monlights vs Heads & Powerpacks

I am trying to figure out the advantages and disadvantage of each system for location work, school portraits, some family portraits, but also wedding work, groups and portraits, in the church session.

It seems to me that the monolights are a more simple system; no powepack to carry. But I am obviously missing something because lumadyne seems to consistently get high recommendations in this regard.

By the way, I am using ABs and I do not like them. They do not have the consistency I want and I spend too much time in PS tweaking results.

Comments and suggestions appreciated

Mike

I've used a set of ABs almost since they were first introduced and have not noticed any "conistency" problems with them. If you're getting unreliablle shot-to-shot output, you might wannt to document it with a few pics and contact Alien Bees' support.

I sold an Elinchrom powerpack outfit when I bought these and put the substantial difference into other gear.

The monolights vs powerpack argument could go on and on, but I think you'll find most people who do location work prefer monolights, while those heavy powerpack units are consigned to studios. Also, I feel that if a powerpack goes bad while on location, you SOL. If, say, one of your three monolights dies, you're still in business.

--
Jim

I agree with the notion that if the powerpack goes bad on location, you're hosed. I shoot on location with four lights, but I'll get by with three if one fails.

And what if I'm doing a location shoot of someone in a hallway. And toward the end of the hallway, I want to postion a strobe in an adjacent room so its light spills into the hallway. With a power pack, there's a good chance I won't have a long enough cord. With a monolight I can fire it with a radio receiver.

Also, as a White-Lightning user, I can take advantage of their Vagabond battery system and use one or all my lights without AC power.

Monolights for me!

That makes sense. I am leaning toward the monos.

In all fairness, I think the problems I have had with the ABs is probably related to pushing them harder than they are intended - like an 8 hour day of rapid - paced graduation pictures. I also find that I want to operate the ABs in the lower part of the power range; which is where most problems seem to be mentioned.

Operating in this way, the ABs seem to drift a little in terms of color and drift more in terms of output, at least when in the 1/16 - 1/4 power range.

Mike

Benefits of Lume:

The head is very light and when you clamp the battery and power pack to the light stand you get a very stable and light setup. you can get away with using lightstand that are not as heavyduty.

However they are step control 50-100-200-400 unless you buy the dail down feature or use Quantum X heads.

Another system you should look at is the Dynalite, lightweight heads and thus take the weight of the powerpack onto the floor or lower on the lightstand. The 1000W/S pack can be set to 62-125W/S by 1/3 stop.
They are the lightest pack around (Use them as my location lights 1988-2003)

Rent a set of Lumedyne or Dynalite out for a test drive. Some dealers will credit your rental towards a future purchase.

I kept my Lume's and Dyna's after I retire in 2003.

--
Retired commercial photog - enjoying shooting for myself again.
Hoping to see/shoot as much as I can before the eyes and legs gives way

I really like mono lights...they are very protable. It is always easy to find power. Also if you do need portable power you can pick up a battery and plug them right in. I think for a good all round use and portability Monolights are the way to go. I use Photogenic monos and thing they are great!

Advantages of monolights vs heads/powerpacks:
1) any lighting ratio possible

2) no special house wiring circuits needed because the power required can be supplied from a distribution of outlets (i.e., you won't need an electrician to come in and wire up 30A circuits for you because, should you need 30A, it'll be possible for it to come from multiple outlets)
3) power supply redundancy, if one dies, your others are unaffected

Advantages of heads/powerpacks vs monolights:
1) lighter head (if used on a boom)
2) greater power output options possible

I have been using one or more packs per head, kind of like a monolights separated with most of the weight off the top of the stand and the pack down where you can control the power and give stability to the setup. It is like having your cake and eating it. (The best of mono and packs in one solution)

First 3 years of my pro photo career I have knock over 4 monolights so I said enough is enough.

This has worked well for me but might not be cost effective for everyone.

--
Retired commercial photog - enjoying shooting for myself again.
Hoping to see/shoot as much as I can before the eyes and legs gives way

That's (almost) the best of both worlds. The only caveat I can think of in your situation is to make sure that none of your packs require over 15A and then you still get around the special heavy duty building wiring...(assuming that you're plugging them into outlets on different branch circuits).

George

Have shot with both styles over the years in studio and on-location and now prefer to use monolights more often than not.

The advice about renting a few sets and comparing them in YOUR OWN hands and shooting style is very wise. What others like, you may not...

