Action Sports Cartel

SB 28s are not always cutting it, i need more juice. I used some alien bees this weekend, the 800s and i was impressed. Someone told me the 400 was better for sports as it had a shorter duration and faster recycle.

I know erik seo had a write up on the old website but never got to read up on it. Is it on here somewhere?

Also, is there any color shift on these when you dial down? I know some strobes go more blue when you dial down.

Any info you can give me on this that relates to shooting action/adventure sports would be great.

Hey Matt,

I have a DVD by a high end shooter who says he moved from Alienbees to Profoto because of a colour shift, not because when you dial down but when you use it for longer periods of time. He said the Profoto kits never change.

The issue there is $400 - $1500!

Considering the kind of work most of use do on this site I would go cheaper, take more custom WB settings with your camera and deal with any issues in post processing. I would rather a snowboarder loose an edge, take out my strobe and I am out $400 over $1500!

In fact thats the reason my studio strobes are cheap ebay units that I picked up for about $150US delivered.

I am not sure about recycle times and flash durations but if you email Alienbees or post on their forum I am sure you will find the info you need. My guess is you are better to use AB800 units at 1/2 power than using a AB400 at full power and have the option of more power with the AB800.

Let us know what you do and what info you find.

Take Care

Kelly

www.alienbees.com/flash.html has all the flash durations. Click on each unit and it lists the flash durations. Your after the t.1 duration not the t.5.
The 400 is good at all power levels for action. The 800 is good at full power but not much below that. The 1600 is barely usable even at full power (1/600).
Alien bees are different to most strobes in that the fastest flash duration is achieved at full power. The more you dial them down the slower they become.
Erik Seo's review is in the archives on his blog. I read it there a few months back.

I picked up 2 alien bee 400's about 2 years ago and built my own battery packs for them. I would definitely recommend them if you're shooting something relatively small. So for skate there's absolutely no problem getting enough power out of them, if you wanted to light up a park kicker for snowboarding it would be another story.

you'll definitely want the sports reflectors though, they're the bigger ones that cast a narrower beam and give you more power.

This lighting tutorial that I wrote I'm using 2 ab 400's, in the 4th photo you can see how far back they were positioned: ascartel.com/lighting/lighting-tutorials...d-right-into-the-sun

oh ok cool. I think i will go with the 400s. I did read tim kemples article on building a vagabond, which i will be doing for sure. I build my own battery packs for my sb's anyway.

AB no longer has the sports reflector on their website from what i saw, i guess i will have to scope ebay. from what i remember the sports reflector was 11''.

oh, brian- I always loved that shot.

Hey Matthew, unless I'm mistaken and someone please correct me if I am, the 11" sports reflector looks like it's simply been replaced by their new 11" Long Throw Reflector (www.alienbees.com/11ltr.html). It looks like the beam spread is narrower than the original sport reflector as well. I'm actually about a week away from ordering a B800 with one of these new reflector's, so I can let you know in a couple weeks after some shooting my opinion of it if you'd like? I know Seo just got a couple of these I think, as well as their new 8.5" High Output reflector, haven't heard how he likes/dislikes them though.

fresh off of Twitter after asking Erik how he likes the new Long Throw Reflector..

"@chipkalback : get it. you get about another stop over the old 50 degree."

Stoked to pick one up here soon!

I think I love the ab 400, seriously the power for the buck is sooo good. I think I'm going to get a 2nd one.

Do you guys think the new 11"reflector covers the same angle as the old 50 degree one?

Edit, nevermind I just read on the site its narrower. Do you think that might be too narrow for skating then? I'm really down with the original 11r...