Broncolor Flash Pack Bonanza

[bmikiten]

Nice. I sent an inquiry

[Daniel Unkefer]

Continuing On.

Broncolor Pulso Lampbases by Nokton48, on Flickr

Broncolor Primo Lampbases by Nokton48, on Flickr

To complete a flash head, you need the lampbase, the flash tube, modeling light bulb, and with Pulso/Primo, a glass flashtube cover. These are fan cooled Primo heads, so they need the glass cover. Yesterday a Primo 1600 w/s Lampbase in great condition arrived here from Fedex. A Primo flash tube is also on the way, and the modeling light is 250W 120V so not too expensive and very plentiful. I stocked up so mucho on hand.

I do need 3200 w/s heads to mate with the new packs. I'm all set with 1500 w/s heads. And modifiers got enough for now. New Octabox 150 will be cool. The Profoto Broncolor Speed Rings are vastly superior to the Broncolor ones. One will go on the new Octobox. Gorgeous light; wraps more around the subject than some. And I can use 1500 w/s heads in a 3000 w/s pack; Primo has three channels and Pulso has four.

https://broncolor.swiss/products/oct...9?variant=3423

[Bernice Loui]

Octo shaped soft boxes were introduced by Plume Wafer back in the 1990's. Idea was to stop the rectangular eye catch light so common with a rectangular softee box and deliver better wrap-around than a rectangular sofee box. They DO make a difference and IMO an improvement over the then very common rectangular softee box.
https://www.plumelimited.com

Back in the 1990's when Adolf Gasser had a Manufacture demo show, they had a Plume Wafer Hex oval demo model for sale. Made the purchase at a bargain price. It 's been used often for portraits as it produces such a nice wrap around light with some degree of contrast control and nice feathering of the light source. Since that time, Hex shaped softee boxes have become extremely popular as they produce a very nice light for portrait work.

The current fad in portrait light modifiers are inverted focusable light source parabolic in a round/hex shape. These can produce a variety of light from hard_ish to Soft_ish, directional and easy to feather. Think this trend began with Briese and the cinema folks. Eventually Briese produced still photo high power strobe versions with their specialized strobe/flash head for their parabolic light modifier.
https://www.brieselichttechnik.de/pr...ht?language=en


Not to be left out, Broncolor makes an excellent parabolic light: Para series:
https://broncolor.swiss/products/par...?variant=95440


Popularity produces perforation of ... Godox version:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/searc...QaAlk_EALw_wcB

It was not long ago when high power ring strobe/flash lighting was popular for fashion, then it essentially died out.


Lighting styles come and go, yet the fundamentals of lighting has never changed or deviated,

Bernice

New Octabox 150 will be cool. The Profoto Broncolor Speed Rings are vastly superior to the Broncolor ones. One will go on the new Octobox. Gorgeous light; wraps more around the subject than some. And I can use 1500 w/s heads in a 3000 w/s pack; Primo has three channels and Pulso has four.

https://broncolor.swiss/products/oct...9?variant=3423

[Daniel Unkefer]

New Octobox 150 Test by Nokton48, on Flickr

The Broncolor Octobox 150 arrived yesterday and I put it together and moved stuff in my studio around to accommodate. I love it! It lights -everything- I can shoot full length fashion or portraiture with beautiful Octo light. They make accessories for this and I'll prolly get most of them. The Broncolor C200 Moonlight puts it out now! F16 with full power 1600 Watt/Seconds at EI 12. Recycles super quick. Big Moonlights generally put out more light than pack systems, the energy doesn't have to go through cables, that decreases your total power output. Broncolor stated in the day that the C200 puts out as much power as some 2400 watt/second packs, and Broncolor reflectors are also super efficient. So Happy-Happy. POP POP POP. Octobox 45 left, 2ftx4ft Foamcore just off camera 45 right. So classic lighting

[Two23]

So exactly where can I buy these bargains? I need 5,000 to 10,000ws for wet plate.