(I've owned photogenic and (back-up) Novatron lights myself but been forced to use other brands while shooting for someone else and hated the way a few of those others worked. Now we are all photogenic - monos and still kept a few old packs for back-up.)

You said you are shooting grads and tons of images daily, no doubt very quickly. One issue you may find more with monos is the tendancy for the flash to get overheated quicker, which is why some have fan systems for cooling. Pre-monos, we used the old photogenic flashmaster powerpacks with 8050m heads in schools and could shoot 1000+ shots in a schoolday without a care. BUT, since switching to the (photogenic) monos, I have replaced a L-O-T more flashtubes than ever before (BTW, check and consider the price of tubes when buying as well - it matter$!) IMHO becuase our new monos keep flash heads hotter longer under heavy/fast use. Now, I do a daily check on flashtubes now and replace them as a preventative measure whenever I see the tell tale melted glop of glass or burning brown bubbles to avoid having one blow at a school...

Yes, the monos cost us more to operate in the long run and need heavier stands to support them, but I do LOVE the ability to make fractional-stop light adjustments without playing with "power plugs" and moving lights around like we did with pack systems...
--
Eric in Florida

I'm just wondering what AB's you are using. I've been thinking about getting a couple and thought 400's would be my best bet, rather than getting 800s or 1600s and ending up having to turn them down; where you say they are most inconsistent. Would this be a good idea?

-Sam
--
Time will take your money but money won't buy time...

20amp has been the minimum for wall outlets in the U.S. per the Nat'l Electrical Code for many years now. 15A is restricted to lighting circuits.

Also, in residential, the code specifies that all outlets in a room shall not be on a single circuit.

So if power (or lack thereof) is a concern for your monolights, you should be good to go in any newer building.

...for anything except certain dedicated circuits in kitchens, bathrooms, and laundry rooms.

Ordinary utility circuits in other rooms can be 15 amp.

--
RDKirk
'TANSTAAFL: The only unbreakable rule in photography.'

For most work, the only difference is in the personal proclivities of the photographer. Say, shooting a portrait in any "normal" studio-type situation, it makes no difference in terms of utility. Either does just as well.

But at the extremes, there are differences.

For instance, there is no monolight that can put out 4800ws of power through a single head. If you want massive power out of a single head, you have to go with a big power pack.

But if you have to light a vast area with multiple light, doing it with power packs gets absurd really quickly. Multiple power pack options are just workarounds for situations that one should have used monolights.

--
RDKirk
'TANSTAAFL: The only unbreakable rule in photography.'

tigerix said:

20amp has been the minimum for wall outlets in the U.S. per the
Nat'l Electrical Code for many years now. 15A is restricted to
lighting circuits.

Also, in residential, the code specifies that all outlets in a room
shall not be on a single circuit.

So if power (or lack thereof) is a concern for your monolights, you
should be good to go in any newer building.

Click to expand...

As someone else pointed out, the NEC does NOT require 20A circuits and they are rare in residential wiring except for refrigerators. Besides, some of the packs I've seen require 30A circuits.

I jsut posted a reply similar to this on another thread. but let me flesh it out.

The small power pack was the work horse of the portable portrait studio for years.

The reason is that in real life the power pack system is much faster to set up.

bear with me. we don't just set up a studio, not anymore, we set up where the client is. how does a photog transport a monolight? in a case, where is the light stand and softbox? In another case or bag.

I can set up a softbox on a lightstand and be ready to shoot in a minute or so. My Norman pack was designed to clamp onto the light stand. the head stays on the top. The 40 inch 'ed pierce' halo softbox opens like an umbrella but has a face like a softbox, and has a long enough shaft that it can stay clamped in the head with the staves closed, the power cord wraps loosely around the case. In my kiddie pix days I had a light stand so worn out that the legs would fly out when I held the stand verticle and get it a shake to loosen them, I'd drop it down, unravel the cord like a jump rope, open the brollie with the same move as I raised the head.

One key light, 60 seconds. It packs up as fast, it carries nicely balanced in one hand.

fill light is on the camera flash bracket.

--

moderator of the z-prophoto, photohistory, and kodakpro mailing lists at yahoogroups.com

I use monolights on location. My four lights, stands, softboxes (Westcott Apollo), umbrellas, reflectors, cords, and even tripod go into one rolling case.

The Westcott Apollos open like umbrellas, and they are much more compact than the Norman foldables (I have the Norman 60-inch octagon, and it folds nowhere near as compact as my Westcott 50-inch Apollo).

