Powerpacks for speedotron quick question

[c2thew]

Speedotron 405 Black Line Power Supply

I keep seeing kits that come bundled with "power packs" which to my understanding was just a place where all the cords plugged into. So a powerpack could regulate 3 strobes at one time but only in huge increments: 50 100 and 200. I don't quite follow the reasoning of the light system if it only allows 3 different light outputs. Would you then have to adjust the positioning of your flashes every time you switched the output level?

Or are these actual power supply packs for location shots such as the vagabond system?

Information gets cluttered on the web. thanks for reading.

[c2thew]

bump

[kenyee]

LOL...no it's not a vagabond. And yes, you have to go retro and move lights around to tweak output levels :-)

[Jim M]

Power packs convert the line voltage (the wall socket) to the very high voltage of short duration that lights up the flash tube. Most of the electronics are contained in the pack rather than in the head, and that includes the capacitors that store the electricity until the huge jolt is set free to light up the flash tube. The sync cable or radio trigger plugs into the pack rather than the heads. The plugs on the heads are not just standard electrical plugs like you would plug into the wall. They are multi-pin connectors that allow various power feeds to go to the heads. Speedotrons allow a certain amount of variation in the light emitted by each head, but if you want finer variations, you have to move something - light or subject. Other pack and head units have infinitely variable overall output, but distribution to the heads in exposure index steps. Pros have shot with pack and head units for many years and I use pack and head units. Maybe not as handy as monolights, but the heads are lighter.

[kenyee]

Forgot to mention speedotron cables (the ones between the head and pack) are *heavy* (over 1/2" diameter) to be able to pass 2400WS of energy. An alien bee is roughly the same weight as a speedotron head w/o this cable to put things in perspective...that's why alien bees are almost perfect location lights...

[c2thew]

thanks for the responses. @jim thanks for the detailed response

yeah it confirmed my thoughts that power pack system is kind of old fashioned compared to the monolight system. Then again, power pack kits are probably 20% cheaper than monolight kits.

Will stick with monolights. thanks guys

[kenyee]

Power packs aren't that much cheaper if you consider that you really need two packs to have a backup. With monolights, each light is a backup. After a certain power point (600-700ws), it's better to do a pack/head system...

[Jim M]

I use cheap old Novatron pack and head units because I need a reasonable amount of light and they are quite inexpensive on the used market. I normally use 1600Ws and 1000Ws packs. I wouldn't mind using monolights, especially when I'd like to separate the lights farther than the cable will allow. I know extension cables are available and I have a number of packs I could use independently, but I never seem to have either handy when I need them. With monolights, all you need is a simple extension cord. On the other hand, you need more radio triggers if you are among other flashes going off, like I am most of the time. I've rented 4800Ws Comet pack and head stuff, too, when I really needed the power. Man, were those ever nice.