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For christmas i decided to treat myself, and i bought an AlienBees 1600W/s studio strobe and a massive 60"x30" softbox. I have also rigged up a 26Ah 12volt battery and a 300W pure sine wave inverter which will allow something like 600+ full power flashes before it needs to be charged.



hopefully i can put it to some good use!

So wonderful!
Was mum impressed? hehe!

Is a softbox collapse-able?

have fun with it, I think you will love it for your model shoots by the waters edge (but remember the hot side of the invert will give you a good kick, treat it safely as you would mains power...).

I now have more time on my hands to get out and shoot, and am looking forward to getting my location kit out as well, enjoy.

Matty,

Very nice.

I'd probably wander down to a marine supply store and get some sort of a battery housing, so that you can protect but at the same time make this easier to handle and more professional looking.

Thanks everyone,

Adam, it folds down and is easily transportable.

Gary, Im heading down to bunnings now, and am going to store it all in a tool box, for easy and safe transportation. Stay tuned for more pics

Terrific setup Matty. Plenty of fun and learning ahead I guess. Enjoy it!
cheers
marco

Nice setup... Love the size of the softbox..

Oz you speaking form experience . I'm a lecky by day(oh and night) so I have felt that feeling a few to many times...

A marine style plastic battery box would be good to store it in.MATT

Hey Matt

Just wondering if you could tell us a little about your experience with purchasing your Alien Bee (power conversion, shipping etc) as I'm thinking about purchasing a whole setup from them some time soon. I'm also looking at a local option (http://www.photopro-electronics.com.au/index.html) from Waverley but AB's offer a lot more in terms of lighting flexibility.

Also, would you be interested in producing a few of your battery units?!!

Liam

Matty!!! Nice mate. Will the soft box capture the breeze fairly easily though?

Also, tell me, of all the things you can take a photo of, you take a photo of your cats tail! Come ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Look forward to some Becky shots!

adam wrote:Was mum impressed? hehe!

Forget mum, was the cat impressed?

I say no!


Matty, you will NEED to buy some shotbags to keep this sucker stable out on the beach mate..

Kyle wrote:Matty, you will NEED to buy some shotbags to keep this sucker stable out on the beach mate..

just tying the battery to it should do the trick... why carry more weight than you have too

just take some shopping bags........ the sand is already at the beach.......

Mmm, that does look like a useful light... And you can always add a bigger battery.

I wonder why you'd need a pure sine wave inverter, though. I'm sure a strobe would be just as happy with a stepped approximation or even square wave one...

.. don't think i'll need a bigger battery, unless i plan on shooting in the outback for like 2 days!

im not a electronics expert, but i know that you need to use a sine wave inverter. The others don't work for some reason.....

probably just fussy lights

beetleboy: There was no problems at all purchasing from AlienBees. They were really helpfull with the whole thing. I purchased it on sunday night 16th December, and it had arrived on my door on Sunday the 23rd. This is very good considering they have to make the 220V lights to order.

Make sure you get them to convert the lights to 220V tho. Also you need to keep in mind that you pay a 10% international surcharge on the order.

I don't really want to be making these units and sending them out to people, but i can guide you through what i did to make them. It is really not that hard. All of the parts are readily available from jaycar too.

Excellent Matty! Cheers for the info. If I end up going down the AB route I may PM you RE the battery setup