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Need advice on AD180 / Cheetah barebulb system

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Jacques Cornell said:
Some more specs and food for thought.

Battery pack:

The Witstro's battery delivers 450 pops at 360w, whereas the Xenergizer delivers 650 pops at 400w or 450 pops at 600w.

Weight:

The Witstro AD-360 weighs 27oz and its battery pack weighs 18oz. for a combined weight of 2.8lbs. The Xenergizer pack + battery weighs 6.7lbs. Couldn't find the weight of the Xenergizer head, but after you remove the grip handle it's likely well under a pound. So, the total kit weight of the Witstro is a bit under half that of the Xenergizer. The suspended weight of the Xenergizer head is a bit under half that of the Witstro. There's one other thing to factor in, though. When using a softbox or beauty dish, the need for a speedlight/softbox bracket with the Witstro increases the size & weight of the Witstro kit and the suspended weight of the head assembly by almost a pound. With the Xenergizer, lightweight mods can be attached directly to the head.

Setup:

Attaching mods directly to the head is simpler than putting a speedlight on a bracket and attaching mods to that. Depending of the nature of one's work, this may or may not be of consequence. When I have to start at 5am or rocket through an impromptu VIP portrait session in 10 minutes, simplicity of setup counts for a lot.
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and the other factor is durability of the plastic mount. We usually use a 36" octobox for location shooting. In the wind, my concern is that the plastic rips on the flash head mount. Have you seen one in person? Is it a good quality plastic?
 
jackzuckerphotography said:
Jacques Cornell said:
Some more specs and food for thought.

Battery pack:

The Witstro's battery delivers 450 pops at 360w, whereas the Xenergizer delivers 650 pops at 400w or 450 pops at 600w.

Weight:

The Witstro AD-360 weighs 27oz and its battery pack weighs 18oz. for a combined weight of 2.8lbs. The Xenergizer pack + battery weighs 6.7lbs. Couldn't find the weight of the Xenergizer head, but after you remove the grip handle it's likely well under a pound. So, the total kit weight of the Witstro is a bit under half that of the Xenergizer. The suspended weight of the Xenergizer head is a bit under half that of the Witstro. There's one other thing to factor in, though. When using a softbox or beauty dish, the need for a speedlight/softbox bracket with the Witstro increases the size & weight of the Witstro kit and the suspended weight of the head assembly by almost a pound. With the Xenergizer, lightweight mods can be attached directly to the head.

Setup:

Attaching mods directly to the head is simpler than putting a speedlight on a bracket and attaching mods to that. Depending of the nature of one's work, this may or may not be of consequence. When I have to start at 5am or rocket through an impromptu VIP portrait session in 10 minutes, simplicity of setup counts for a lot.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
jackzuckerphotography said:
and the other factor is durability of the plastic mount. We usually use a 36" octobox for location shooting. In the wind, my concern is that the plastic rips on the flash head mount. Have you seen one in person? Is it a good quality plastic?
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I don't yet own these, but will just as soon as I have time to sell my Lumedynes. I already own a pair of Godox V850s, and I'm impressed by the build quality. It may well be that the Xenergizer head won't support large mods. For that matter, neither will a Lumedyne head. My solution has always been to mount the speedring, not the head, on the stand. Works great. Only downside is you can't quickly rotate the softbox from vertical to horizontal. Alternatively, I could use one of these. I already own a pair made by Nice Photo for my V850s, and they're pretty sturdy.



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jacquescornell.com
 
assuming it's a copy of the Elinchrom ranger system, the elinchrom 600ws battery pack weighs 4.6kg. Much too heavy for my tastes...
 
I emailed them 4 days ago and still have not heard back. This does not bode well for servicing.
 
jackzuckerphotography said:
I thought the battery/power pack on the Xenergizer weighed 8lbs total?
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Godox' specs are "net weight" 3.9kg, but they don't say if that's for the pack + battery or for the whole kit. Lencarta is selling in the UK a product based on the Xenergizer, and they state 3.08kg for the pack + battery, which is about 7lbs.
 
jackzuckerphotography said:
I emailed them 4 days ago and still have not heard back. This does not bode well for servicing.
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I'm hoping a US distributor or retailer like Cheetah, B&H or Adorama will start distributing Godox' Xenergizer and monolight products here in the US as Lencarta does in the UK. FWIW, Lencarta's products are based on Godox' but include upgrades. Adorama has started carrying the Witstro, rebadged as "StreakLight". Cheetah sells & supports the Witstro ("Cheetah Light") and V850/860 lines in the US. Fingers crossed.
 
