# Bowens Monolights



## Josh66 (Jan 18, 2013)

So, I'm shopping for some lights ... these seem to be the best bang for the buck to me...

Specifically, I'm looking at the Gemini 750 Pro - three of them.

Taking into account the cost and availability of modifiers, they seem to be the best choice for me.  Is that accurate, or am I overlooking something.

I'm looking to get three lights, various modifiers/reflectors, light stands, and enough battery packs to power them outdoors.  Total budget for all of that, $6000.  I could go higher if I had to, but I'd like to stay close to that figure.

Profoto was looking attractive, till I saw the cost of the battery packs...  Ouch.


I have some time before I'll be buying anything, so I'm open to other ideas.

Intended use will be indoor and outdoor portraiture.


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## tirediron (Jan 18, 2013)

Have you looked into Elinchrom?


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## Josh66 (Jan 18, 2013)

I did, but the cost of battery packs pushed me towards Bowens.  Elinchrom was actually my first choice, after profoto...


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## Josh66 (Jan 18, 2013)

Bowens just seems to have a slightly less expensive transition from indoors to outdoors to me...


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## tirediron (Jan 18, 2013)

How about innovatronix battery packs?  I've got a couple of them, and they're great.  Reasonably priced with user-replaceable batteries.


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## Josh66 (Jan 18, 2013)

Do they play nice with the profoto lights, and - do I really 'need' profoto?  I'm willing to spend a little more if it means I got the right thing the first time...


I'd rather buy the right light the first time...


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## Tee (Jan 18, 2013)

I use a Vagabond Mini battery pack with my Elinchrom's.  Works like a champ.


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## Sw1tchFX (Jan 19, 2013)

I've used Bowens in the field, they're cheap and the battery packs blow. The connectors have a tendency to wear out so the swappable cells will lose connection with the controller. Also, if you need to rent a modifier for it, you'll have to buy speedrings. 


Buy a Profoto D1 500 kit and Paul Buff vagabonds if you really need a battery pack. Just about all Rental houses stock Profoto and/or Broncolor, they can provide speedrings, and if you rent say..an 8A pack, your Air syncs will work with everything. 



If you're using strobes for work _often_, as in once or twice a week or more, It just doesn't make business sense to use anything buy Profoto or Bron, especially when you can rent extra parts/modifiers/packs/heads so cheaply and easily. Profoto is basically the new Speedotron.


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## Derrel (Jan 19, 2013)

Wow...wayyyy overpriced. $899 for a 750 Watt-second monolight. THREE lights for $2,700. Then money for battery packs??? Man...nine hundred dollars for only 750 Watt-seconds...just does not compute to me. Not sure why you're interested in those. I am not sure what youi mean by ,"best bang for the buck." The way I see it, it will cost $1,800 in order to get only 1,500 Watt-seconds of flash power.

That means TWo monolights rigged to fire in tandem, at substantial weight, and needing TWO heads, not just ONE...not much "bang"...but a lotta bucks...

A cheap Speedo 2,400 watt-sdecond pack can run SIX heads...and any one of which can be set to handle up to 2,400 Watt-sdconds thru one head. I mean $350 packs, and $200 heads...

With the Bowens monos you're limited to only 750 W-s at full power, thru one, nine hundred dollar flash PLUS battery for location...

I do not see the bang-for-buck proposition here at all.


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## Sw1tchFX (Jan 19, 2013)

Speedo's are awesome for when you need alot of juice on the cheap, but have little fine-tuning control, and have really sloppy output if you're trying to freeze motion or shooting cameras with high sync speeds. 2405CX packs IIRC only have a max flash duration of something like 1/800th of a second. Oh yeah, and don't hot-swap them or you're toast!



Think of it, they were designed when commercial shooters were still shooting on chromes....which Speedo's look really freaking awesome on..


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## Josh66 (Jan 19, 2013)

Profoto it is then.

I'm not going to order anything right away - I need to get all of the money together first, haha.


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## Josh66 (Jan 19, 2013)

Derrel said:


> I do not see the bang-for-buck proposition here at all.



Obviously I was mistaken, lol.  Thanks for all the information.


When I saw that the Profoto battery packs were like $4000, I started looking at other lights - when I should have just been looking at other battery packs...  haha


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## Derrel (Jan 19, 2013)

I have not had a hard copy of it in a while, but the Calumet Photographic printed catalog had a good deal of information on many different studio flash systems. Flash duration might be one of the more-overrated specifications. FIne-tuning might also be one of the more-overrated specifications, since moving a lightstand back or forward an inch can give you that "one-tenth f/stop control" some manufacturers love to gush about. Look at DynaLite for an example of something that offers small,light,powerful lights without raping you on the price.


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## Mike_E (Jan 19, 2013)

Derrel said:


> I have not had a hard copy of it in a while, but the Calumet Photographic printed catalog had a good deal of information on many different studio flash systems. Flash duration might be one of the more-overrated specifications. FIne-tuning might also be one of the more-overrated specifications, since moving a lightstand back or forward an inch can give you that "one-tenth f/stop control" some manufacturers love to gush about. Look at DynaLite for an example of something that offers small,light,powerful lights without raping you on the price.



So Derrel, is that why you should always have a leg of the stand pointing the same direction as the flashtube?  So that you can measure how far to move it, that is?


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## Josh66 (Jan 19, 2013)

So, this is what I'm looking at now:
Profoto D1 Air 1000W/s Monolight 901025 B&H Photo Video

(I wish I could change the thread title to something more generic, lol.)

I want something that I won't 'grow out of' any time soon, and something that will last for a while.  I'd rather pay more now if it means not having to replace it later.

(If a mod happens upon this thread, changing the name to 'Monolight questions' or something would be totally OK with me...)


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## Sw1tchFX (Jan 19, 2013)

D1 1000's are nice lights, but big power often mean mid-to-high f/stops and slow durations. The D1 500 is bright enough for most uses (unless you have to shoot large groups alot), and they power down enough to shoot wide open. Than if you get a job where you have to fill a room with light, you can rent a couple acute 2400 packs or w/e and just use your own modifiers.

D1 250's are for home-studio and freezing action, you're shooting between f/1.4 and 5.6

D1 500's are for most general studio and location use, you're shooting between f/2.8 and f/11

D1 1000's are more for location use or bigger studio, where you're shooting between f/5.6 and f/22

assuming ISO 100-ish of course..

If you're a student, you might get mac group discounts too. they're generally pretty nice.


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