Ever Heard of Venca Brand Strobes?

I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with Venca brand strobes. I borrow them from a retired pro photog and can't find any info on them anywhere. The pack is 1200w/s dividable into three proprietary outputs (the cables remind me of Socapex stage lighting cables). I can never quite figure out how to properly control the power levels; it seems dependent on the position of the modeling light switches, among other things.
Here's a photo. Again, I don't really have any question, just wondering if anyone's heard of/used them before.

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Never heard of the brand but the plugs look like pretty standard Speedotron/Norman type. Curious, any idea where they were made?

Saw on the web that they were bought out by Norman in the early 90's.

Venca is an old brand similier in age to Speedotron or Normans. Lots of school shooters used them, they werre very rugged and had gobs of power with little or no control. I think Foodguy is correct, they were bought out and closed down. Those do look like Speedotron cables tho.

The tag on the pack says

VENCA
A division of Supra Color Equipment Co., Inc.
Minneapolis, MN, USA

Looks like a symmetrical pack? -1200 ws divided by the number of heads plugged in.
Presumably the sliders are for dimming the modeling lights, but the 400-25 markings don't make sense to me in that context.

Have you used it? All working as it should?

It works fine, just really, really, really bright. Really. I feel like I have gotten the sliders to control the actual flash output (also the modeling lights), but it seems to depend whether the modeling light switches are flipped a certain way (3-way). There are modeling light switches for each head, and a universal one. Each time I've used it I just plug them in and move the lights until I get the power I need. There are only two heads, so I have an 800w/s and a 400w/s head. They have big 40"x60" soft boxes, and the owner said he has some even bigger strip boxes stored somewhere that he used to shoot a Porsche ad

Interesting...so it's not symmetrical since you can get 800/400 with 2 heads. I wouldn't be at all surprised if a Norman head would fire...or even a Speedo. Plugs for both are the same with the exception that one of the pins in the plug that controls modeling lamps is reversed between the 2 brands. I have a few Norman heads that i fire with my speedos but the pin wiring has been corrected.

Yours looks like a pretty cool set-up. Lots of talk on these pages about small strobes, imo these bigger studio strobes are infinitely more versatile.

As an aside, I shared a studio with an old time food photographer in the early 80's. His pride and joy for strobes (he typically shot hot lights) was a 60's vintage Ascor Sun Gun. THe power pack was a cube roughly 30"'30"'x30" on it's own 4 wheeled cart, weighed a ton and put out a whopping 400 watt seconds.

The actual plug may be identical to the one used by Norman and/or Speedotron (the blackline), and possibly other flash manufactures.

But do NOT make the assumption that just because the plugs are the same, the way the wires are connected are compatible, or the supplied Voltages are similar.

Norman and Speedotron (Blackline) both use the same plug, but they are NOT wired exactly the same.

I seem to recall there was once a company that specialized in rewiring Norman heads to work with Speedotron gear.

Here is an ebay dealer that has Norman packs that have been modified to use Speedotron Blackline heads (no longer Norman head compatible).

http://www.ebay.com …ain_0&hash=item​2a27c17a85

The Speedotron Brownline plug has fewer pins and the flash tube works at a lower Voltage.

Enjoy! Lon

Yes, these definitely get a sweet look, especially with the big soft boxes. The owner never uses these, so they are in my possession until I can justify a set of Einsteins. One of the perks of living in a small town

That would be interesting if a more common head would work with these. I'm always worried that a bulb will die and render the whole rig useless; I doubt I could find a replacement bulb. It sounds like it may be based on a more standard design than I thought. I'll have to look into that.

Here's a shot taken with these

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FlashZebra wrote in post #15464033
The actual plug may be identical to the one used by Norman and/or Speedotron (the blackline), and possibly other flash manufactures.

But do NOT make the assumption that just because the plugs are the same, the way the wire are connected are comparable or the supplied Voltages are similar.

Norman and Speedotron (Blackline) both use the same plug, but they are NOT wired the same.

I seen to recall there was once a company that specialized in rewiring Norman heads to work with Speedotron gear.

Enjoy! Lon

I definitely won't be plugging any different brands to these. I don't want to be responsible for blowing up someone else's gear!

YES and I OWN a 2433 pack and a few heads.

Speedo compatible, absolutely.

OK... YOUR model is pretty much 3 channel/400ws per channel pack that can be bled down to about 25ws per channel. You CAN combine channels for one 800ws channel and a 400ws channel (fully trimable, each channel) or just ONE 1200ws HIT.

And still be able to bleed down the 1200ws combined, to 850ws.

I think the system was/ is brilliant and was very far ahead of it's time. I got my 2433 for nada and it DID need some repair. My tech LOVED working on it, stating it was "the MOST commonsensical pack he has ever worked on and built with the understanding; that a repair guy MAY have to work on it sometime."

The guy who started these was an ex-Balcar engineer in France. First packs were made in France. Got onto the Speedo "compatability" because of the simplicity as well as... You can abuse a Speedo all you like and it will more than likely hurt YOU before you can hurt it.

First packs/ heads were made in France (your heads look a bit early and took a DynaLite/ Comet accessory mount? Does it have the screw-in/ tightening knob? Other heads were Photogenic compatable). Distribution centered in NJ then to Minneapolis/ St. Paul area for US manufacturing/ distribution.

Norman OR Photogenic bought (think Norman when they moved to MN area), but who cares? They are BOTH the same company now (Bartlet IL and now also OWN Speedotron) and have done NOTHING with the Venca brand much less Godard (another brilliant and short lived pack system).

Once you figure out the little quirks, it's a phenomenal system and very flexible. When wound up to full power on a channel, a bit slow. I can get over that for the flexibility it offers.

I use my 2433 on 98% of my shoots these days. I KID YOU NOT. I'm negotiating on BUYING another pack system. Entirely reliable and the adjustments are absolutely stable. ProFoto and Bowens/ Calumet don't what these can and... They are TOUGH packs.

If you want to sell, I'm in a buying mood for.

Speedotron was founded in the 20's... Norman in the 40's. Photogenic was 1890's... But not making flash then.

The lineage of Speedotron is quite old and being one of the FIRST commercial products available for; strobe.

I think I have finally figured out the correct way to have the switches flipped to give me power control over both the modeling lights and flash intensity. I do normally use them as an 800/400 split since only two of the heads are working.
As for the "screw in/tightening knob", are you referring to the speed ring? It has three notches that slide in and rotate, and one is a knob on top that locks it down. The heads and pack both say "Made in USA"

These are not mine, I am borrowing them from a retired photographer. I believe he wants to hang onto them for sentimental value, but I will tell him that you are interested in buying.

Thank you for the information, there is certainly a lot there that I did not know about this system. I do enjoy the quality of the light it produces, and it does seem like a tough system. I would probably have ended up with a couple of Einstein or Alien Bees mono blocks if I had not been able to borrow this Venca system.

Nice to see these old workhorses being put to good use.