[Dookie]

Hi folks can someone explain to me what is a power pack, one like the Vagabond II by AlienBees? Are these just portable battery packs that I can plug my strobes into rather than having to plug them into the wall? Do power packs of this kind work with any brand of Strobes? Do they have ones that are rechargeable?

Thanks

[Dabhand16]

Originally Posted by Dookie

Hi folks can someone explain to me what is a power pack, one like the Vagabond II by AlienBees? Are these just portable battery packs that I can plug my strobes into rather than having to plug them into the wall? Do power packs of this kind work with any brand of Strobes? Do they have ones that are rechargeable?

Thanks

Not familiar with this brand, but I suspect it is simply a high capacity battery for speedlights. I would imagine that they would work with any speedlight if they had the right connections and voltage.

[Kodak]

Power packs are generally branded for their own lights.

There are some sine wave generators/battery packs that will accept different strobes.

Do a search for the explorer XT, pretty cheap compared to the profoto/bowen/elinchrom/hensels.

[spxxxx]

There are many different power packs at many different price levels.

They normally fall into two categories

The first are portable power packs that can be used where mains power isn't available and usually are for studio type monoblocks as the power settings of the lights are controlled from the light head and not the power pack.

These are the type that the vagabond fits in to and the explorer XT. They have to be built to a good standard and have pure sine wave convertors so the power delivered to the head is "clean".

All are rechargeable and have varying capacities depending on brand - some are able to be charged from 110 / 240 v and some are voltage specific

The second type of pack is a bit more complicated as these are used to power "heads" that have no built in power adjustment. It is done from the power pack itself. All the main players make such packs like the Elinchrom ranger or Quadra system or the Henel Porty

Packs like these though are not all made equal as some only take one head (Profoto AcuteB 600) whereas the others can take two or more.

Again it doesn't stop there as the packs that take two or more heads are either synchronous (meaning the power is split equally between the heads) or asynchronous meaning you can alter power to each individual head to create lighting ratios.

The other thing to watch on these type of packs is the flash duration speed - and it can vary enormously - and this will affect your ability to freeze action when using the systems.

Hope that helps - you could spend ages researching up on all the differences

[Dookie]

Hi spxxxx

yes that totally helped.
I am looking at the formal and not the latter. I think in time I will get the explorer XT as I use mono heads and I have a mixed of a couple of brands of strobe heads.

The latter ones you mention I have actually used as well but it was a much older unit and it plugged into the wall outlet and you kinda had to know how to play with the lighting ratio and power output (you have to do some mental math - which is cool) to see how much power goes to which head. I personally feel I will prefer the formal type where I can control my strobe heads.