Alienbees VS 580ex & 430ex

[superfreak]

I have a 580ex and a 430ex that I use for my external flash units. I have a wireless transmitter as well and use this to fire the units.

I have seen some pictures of people using the Alienbees and the pictures always look whiter...brighter...i'm not sure if this is the strobe or the editing process.

My question is...if I was to buy Alienbees...would it be any different than my setup right now...besides it being heavier and bigger to drag around. I know the watts is different in the alienbees but will this make a big difference than my current setup?

Maybe I'm just not looking into it deep enough.

Thanks.

[tim]

ABs will give you power power, which means narrower apertures or lower ISOs, but other than that the look should be the same if you use them in the same way. If you're using them a lot then strobes are probably better as they're way less likely to burn out.

[ekie]

also, if you plan on using alienbees for on-location shooting .. you would need to get some type of portable battery to plug it in to. which means extra weight to carry on.

it never hurts to have more power but it depends on your needs and what you shoot.

[Longwatcher]

reaons why shots with AB's (or most any studio strobe) probably look better then 580ex.
1. The photographer has more experience before getting the ABs.
2. The Photographer has more experience in Photoshop
3. The Photographer shoots raw and corrects WB post shoot when needed
4. With AB's you typically get umbrellas, softboxes, brollys, grids, filters, and many many more accesories then the typical camera flash has available

However, except for the higher power of the studio strobes (which allows you to use bigger better accessories, you should pretty much be able to do anything with your flashes that you can do with the studio strobe, they just need to be closer. It just takes a bit more skill with on-camera flashes then with studio flashes to get similar results.

So unless you need the power and accessories, stick with what you have (way more portable that way).

Lastly, I suspect the color difference is just a case of adjusting for WB.

Just my opinion and experience,

[ekie]

^^^ forgot to mention the different varities of accessories you can get with an alienbee or similar type of strobes

but yea, unless you find your speedlites limiting, then id just use that for now and get more experience with it.

[sparcd]

I have two 430ex's for portability. AB's would be used to give much much more light when it's needed.