I own four B800's and love them. But for the space you're working in
you probably don't even need the amount of power put out by a B400.
B400's produce 160 watt/seconds, B800's do 320 watt/seconds and B1600's
do 640 watt/seconds. For purposes of comparison a T-32 produces 100
watt/seconds. If you have a T-32 or two or some other form of portable
flash you might want to try just bouncing them in the room or firing
through some sort of diffuser panel. Since a two T-32's or a T-45 will
give you a bit more power than a B400 it could give you an idea of how
much light you need.
Not that I'm trying to discourage you from buying a Bee or two. I think
they're great. I especially like their monolight nature (no fiddly
power packs and cables) and their infinitely variable 5-stop power
range. (they do, however, get a little flakey at very low power settings)
The first thing to do with a Bee is go to a home store and get a 150
watt quartz bulb to replace the 100 watt modeling light. Unfortunately,
that's as high as you can go so the modeling light is really not usable
except in a darkened room.
If you need a light stand. I just bought 2 Savage 13' heavy duty stands
from J and K Group in Plano. I'm quite happy with the stands as they're
heavier duty than what I had despite costing quite a bit less than a
similar stand from Alien Bees, have a very wide stance for stability and
are air cushioned. I bought over ebay at $42.99 each but I'm sure they
will be happy to deal with you by phone or on their website at:
<http://www.jandkgroup.com/> Recommended. There's also a 10% rebate on
Savage brand stands and accessories until 12/31.
Any other questions about Bees ask away. After owning these I can't
imagine putting up with lights that need a power pack. Even though each
head has its own power supply the heads are very little heavier than
most other heads that don't.
Chuck Norcutt
NSURIT@xxxxxxx wrote:
> I'm thinking of buying an Alien Bees strobe to be used with a soft box for
> some relatively small product type shots and an occasional human shot. The
> space in which I will most often be working is small (10 X 12) and was
> thinking
> of their smaller unit B400 or the medium B800 unit. Does any one have any
> experience with these units/this general set up and then the most important
> part, any opinions.
>
> Specifically, I will be using it to photograph stuff I am selling on ebay
> and what others will be selling either on consignment with me or on their
> own.
> Some stuff will be tented however others could be done quite nicely with
> just a soft box.
>
> I also am developing a class for those who want to capture more memorable
> images of their children and grandchildren and I was thinking it could be
> used
> to simulate (sort of) how the nature and quality of light changes during the
> day. My students will be Mom and Pop or Grandparents, who own a camera and
> don't have a clue about how to get good images with it. That is an infinite
> market (IMHO).
>
> Bill Barber
>
>
> ==============================================
> List usage info: http://www.zuikoholic.com
> List nannies: olympusadmin@xxxxxxxxxx
> ==============================================
>
==============================================
List usage info: http://www.zuikoholic.com
List nannies: olympusadmin@xxxxxxxxxx
==============================================
|