Anyone use Alien Bees?

[musicman5]

If so what are your thoughts on construction, light quality and ease of use?

[Steve (FloppyDog)]

Bob uses Alien Bees, hopefully he'll chime in. I've been thinking about getting one with a big softbox for some studio work.

[john101477]

I know 2 people in my area that use them not including Bob and they say they will not shoot with anything else now. I believe Bob feels about the same way.

[OrcaBob]

I wouldn't refuse to try other brands, but I'm very happy with the AlienBees. Even my sister, who's got Normans (upper-crust equipment), is interested in trying them on one of her paid shoots.

ABs are manufactured by Paul Buff, Inc., which also makes the highly regarded White Lightning line. Paul Buff gear is known for providing a lot of bang for the buck. Paul Buff staff are warm and friendly and provide outstanding customer service. When I ordered, the sales rep actually talked me out of buying a more expensive piece of equipment (a light stand) because a less expensive unit would be more appropriate for me. That shows not only honesty, but total confidence in their own products. They know it'll create repeat customers.

Some of the real hotshots on Model Mayhem claim that AlienBees monolights give unreliable color temperatures at low settings, but I've never noticed such a phenomenon.

AlienBees lights have a simple but useful control panel. They employ a slider for brightness, so you can tweak the lights however you want.

The modeling lights are off-the-shelf household lightbulbs, rather than far more expensive proprietary modeling bulbs. This is a huge selling point for me.

They have an outstanding recharge rate. The recharge rate varies according to intensity (the lower the power, the faster the light is ready for the next flash). At mid to lower power on my AB800s, they can recycle faster than I can possibly shoot.

They're tough little units, too. I've had several fall from high up and they just keep on going. I've heard complaints that the plastic housing can break where the mounting flange is, but I've never had that happen... and Paul Buff will replace or repair the unit for either no charge or a very minimal charge.

You can also order the units in various colors (usually cool fluorescent colors), which can come in handy when you want to quickly identify what power each unit is. My AB800 units are schoolbus yellow and my AB400 (fill) is black.

The monolights can work either wired together or can slave wirelessly (the slave capability is built-in). The only catch is that you need to have the camera either wired or radio-slaved to one of the monolights. But it greatly reduces the hazard of extra cables around the set.

You can also get portable battery power, called a "Zeus" unit. I wish I had one or two.

The monolights have a very slick quick-mount for light-modifiers. The only complaint I have about Paul Buff gear is that their light modifiers use a proprietary mount. To my knowledge, you can't go out and buy some other brand of softbox or beauty dish and slap them on an AB. But Paul Buff modifiers are good gear, so it's a minor complaint.

IMO, for all but the big-time pro photographers, I'd consider AlienBees to be an easy choice. Considering the economy of design, the toughness, the reliability and the quality, all delivered by a personable company that's so easy to deal with, it's really a "perfect storm" of a product line.

[musicman5]

Thanks Bob, that is the sort of information I was looking for! I had been mulling over several options but I believe now I am saving for Alien Bees. Of course the refinishing job that will provide me with the cash for this purchase presents me with the choice get light or glass. Right now I think light will win but who knows!

[OrcaBob]

Good glass is always a good investment, but at some point you also need to get a decent set of monolights if you want to advance in portrait work.

When you do get lights, don't skimp on the light modifiers and the stands. For three monolights, I think I got a happy medium:

• 1 tall heavy-duty stand
  
• 2 medium stands
  
• 1 short (1ft) stand (used for backlighting and lighting backdrops)
  
• 36" umbrella (translucent but comes with removable black cover for transmission or reflection lighting)
  
• 24"x36" softbox (my favorite!)
  
• gel holder and gels (warming and multi-color sets)
  
• 4 grid spots (10,20,30,40 degrees)
  
• snoot (I use this the least; a 10-degree grid does a better job in a smaller studio)
  
• wired control box so I can adjust up to four lights from my position (I don't use this as much as I used to; too much wiring to trip on. However, you can connect each light to the box with up to 100ft of standard phone cord, so for a widespread outdoor set this could be a huge time-saver.)
  

I've also been using a fourth strobe, a tennis-ball-sized battery-powered slave.

A few things I'd love to add to the collection:

• A fourth light, possibly an AB1600.
  
• A boom for the heavy stand. (There are times I'd like to put a main directly over the model.)
  
• A second gel holder.
  
• The Zeus portable battery power for field shoots.
  

[OrcaBob]

I haven't checked Buff's AlienBees website lately, but I understand that they have a new line of advanced AlienBees lights out now. Last time I looked, they seemed pretty intriguing.

[OrcaBob]

CORRECTION: The AlienBees portable power system is called Vagabond.

I'm sure you could use their Zeus power unit.

[musicman5]

I was considering getting the 2 B800 Digibee kit, the B400 Background Bee kit and the 4 honeycomb grids. For starters, anyway.

To be mobile I'd then like to get the Vagabond power system.

Then a beauty dish.

My studio (when it's ever ready) will be small, so I won't have a lot of room to cram too many lights into it. I can see that someday a 1600 would be very nice for large band shots though.

[musicman5]

I ended up getting a B400 and B800 plus a Vagabond II. I got one medium stand (I also got a HD Impact brand stand from B&H), the lightstand bag, 2 travel bags for the lights and 1 48" white/silver umbrella.

I see on their website now that they are backordered on the Vagabonds. I'm sure glad I got mine as I used it this weekend.

My next Alien Bee purchase (after getting another B800) will be a 64" PLM and/or the 35" Foldable Medium Octabox. Not sure which would be of the most use to me. (Maybe by the time I'm ready to add on they will be selling Beauty Dishes again.) This is a long range goal, so I have plenty of time to consider it!

So far I am very pleased with my AB gear. I really like the light they produce, everything is very well made and seems very sturdy. The documentation while simple is very helpful. I am very glad I made this decision and highly recommend Alien Bee's to anyone looking into lighting.

[OrcaBob]

PLM? Whazzat?

[john101477]

here Bob. it is pretty cool been looking at it myself. would be pretty cool to have
www.alienbees.com/plm.html

[OrcaBob]

Yikes! That's some pricey stuff! Looks like a cool modifier, but I'm not crazy about buying all those components separately.

[john101477]

hahaha yeah for a full system 64in it would be $120 lol. pretty crazy for an umbrella setup but 1 or 2 would be pretty neat to have.

[musicman5]

I found an article that explains the PLM's and shows how they can be used. Pretty interesting for those who do large group shots.

www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=7-10046-10396