Taking the plunge

So I'm ready to take the plunge into some better lighting with a Godox 600BM with TTL and trigger. I was going to add another AC powered head unit and my original thought was just a cheap chinese unit for in studio use but now considering getting another Godox 600 unit.
Other then portability is there any advantage with going with a second Godox head.

Douglas Conway wrote in post #18524540
So I'm ready to take the plunge into some better lighting with a Godox 600BM with TTL and trigger. I was going to add another AC powered head unit and my original thought was just a cheap chinese unit for in studio use but now considering getting another Godox 600 unit.
Other then portability is there any advantage with going with a second Godox head.

Excellent. Post some photos!

Other than portability you have two big advantages: shared/streamlined triggering system; consistent modifiers that can be used with either head. And also your second unit becomes a backup to the first in the event you run into issues.

TBH I see no advantage to an AC only monolight in 2017. I'm considering picking up a 1200ws Godox AC monolight some day but so far the xPLOR600 lasts 2-3 shoots on a single charge and I haven't even had a need for the AC adapter. Cost per watt second and recessed bulb are the only gotchas.

jlafferty wrote in post #18524613
TBH I see no advantage to an AC only monolight in 2017. I'm considering picking up a 1200ws Godox AC monolight some day but so far the xPLOR600 lasts 2-3 shoots on a single charge and I haven't even had a need for the AC adapter. Cost per watt second and recessed bulb are the only gotchas.

Ive got AC strobes. In studio w/AC, On location I plug in a couple Buff VLX battery/inverters. But then my shoots have plenty of time to plan, setup, shoot and pack up. An extra power cable and separate battery are not a big deal for me. I’ve plugged in 3 strobes per VLX w/no issues.

Those proprietary strobe batteries can get expensive. They do have plenty of juice to shoot all day though. It is a convenience.

Some of my Eli strobes are 20 years old. I’d hate to look for a new battery for a 20 year old unit... particularly if it won’t fire without a working battery in the housing.

There are two distinct advantages to ac powered strobes. Faster recycling and brighter modelling lamps.

I was specific in my wording to say "AC only". If you're buying new, the xPLOR offers an AC option for a little extra. So if that's what you want to work with in studio, it's there, but there's no sense IMO in restricting yourself to AC, or buying AC plus a large, clumsy battery.

It's great that you have 20 year old stuff still working, and I can only hope to say the same of my lights in 20 years... but frankly I think there are so many massive changes on the horizon for lighting tech, I have my doubts even about working with li-ion battery lights in 2037.

Angmo wrote in post #18524628
Ive got AC strobes. In studio w/AC, On location I plug in a couple Buff VLX battery/inverters. But then my shoots have plenty of time to plan, setup, shoot and pack up. An extra power cable and separate battery are not a big deal for me. I’ve plugged in 3 strobes per VLX w/no issues.

Those proprietary strobe batteries can get expensive. They do have plenty of juice to shoot all day though. It is a convenience.

Some of my Eli strobes are 20 years old. I’d hate to look for a new battery for a 20 year old unit... particularly if it won’t fire without a working battery in the housing.

And with some discipline and experience I honestly don't think either presents a significant advantage. Convenient, sure, but not worth the tradeoffs.

I get instant recycling at ISO 200-400 on the Xplor, f/8-f/11 (1/4 power and below). You can make the case, academically, that a base ISO image is cleaner, but I've never known a client to know or care about the difference, especially once it goes to print or low res web (which is 100% of my work at this point).

If I needed ISO 64-100 and instant recycle times I'd still go to the twin Xplor over an AC light all day

TBH the only advantage I can think of, for AC lights... maybe two: color stability and lower cost per watt second.

Strobo wrote in post #18524671
There are two distinct advantages to ac powered strobes. Faster recycling and brighter modelling lamps.

jlafferty wrote in post #18524968
I was specific in my wording to say "AC only". If you're buying new, the xPLOR offers an AC option for a little extra. So if that's what you want to work with in studio, it's there, but there's no sense IMO in restricting yourself to AC, or buying AC plus a large, clumsy battery.

It's great that you have 20 year old stuff still working, and I can only hope to say the same of my lights in 20 years... but frankly I think there are so many massive changes on the horizon for lighting tech, I have my doubts even about working with li-ion battery lights in 2037.

