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portable lighting kits

johnnygoesdigital

New member
I'm interested in purchasing a battery powered portable lighting kit. I need strobes for "off the grid photography" and was curious what other people were using. This would have to be carried in a back pack, so light weight is a must.

Thanks
 

mvirtue

New member
A Elinchrom Quadra springs to mind for small and portable. I personally use Elinchrom Ranger RXs, larger (heavier) and beefier.
 

SergeiR

New member
Not to me smart arse, but there is whole section on this forum 'bout lighting, actually. It does talk about whole lot of gear, including Quadras and so on ;)
 

fotografz

Well-known member
What does "off the grid photography" actually mean? I grasp that it means far away from any AC outlet, and I assume you want it for Medium Format work, but what is the subject matter? ... because, in the case of lighting, the subject matters ;)

The smallest sized step-up from speedlights to a true back-packable strobe kit is the 400 w/s Elinchrom Quadra. However, depending on the subject matter, it may be either over-kill or to wimpy.

-Marc
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
I have 2 Quadra packs and heads and wanting to get a third. I love them but you need to take care of them as the heads are delicate. But it is the smallest big bang for the money. I have two complete setups in a Think Tank Retrospect 30 shoulder bag
 

Ben Rubinstein

Active member
I have 2 Quadra packs and heads and wanting to get a third. I love them but you need to take care of them as the heads are delicate. But it is the smallest big bang for the money. I have two complete setups in a Think Tank Retrospect 30 shoulder bag
Given that I know how big that bag is, impressive!

I'm looking forward to the much awaited Alien Bee mini vagabond myself, supposed to be released this month.
 

johnnygoesdigital

New member
My "off the grid" photography means simply that. I'm doing environmental portraits and back country adventures. Hensel seems to have a good product in their porty 1200, using the smaller lights and weather resistance.
 

fotografz

Well-known member
My "off the grid" photography means simply that. I'm doing environmental portraits and back country adventures. Hensel seems to have a good product in their porty 1200, using the smaller lights and weather resistance.
Yes, I understood the off the grid part, but not in context of what you planned on shooting off-grid. I have quite a bit of Hensel gear, including a Mini 1200 pack and mini heads ... but no Porty 1200 lithium pack ... yet.

That said, I'd still question the over-all size of the Hensel kit for back-packing ... but you'd be better at judging how much you can carrying and for how far than I would.

Most certainly, 1200 w/s is better when fighting the sun than 400 w/s ... although I haven't yet run out of light with 400 w/s doing environmental portraits ... but it is easily conceivable depending on distances and area being lit.

It you go the Hensel Porty 1200 lithium route, come back and report on it please. I for one am very interested :thumbup:

-Marc
 

Roderick Chen

New member
I have a Profoto B2r kit and a friend of mine uses a couple of Acute Bs.

For compactness and weight the Acute Bs are preferable and from the specs the flash duration is quite similar.

He wishes the batteries would last a little longer though, but the batteries are light enough to carry spares compared to the B2 or 7bs.

One issue with both of these packs is, to activate them the button is pressed once but to turn them off you have to keep the button pressed for a couple of seconds. It is a pain to find out you have arrived at your location just to find out the on button was accidentally pushed while being packed.

Cheers,

Roderick


I'm interested in purchasing a battery powered portable lighting kit. I need strobes for "off the grid photography" and was curious what other people were using. This would have to be carried in a back pack, so light weight is a must.

Thanks
 

johnnygoesdigital

New member
The subjects for "off the grid", might be something like, medium to close range high action sports or portraits, and also some macro with possibly a ring flash. The lithium would be heavy to "pack in", but the porty with a EH pro mini 1200p just might do the trick. I should mention that I'll need some way to diffuse and throw the light in a more controlled manner too. Weather resistance is very important.
 

johnnygoesdigital

New member
Roderick,

Thanks for the info, excellent points. It seems one should press and hold the button for several seconds to activate the battery and not the other way around.
 

fotografz

Well-known member
I'd definitely go for the Hensel Porty 1200 Lithium for those applications.

Flash duration from 1/1750 to 1/5100 using the EH Pro Mini 1200-P SPEED flash head.

Hensel makes a 1200 P-XS Porty Carbon-fiber ring flash, and there is an interesting softbox for use with the ringflash.

Best of luck.

-Marc
 

johnnygoesdigital

New member
Marc,

I agree the lithium has more juice and used with the EH pro mini 1200-P should yield the results I'm looking for. Although, a little bigger in size, it's worth the extra power...at least the lights are small. Now to figure a way to bring in the beauty dish, perhaps I can wear it as a funky hat!
 
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