Lights go on stands, softboxes or umbrellas go on lights, connect AC cable, and I'm ready to go (radio slaves are already connected as necessary).

--
RDKirk
'TANSTAAFL: The only unbreakable rule in photography.'

another thing to consider is the fact that flash duration on a pp/head is also controlled by the length of the power cord in between the two. Too long of a cord can lead to ghosting in fast moving subjects. Of course that shouldn't be a problem in portraits.
--
Louisville, Ky.

'To be yourself, and no one else, in a world that tries to make you like everyone else, is to fight the greatest battle any man can fight and to never quit fighting.'
e.e. cummings

Allen Greenky said:

I jsut posted a reply similar to this on another thread. but let
me flesh it out.

The small power pack was the work horse of the portable portrait
studio for years.

The reason is that in real life the power pack system is much
faster to set up.

Click to expand...

How? You'd transport it the same way and it is more "pieces" to assemble and more cables to route so no one trips over them (at a minimum, you've got one for each head + one for each power pack vs the monolight where you have one power cable per "head" and none for extraneous power packs as that is built into the "head"). BTW, if your heads are each getting 10A so that your pack draws 30A, what do you do when you arrive at your location and need a 30A socket...carry a generator with you? With monolights you just plug them into different circuits...if it is really a difficult situation to find that, it means you carry a couple of heavy duty extension cords.

Allen Greenky said:

bear with me. we don't just set up a studio, not anymore, we set
up where the client is. how does a photog transport a monolight?
in a case, where is the light stand and softbox? In another case
or bag.

Click to expand...

So, you're telling me you carry your flash heads on stands with softboxes already on them? Right. I've never seen anyone who didn't carry power packs and heads in a case and deal with the same routine PLUS connecting heads to packs and clamping packs to stands or tripping over them.

Allen Greenky said:

I can set up a softbox on a lightstand and be ready to shoot in a
minute or so. My Norman pack was designed to clamp onto the light
stand. the head stays on the top. The 40 inch 'ed pierce' halo
softbox opens like an umbrella but has a face like a softbox, and
has a long enough shaft that it can stay clamped in the head with
the staves closed, the power cord wraps loosely around the case.
In my kiddie pix days I had a light stand so worn out that the legs
would fly out when I held the stand verticle and get it a shake to
loosen them, I'd drop it down, unravel the cord like a jump rope,
open the brollie with the same move as I raised the head.

One key light, 60 seconds. It packs up as fast, it carries nicely
balanced in one hand.

fill light is on the camera flash bracket.

--
moderator of the z-prophoto, photohistory, and kodakpro mailing
lists at yahoogroups.com

Click to expand...

I just cannot follow your line of reasoning and do not see, nor can I imagine, any way that heads/packs could be faster or more convenient. They can be cheaper (due to no duplication of hardware, i.e., power supplies) or they can be more powerful (you don't have to build a lightweight pack as it doesn't have to be attached to a stand). If I am missing something, feel free to correct but I have used both and GREATLY prefer monolights.

There's an amazing amount if silliness here.

Your photos will ghost because the cable is too long? Spare me.

In reality, it's a matter of taste, and the benefits vary depending on what is being phtographed, where.

One downside for monolights -- you have to walk over to each light to adjust the power.

One advantage for monolights. If one breaks, your other one still works.

It's very easy to get confused about power. If you use three 400ws monolights you get more power than one 1000 ws power pack, but it doesn't matter if you turn down one of the monolights to half power.

I like power packs because I can put the power pack beside me, and manipulate the power levels in the different heads, and manipulate the intensity of the modeling lights, while standing beside the camera.

I once counted cords; with power packs, there's one power cord, plus one cord from each head, and one sync cord from the power pack. So a three head set-up has fiver cords, but you only need one wall socket.

With monolights, you need three power cords, which means either three outlets, or a power bar, plus the sync cord, which needs to come fgrom a monologight head, meaning it's probably stretched farther. All in all, it doesn't matter much.

Right now, I'm pondering buying another head for a power pack -- $650 -- or another monolight, for $800. It might end up as a coin flip, or the monlight might win, because I can carry one monolight and one umbrella and one light stand in a little less space than one power pack and one head and one connecting cable.

Here's a hint; figure out what you want in the whole system in another year (after buying more stuff) and add up the total price for your ideal power pack and monolight systems, and buy the less expensive.

BAK

BAK