But... but, but, my batteries are not
large nor clumsy. They clip right to the light stand nice-n-tidy. The lithium’s are rated to 10 years too. Not sure what in strobe batteries are rated to.

No point buying new photon generators if if it’s unnecessary. Just like HS, works on all my old and new strobes. Just using the new Elinchrom HS trigger. No need to buy a new fangled strobe just get get HS.

Now I can do up to 1/8000 2.0 just because of a new trigger for the Elinchrom Strobes.

I save money. I like. Lots!

The massive disadvantage to all the battery powered lights are the pathetic modeling lamps. They either are too dim in an attempt to be nice to the battery or they're barely bright enough and in turn slaughter your run time if you leave them on. Until the battery powered strobes give you 6+ hours with a modeling lamp that puts out the equivalent of 250W of halogen plus delivering the equivalent of at least 500 full power pops, there's definitely a use argument in favor of having plug-in lights in the studio and battery powered lights for places without easy access to grid power.

williaty wrote in post #18525083
The massive disadvantage to all the battery powered lights are the pathetic modeling lamps. They either are too dim in an attempt to be nice to the battery or they're barely bright enough and in turn slaughter your run time if you leave them on. Until the battery powered strobes give you 6+ hours with a modeling lamp that puts out the equivalent of 250W of halogen plus delivering the equivalent of at least 500 full power pops, there's definitely a use argument in favor of having plug-in lights in the studio and battery powered lights for places without easy access to grid power.

Yep. Whenever I head out with Battery inverters, I make sure I don't use modeling lights. Some newer strobes are coming out with LED type modeling lights. But outdoors during the day, there's not much benefit of using modeling lights.

I'm not going to argue with you guys on what you need to get a job done. If you've got a system that works and has been a great ROI, more power to you.

My experiences and needs are different. I hardly use modeling lights and the current battery powered strobes go 2-3 gigs on a charge (Xplor, 360IIs, and recently the AD200s). So what are being touted as "massive" advantages don't even register for me.

If I was buying into a system for regular ecomm work, where the shot count hits 100+ per day, or large scale event work with multiple shooters hitting the same strobes, AC monolights or a pack & head system would be my first choice... but for everything else, monolights with the addition of an external battery & inverter are more costly, heavier, take more time to setup, etc.

I've been lugging a lot of stuff around, and over time, less and less. Glad to have the days of the pack and head systems behind me for most of my work.

williaty wrote in post #18525083
The massive disadvantage to all the battery powered lights are the pathetic modeling lamps. They either are too dim in an attempt to be nice to the battery or they're barely bright enough and in turn slaughter your run time if you leave them on. Until the battery powered strobes give you 6+ hours with a modeling lamp that puts out the equivalent of 250W of halogen plus delivering the equivalent of at least 500 full power pops, there's definitely a use argument in favor of having plug-in lights in the studio and battery powered lights for places without easy access to grid power.

Angmo wrote in post #18525097
Yep. Whenever I head out with Battery inverters, I make sure I don't use modeling lights. Some newer strobes are coming out with LED type modeling lights. But outdoors during the day, there's not much benefit of using modeling lights.

jlafferty wrote in post #18524972
the only advantage I can think of, for AC lights... maybe two: color stability

Does colour stability really depend on how a strobe is powered ? I'm not sure about that. The B1/B2 or Move for example are pretty excellent in that regard.

Not necessarily. On the other hand… if you look at the actual lights available today and color precision is your highest priority, what are your choices? It was a generalization, but most are packs/heads or monolights.

MayaTlab wrote in post #18525226
Does colour stability really depend on how a strobe is powered ? I'm not sure about that. The B1/B2 or Move for example are pretty excellent in that regard.

Today I think that it's actually more likely to be reversed. A lot of studio strobes still use traditional voltage controlled capacitors to reduce output, and these will lower temperature by around 75-100k per stop. The Profoto D1 is like that for example.

A lot of battery operated strobes now use IGBT circuits or other tricks and if not all of them are constant in terms of colour, at least they have the potential to be. A Godox AD200 with the fresnel head is better in terms of colour consistency throughout the power range than Elinchrom's RX line for example.