What Chuck Does

AlienBees Initial Product Review

So while I was in Taiwan, I ordered some new toys/tools that have been waiting for me last night when I arrived back in LA. They are as follows:

• AlienBees AB800
• 10-foot General Purpose Lightstand
• 22” Beauty Dish
• Vagabond II Portable Power

AlienBees AB800
Upon opening the AB800, I was impressed. Tiny unit, fan-cooled, lightweight. Well designed I thought, at least compared to the flash units that I used at “Hippo Studio”. Here are my notes:

• Slave trigger fires when no remote trigger attached - awesome!
• 3.5mm headphone jack for remote trigger - acceptable but I thought it’d be the 1/4” jack.
• Modeling lamp bulb came broken (probably damaged in transit). Has multiple functions, dims/brightens with power adjustment and lights with recycling. Downside is the bulb needs to be narrow because standard bulbs will block the flash ring.
• Fan operates continuously keeping the unit cool.
• Flash ring seems small. I don’t know if other units are larger in diameter. I suppose it doesn’t matter much but that standard light bulbs (for modeling) will slightly block the flash ring.
• Good speedring, 4 prongs, good resistance, clamps the light modifier tightly.

AlienBees 10-foot General Purpose Lightstand
Ugh, there’s really nothing I like about this stand other than perhaps its weight. However because it’s holding an expensive and sometimes heavy (depending on what’s attached) flash, I’d expect the stand to be more heavy-duty. Actually I take it back, there’s really nothing I like about the stand because when extended (and not even all the way up), it starts to wobble. It’s just flimsy and it shouldn’t be. It’s going back to AlienBees.

AlienBees 22” Beauty Dish
Now THAT’S a beauty dish! Having constructed one myself, I am pleased to say that this is a nice dish. At $120 it’s one of the cheapest beauty dishes on the market. At 22” it’s a good sized dish (there are some smaller dishes that cost more). Here are my notes:

• They fabricated for less than $20, it looks no different than a good DIY dish belied by the white spray paint residue on the edges of the dish
• Good size but I’d expect it to be less deep and more shallow.
• The reflector is positioned quite high but only time and use will tell if it’s placed correctly.
• Heavy. What do you expect it’s made of metal. It’s actually kind of difficult to place on the flash. You have to do this very carefully so as not to damage the flash ring.
• Great size. Good price.

Vagabond II Portable Power
I’ve always always always wanted a portable power supply. Especially with all the gadgets I carry around. Being able to “plug-in” is invaluable. At 18.6 pounds it’s actually not as heavy as I thought it’d be. My camera bag with all the equipment inside easily outweighs the portable power unit. From the construction/design, I’m pretty sure it’s not designed by Paul Buff or AlienBees but instead is a standard battery created by a generic company and just branded by AlienBees. Nonetheless the construction is quite good and heavy-duty as you’d expect of a large battery.

• 18.6 pounds isn’t as heavy as I thought
• GFIC grounded means it shouldn’t shock the shit out me in the event of a faulty circuit
• Comes in it’s own bag
• At $300 it’s only “market priced” because there are units from Walmart/Home Depot that basically do the same thing for less. The difference is that these units are specced for the flash units and have high wattage and can handle the recycle times required of the lights.
• You can plug in other stuff! Like fans, computers, cell phones, radios…
• It’s tiny. Really it’s small…
• There are 2 settings/modes. Fast and slow. Fast allows more power output and faster recycle times. Slow allows power consumption at the cost of recycle times.

These are all initial reviews and will need a follow-up after some time of use to truly determine the quality of the products. Wish me luck with them!