Studio Stobe power packs?

[alexanderGARDNER]

Moving on from this thread:
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?p=7708718#post7708718

What battery unit (educate me on what the terminology is where you see fit) would be representative of good value to power a set of D-Lite 2 or 4s? I was looking at the AB set up as well but I haven't been able to go past their Vagabond II unit for value.

[Rudi]

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=665845

[alexanderGARDNER]

Thanks Rudi. There seems to be some conflict regarding them in the thread. After all that have your views changed?

[Rudi]

Well... no! But let me explain - I have decided to bite the bullet and buy an Elinchrom Ranger because I shoot on location a lot, and needed the ultimate in flexibility, something purpose-built for the job. I think the Tronix Eplorer is a great solution if you're only going to use one light per pack, or accept some limitations that will only become apparent when you connect more than one head to the pack. So in my case I would have had to buy two Tronix packs, costing around $1300 AUD at the time (dollar was at its lowest). I decided to put that money towards a Ranger pack instead.

So, in short - I do think that the Tronix pack is a good solution, but it does have its limitations.

[TMR Design]

Hi Al,

If location work was going to be your thing then I'm with Rudi 100% and the Ranger would be worth saving for but if you're not primarily shooting on location or don't have that kind of budget at all then the Tronix is an excellent solution, with limitations (as Rudi mentioned). The Elinchrom multi-voltage strobes present problems when exceeding 400ws. A pair of D-Lite 2's will work and shouldn't give you any problem but a pair of D-Lite 4's or a D-Lite 4 and a 2 can and will give you problems.

The pair of DL-2's can be run on full power without glitching. A DL-4 can run on full power by itself. A DL-4 can run at full power with a second DL-4 or a DL-2 and lower power levels or with both strobes at levels below full power. Some testing would have to be done to know what those particular levels are how far you can push them.

The same would be true of Elinchrom 400BX's and the newer 250 and 500 BXRi's.

[alexanderGARDNER]

Ahhh, that's where it falls over. Gotcha.

A little more research is in order. Thank you very much for sharing the knowledge Rudi & Rob.