Jacques Cornell said:
Jacques Cornell said:
It may well be that the Xenergizer head won't support large mods. For that matter, neither will a Lumedyne head. My solution has always been to mount the speedring, not the head, on the stand. Works great. Only downside is you can't quickly rotate the softbox from vertical to horizontal.
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Click to expand...
The Lumedyne Deluxe metal head will support large mods, but the regular heads are far easier to use by just fitting them to the supported modifier as you do. Theres barely any weight with the Lumedyne heads so you can fit them almost anywhere.

I think the point of this thread was that having a consistent modifier mount is key, with various head options. All of Quantum, Lumedyne, Norman, Sunpak and Godox will match.
 
Jacques Cornell said:
I'm hoping a US distributor or retailer like Cheetah, B&H or Adorama will start distributing Godox' Xenergizer and monolight products here in the US as Lencarta does in the UK. FWIW, Lencarta's products are based on Godox' but include upgrades. Adorama has started carrying the Witstro, rebadged as "StreakLight". Cheetah sells & supports the Witstro ("Cheetah Light") and V850/860 lines in the US. Fingers crossed.
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I emailed cowboystudio who is one of the importers and asked them about warranty and they replied warranty is through godox and I emailed them back and asked for specifics of the warranty period and coverage and they never replied again.

I emailed godox directly and asked them about warranty and about the weight of the zenergizer battery weight and they never replied.

Who does the service/support for streaklights or interfit godox stuff? Are you dealing with the manufacturer in china or HK who can't be bothered to reply to an email? In some ways, it's not much different than elinchrom who I spent weeks trying to get hold of when my 3 BXRI heads blew up but at least there was a USA support number and autoresponder...

Usually, the manufacturer is very chatty up 'til you actually purchase and have a problem. In this case, they don't even answer pre-sales questions. Not good.

I think i'm going to forgo the portability and just buy an AB800 to save some weight.
 
Talked to edward at cheetahstands. If I order I will probably go with the 360 and order it from cheetah. If you order from amazon you will likely have no warranty. Cowboystudio not-so-artfully avoided answering my question in 2 emails about warranty. Apparently, if you buy it for less than a certain amount it will not be warrantied. If you buy from cheetah they have quick turnaround (24 hr) and warranty it for a year.

I'm guessing that B&H and Adorama have a similar deal with service but they do not carry the 360 yet.
 
jackzuckerphotography said:
Talked to edward at cheetahstands. If I order I will probably go with the 360 and order it from cheetah. If you order from amazon you will likely have no warranty. Cowboystudio not-so-artfully avoided answering my question in 2 emails about warranty. Apparently, if you buy it for less than a certain amount it will not be warrantied. If you buy from cheetah they have quick turnaround (24 hr) and warranty it for a year.

I'm guessing that B&H and Adorama have a similar deal with service but they do not carry the 360 yet.
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Replying to your last email first, I know when I had a bad Strobies trigger, I dealt with Interfit here in Georgia, sent it in they send back a replacement. I suspect they'll handle warranty work here -- same with Adorama and its Streaklight. Realistically, I'm not sure how differently these units would be manufacutred for each rebadged light and the real difference you're paying for is the warranty/response.

Edward's been chatting with my buddy GW Burns about using some gear, I get the impression Edward is responsive just -- on occasion -- overwhelmed. I also get the impression he's in it for the long haul, which is agood thing.

The 360 should be plenty of power inside most softboxes -- epsecially for you Canon guys if the HSS is as good as advertised.

Have you figured out an answer to your softbox mount issue? Short of some soft of custom adapter for the speedlight brackets that use the Bowens mount, softboxes that have you put the flash inside and rear fire (similar to the Westcott Apollo Orb, which was redesigned for fiberglass ribs) make a lot of sense, since you can grid them (I forget if Cheetahstand carries one or not).

Though I'm liking the light I've seen on the collapsible 33-inch dish that I've seen. A friend of mine bought one rather than opt for the more expensive Chimeras and uses it with his White Lightnings. (That actually prompted GW to give it a try). The only drawback is you can't grid the light from it (it's a rebranded Phottix product so hopefully they'll come up with something).

If all goes well, I may finally get to do some real-world test work with my 180 today. Probably using a 24-inch dish some and inside of an Orb (since it's fairly easy to break down and put up).
 
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