them dirt cheap (well, cheaper). The softboxes are mostly for product work. Then there's all the extension cords, head extensions, reflectors and spare tubes. That's about it for travel because I try to keep the package small and flexible.

At the time the Norman factory was in LA and I didn't like the Calumet. Not enough power and only symmetrical output then. The Speedos were heavy and the output options weren't as good. Maybe the decision would have been different now.

Thanks for the perspective ... very "illuminating" :-)

I had two P800D packs and various heads and accessories, but recently switched to Speedo gear.  Now I have a 1200 w/s pack that's pretty much the same size as the Norman packs I had.  The reason I switched though was because I couldn't stand the engineering of the Norman hardware (stand adapters, speed ring connections, etc).  They just seemed to be really old/bad designs to me, and I had too many situations where things were about to fall off stands or the heads.

Now I'm much much more happier with the Speedo gear, and I've got a dial down knob on my pack too.  Their stuff is really built rugged.  Just my 2 cents.

when norman sold out two of the guys stayed in Van Nuys doing repairs. I had them rewire a couple of Speedo heads for Norman packs Also had them rewire a ProPhoto ring light head for the Norman pinout. This way I can use a lot more and different types of modifiers. They also changed two 500V studio heads for use with a 300B pack All the stuff works great.

Some people gotta get the newest, bestest, fastest stuff. Some people take the bestest pictures. Sometimes they're not the same people.

I have recently switched to Photogenic Monolights. Much more versatile, and beats lugging the Norman pack!

I use the norman P2000D and Norman 2400 power pack.  I take the 2400 pack on location because it is lighter and I can dial down the output.
Normans are tanks for power but as an earlier reply stated the lights attaching to stands sometimes can be a pain.  I thinki it is interesting to have other manufactures lights rewired to work with normans.  All in all I like the normans a lot.

I got my P2000D in 1976 and it's still going strong. I'm using 4 heads and several boxes.

I've started using a Hensel system on location (with the same soft boxes. The light is quite a bit cooler that the Normans and I've got to compensate for that.

Wouldn't give up the Normans in the studio for anything.

Normans to me are old school and always reliable.  They just don't quit even under abuse.  Weight is a draw back but I would rather have weight than failure.

I use photflex boxes with the strobe heads and so far been great. However putting the boxes together are a trip.  No problem connecting boxes to strobe head.

I like my Norman 2400 because it is more compact, more power and I can dial the power down.  This pack has become my primary pack, but when I need more lights for the job, I pull out the old workhorse. (2000D).  Mainly on location. 

I had no idea so shooters still use Normans until I read this post.

I use Norman gear, and have some 13 of the 2000 and 2400 heads. I have 1x 4000 w/s sec powerpack, 2 of the 1250 powerpacks, and 5 P2000 powerpacks, more power than I ever need, but it is all I need to run three or four studios and still have backup.
Although I also have a Speedotron 2400 w/s powerpack and a couple of heads for backup as well :-)
Belt and suspenders kind of guy :-)

Anyway, much of my Norman gear has been bought on ebay, some of it in need of repair,  but since my background was in electronics I have reverse engineered the schematics and now repair my own gear, having sourced all the necessary parts or modern equivalents, and mostly upgraded parts. I have had some of this gear blow up, but I have repaired it all and found that there are some simple things that one can do to minimize any failures.
1.ALWAYS when switching the power off, wait 3 minutes before removing any cables to the heads, and be sure to switch power off at the powerpack, not at the wall socket.
2. NEVER pull the cables out with the power switched on
3. NEVER switch the power rating to the sockets while the unit is ON, power down first, then wait 3 mins and then change power setting and power unit up again.
4. ALWAYS turn the unit on once a week even if not in use, you don't need any heads attached to the powerpack, but this keeps the electrolytic capacitors which store the energy for the 900 volt flash "conditioned". Electrolytic capacitors in ANY strobe unit will become leaky and cause failure if one does not keep them conditioned by frequently charging them. Long periods of storage can cause the capacitors to blow up, taking out one or more beefy diodes with a report that sounds like a gun going off!
These older units do not have the variable power adjustment of newer units, but simply moving a head back a foot, or throwing a sheet over the softbox/umbrella to add a layer of diffusing material gives one all the control one needs.

Comforting to know many other Norman users are still around :-)

I own more Norman gear than I care to list.  The last time I looked, I had (10) P2000's, (2) P1250's, (2) P2000XT's, (1) P20/20, (2) P4000XT's and (1) P800.  At last count I had about 30 heads, a combination of the LH2000 and the LH2400.

I own a bunch of other stuff as well.  I have Dynalites, Photogenics, Alien Bees, White Lightnings and Hensels, but I do have a lot of Norman gear.

I use the old Norman gear because it is so darned durable.  Those, along with Dynalites, are my packs of choice for group events.  I use mostly P2000's and P1250's for the groups.  I save the others for my own use.  They cycle reasonably fast, and they are just darned hard to break.

They don't recycle quite as fast as the Dynalites, but they don't break as easy.  They are a simple design and are easy to repair.  I have broken my share of Normans, but I find, once I get them solid, they don't break often.

As to the OP, I don't really use them for my professional work, unless I need to light a large space.  The units with a full pack trimmer are more versatile., but they don't compare to monolights in terms of flexibility.

The new Norman packs have dual trimming capability, but you can still only trim Chanel A and B, which means there re as many as two lights to the channel.

Norman did make the P12/12.  It had three trimmers.  There was a trimmer for Channel A, one for B and a full pack trimmer.  The pack had problems with durability.

I use mostly my Photogenics for professional work, but I would never give up my Normans.  The Photogenics are much more versatile, they don't hold up like Norman.

An interesting thing is that, since both Norman and Photogenic are made by the same company, ther is an adapter to allow you to attach Norman modifiers to Photogenic.  I have found that to be quite useful.

The one thing the Norman P20/20 or P2000XT are great for is putting a lamp on a boom up high.  It is nice to control it from the ground, but it is also lightweight.  So, while I can control my Photogenics wirelessly, they are much heavier.

I've used Norman packs and heads all over the world for more than 25 years.
The packs and heads produced when Bill Norman still had the company are better, in my opinion.  I still have two 2000D's a 1250D and two old 800SL
One SL needs an overhaul and I'm not sure it's worth the time and money.
I only use LH2000's with 9114 blowers, the plastic 2400's were bad as were
the blowers.  Have not used 200B's for years, but they worked well for me.

Photoflex boxes and Octo's are the only way to go.

Chuck

IPC went out of business earlier this year (they are the company who provided Walmart, Sears and ToysRUs with photographic studios,) this means that some 3000 studios were closed, each with at least one, but most had more.
Consequently, some 6000 Norman 40/40, 24/24 and M1200's with some 18,000 strobe heads were dumped on the market, at fantastic prices.  Needless to say I added to my collection of Norman gear ;-)
40/40 and 24/24 have all pack trims down to 32w/s from 4000w/s in the case of the 40/40, the 1200M is a 1200w/s unit with two separate outputs and two separate controls, so extremely useful and light weight. The 40/40's were over $2000 new and now you can pick one up on ebay for about $150, the 24/24's are smaller and are going for around $200
Having worked on both the 40/40's and the 2000 series, the former are far more complex, but I feel probably less rugged. For studio work though they would be great. Unfortunately CPI modified all the units such that the modeling light is either off or or full on, and so that the folks in the Sears studios didn't mess with settings cut off the control knob for the trim. It is still accessible with a screwdriver, or if you are electronically bent, it is an easy mod to replace with a new control pot.