AC + Battery Powered Lights for Location ?

[ni_gentry]

I'm wondering if there's a good lighting kit available that would be

sort of a "do-it-all" setup... to be used indoors or out.

<p>

... a pack with a couple heads, could be run off battery or AC

power, has reasonable output with two heads connected (fashion,

editorial, portraits), reliable, easy to use with modifiers, and

doesn't cost an arm and a both legs.<p>

The Profoto 7B, Hensel Porty, Elinchrom Ranger seem like all nice

choices, but kind of expensive (especially adding AC capability).

And do they sacrifice much versus full-time AC studio packs? Model

light wattage, for example? Anything else? Of those three, do any

stand out. I've worked with only the Profotos. <p>

Anything cheaper...<p>

How about a Lumedyne pack (or two) with boosters(?)?

<p>

Or is there some generic battery pack or generator that can be used

to run any AC power pack?

<p>

 

Thanks!

[rdkirk]

For the most part, in exchange for battery powered operation you will give up quick recycling and all but a very few minutes of modeling light capability.

[michaelging]

Ni, this photo was shot out in the desert, using a Honda generator powering both white Lighting stobes and a bubble machine.I found this to be a good solution when you are not near AC.

 

http://www.photo.net/photo/2581822

[jmf]

I've heard you need to go a bit bigger on generators because of the type of electrical load that strobes put on the system. For example, if you had a pack the draws 15A@120vac, it should (in theory) be good with a gen. that puts out 1800w peak power. Supposedly you need to actually plan on something closer to 2400w/2000w continuous.

 

Anyone know details?

[patrick_viebey___orlando__]

I use Alien Bees, so let me answer in terms of them, if that helps. See http://www.alienbees.com/battery.html for the one they see. Once I dug into it, I found out it's a 300w digital invertal+battery pack. You can easily make one by buying a good digital compatible inverter like this one http://www.invertersrus.com/inv300ps.html, plus a one of those cool portable car starting 12 battery things like this http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=40615. Total cost rougly $200. BONUS - you can use this for ANYTHING, including charging your notebook, camera, or whatever (and starting your car in a pinch <grin>). In short - anything that needs AC (also good in case of emergency). And, this is significantly over the AB spec.

 

Generators tend to be heavy, big, noisy, require gas, and unless you buy an goodone put out AC that's not good for electronics (square wave or modified square wave). If I were going to buy one, I like these Honda models, though: http://www.hondapowerequipment.com/gensup.asp

[keith_beaty]

Dynalite has a self-contained head which works on AC or battery. The heads are light but the contruction is robust (at least, mine have put up with a lot of abuse). The Jackrabbit battery is small and light but puts out 70 full-power flashes.

 

Note that the modelling light is disabled when using the battery, and output falls by 1/3 stop compared to AC. Also, power is adjustable over only a 3-stop range, vs. 5 or 7 stops with the White Lightenings.

 

http://www.dynalite.com/fauni400j_n.html

[rrcphoto]

Actually I am curious on this to - if a strobe say puts out n watts / second of light (is that actual electric watts?) then one could assume if you had a 600 w/s flash, that it's maximum would be around 6A draw, of course not continuous, as that draw is for only the duration of the flash - so the actual Amp / Hour drain in theory shouldn't be that much. Say the flash uses the full draw for a 1/600 or less of a second - then you'd be looking at around .01 amp hour per flash.

 

A 28 Amp / hour battery would provide around 2.8 Amp hours at 120AC volts. (Assuming no effeciency loss)

 

In theory, that would last approx 250 flashes - realistically with fans, constant current - probably closer to 200 flashes.

 

Hmm. According to alot of assumptions that would seem to indicate that it would work.

 

Get a solor powered trickle charger for on location, and have the battery continually being charged at the same time as well :)

 

The question is...anyone actually try this?