Erik Seo Photography Blog

So there’s been a lot of questions about Alien Bees on wheelsandwax.com – a forum I post on a bit so I thought after using them successfully for 3 years I’d post a review on them.

Keep in mind this review is targeted specifically towards action sports photographers. In my case, primarily ski and snowboard photography.

So here’s my take on these things, I’ve had quite the learning experience with them as they were my first big strobe.

I found out the hard way that the durations get longer as you power them down, contrary to speedlights and a lot of the strobe systems out on the market. I have the 1600’s and they are usable depending on the situation for action.

Keep in mind all this, the effectiveness of your strobe’s duration to stop the action is based on a lot of things, how close you are to your subject (wider the lens and closer you are, typically the object is moving across the frame, very very fast compared to a longer shot.  So depending on that you might need a faster duration in order to stop the action.

Anyways, here we go.

Build Quality:
Built fairly inexpensively and are not designed to be out in the elements, especially in a snow environment.   Of course I’ve found that can be remedied by a clear plastic bag to keep the elements out.   The body of the strobe unit is very durable plastic and after some pretty heavy use has always held up.  The back panel is where I’ve had a durability issue though.  The plugs have broken after being tugged on a bit in some extreme cold conditions after they became brittle.  As far as the internals, I have had to send mine in for repair 5 times in the 3 years I’ve owned these units.  Weather or not they were caused by moisture, or exposure to the elements I’m not sure.  That being said, their repair people are first class and are willing to work with you and help you out if things are urgent.  The repairs have always done very quickly and delivered exactly when promised.

Cables/Accessories:
The cables are targeted to be easily replaceable and cheap. Power cable are a standard computer power supply cable. If you need to replace it, chances are you can find one in any town you are in. Same goes with the sync cable, it’s a standard 1/4″ miniphone (headphone) mono cable. Can find it at any Radio Shack or electronics store. I think even at Wal Mart. Reflectors are cheap, period. They do their job and are cheap to get.   Definitely get the sports reflector. It basically doubles the power in the effective area the light is sent to. Using a soft box is easy, just use the Alien Bee speed rings on any soft box, I’ve used a Chimera, Photoflex and something else (can’t remember the brand) on it with no problems. The attachment system for the reflectors, soft boxes are simple and easy to use.

Flash Durations:
Always look for flash durations using the t.1 method. The t.5 method which only measures the duration at ONLY 50% discharge. What does this mean? It means that there is still 50% of the light to still come out of your strobe head. This also means that you need to basically multiply the duration times 1.8x in order to see what the usable duration is beceause, the head is still putting another 50% of it’s light. The method that is useful to us action photographers and that matters is the t.1, that measures 90% of the output.

Taken from the Alien Bees website:
http://www.alienbees.com/flash.html

Model     Full Power   1/32 power (minimum)
B1600:     1/600          1/300
B800:       1/1100        1/550
B400:       1/2000        1/1000

I Wish that information was available to me when I first got my 1600’s as all they had was the t.5 method on their site and I did not know the difference between that and the t.1 method.

Also: Contrary to any other strobe on the market (aside from the White Lightning’s) the flash durations GO UP when powered down.

I have successfully used the 1600’s at full power in many situations, of course before I knew what the actual durations were. Sometimes it worked out, sometimes it didn’t but until I found out that the durations went up when I powered down, i blew a lot of shots getting motion blur.

Portable Power Pack:
This is an interesting thing, as it’s one of the only systems where you could actually build your own power pack. You can with any monolight that plugs into a regular wall outlet however these are the only ones on the market that are small enough to even consider putting in a backpack and using them at the locations we tend to go to.

The Vagabond and Vagabond II systems are simply put a sealed lead-acid 12v battery and an true sine wave inverter in a modified beer cooler. The difference between the 2 models is the Vagabond II provides a faster recycle time and more pops of the strobe. They are simple and they work and another nice thing about them, is it’s a portable power system for anything you own that plugs into a wall outlet when your power goes out!

The Vagabond weighs approxamately 20lbs. The Vagabond II is a bit lighter at 18.6 lbs.

One nice thing about the simple power pack is you can save a few bucks and build your own. The important thing for someone building this type of system is that a true sine wave inverter is used. A typical inverter you can buy at most electronics stores and superstores like Wal-Mart are a modified sine wave. These types of inverters will flat out not work for powering the Alien Bees and could possibly damage them. DON’T USE A CHEAP INVERTER!

I personally have one Vagabond and also one that I put together myself so i don’t have to run extension cords (did that for a year and a half) and so I have only one head per battery. I’ll have more about making your own power pack for these later.

Usability in the outdoors:
There is an internal fan in the Alien Bee strobe units. Because of this there are vents on the housing of the Alien Bee heads. Water, snow, etc can get into these. If you shoot in bad weather, this could be an issue. I’m not sure if it’s contributed to my problems with them breaking or not. I haven’t had a specific situation where the head was getting wet and they stopped working. I have tried to keep them somewhat sheltered from the elements by covering them with plastic, leaving the bottom open to allow for ventilation. If you shoot in dry conditions all the time, this should not be an issue.

Light Quality:
The light quality of these are good but not great. It’s not a Profoto or an Elinchrom, the light isn’t as great as those systems, but it’s still good and I continue to use them as a major portion of my lighting kit. The major concern is that the color temperature varies depending on the power settings. It’s not a huge variance, but it’s still a concern and noticeable.

Bottom Line:
They are the best bang for your buck, especially for those working on location where a battery powered system is important. The flash durations in the Alien Bees 1600’s can make it a bit more difficult to work with for action but for most situations, are still usable. They are a good, cheap way to get more usable power as your first big strobe system moving from speedlites. If you are shooting action, I would get a 400 and an 800 and build your own power packs for each so you don’t have to run extension cords for power.  Of course if money isn’t as huge of a deal then a Vagabond unit for each head is of course an option.  If not, one Vagabond unit and a really long standard extension cord works just fine and is what I worked with for my first 3 years working with the Alien Bees system.  I am finally upgrading to an Elincrhom Ranger system, but am keeping my AB’s as a 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th head.