Kent in SD

[Daniel Unkefer]

So exactly where can I buy these bargains? I need 5,000 to 10,000ws for wet plate.



Kent in SD

I bought four Broncolor packs cheaply from our local used camera store. Some parts recently purchased have come from Ebay. Can't really point you to anything specific.

[Bernice Loui]

Beautiful light wrap around.. Note the nice catchlights on the glass vase..


Bernice

New Octobox 150 Test by Nokton48, on Flickr

The Broncolor Octobox 150 arrived yesterday and I put it together and moved stuff in my studio around to accommodate. I love it! It lights -everything- I can shoot full length fashion or portraiture with beautiful Octo light. They make accessories for this and I'll prolly get most of them. The Broncolor C200 Moonlight puts it out now! F16 with full power 1600 Watt/Seconds at EI 12. Recycles super quick. Big Moonlights generally put out more light than pack systems, the energy doesn't have to go through cables, that decreases your total power output. Broncolor stated in the day that the C200 puts out as much power as some 2400 watt/second packs, and Broncolor reflectors are also super efficient. So Happy-Happy. POP POP POP. Octobox 45 left, 2ftx4ft Foamcore just off camera 45 right. So classic lighting

[Bernice Loui]

They appear in various places from foto gear dealers to eBay and more.. There were LOTs of these high power strobe units sold/used back in the day.
The prime problem, do they still work, what is required to make them proper again. Shop and be ready to make the purchase when it's time. There has been some increase in high power strobe systems in recent times due to... wet plate popularity and such.

At the nee 9,600 watt/seconds is the quad tube Speedotron 105 head.. Takes two 4800 watt/second or four 2400 watt second Speedotron power packs to make it go. These were originally designed/intented for indoor sporting events, thus the short flash duration for the rated power output.
https://speedotron.com/shop/light-15/

Speedotron as a brand is essentially USA industrial, they are durable, reliable and most easy to obtain for high power strobe systems. They continue to have Good service support which is an important feature.

Elinchrom made a X8 then later X8000 twin tube head, 8,000 watt seconds with two 4000 watt/second power packs. Not so common in the USA market, possible to find in EU and related. .


Elinchrom also made a X6000 twin tube, 6000 watt/second head after the X8/X8000 was discontinued.

Last is the Elinchrom X4000 twin tube, 4800 watt/second head.
https://www.adorama.com/el20181.html...ce=adl-gbase-p

Broncolor made a number of 6400watt/second heads going back to their 606 power pack system, like this:
https://movingpicture.com/product/br...be-flash-head/

Profoto also made a 9600watt/second twin tube head, also used two 4800 watt/second power packs to run. It has been reported Profoto does not have the light output as Speedotron/Elinchrom/Broncolor.. This is could be due to their recessed flash tube design.

All this watt/second stuff is not a lot more than just numbers, what counts is where light meets subject ala the flash meter readings over the subject area..

Then add light modifiers which is of absolute importance to any lighting system.


Bernice

So exactly where can I buy these bargains? I need 5,000 to 10,000ws for wet plate.

Kent in SD

[Bernice Loui]

Sinar info# 21, Moto car foto.. or back in them days when applying 40,000 watt/seconds to make a 8x10 color transparency AD foto was common..
How times, images, folks making images have changed...










Bernice

[Daniel Unkefer]

New Primo 1600 WS Head Smoked Tube EXC by Nokton48, on Flickr

Sometimes you can accumulate this big strobe stuff by buying it in pieces and put it together. The Primo 1600 WS Head by itself in great condition was $65, I bought the somewhat smoked but still good Primo 1600 WS Flashtube on Ebay from Israel. It was expensive but I wanted it. The Modeling Light I have in my studio lighting supply box, it's just a 120V 250W Bulb. This new head works great in all aspects. Some Pros like the Primos over Pulso, that they are some what easier to aim. I do like how they fit Manfrotto Light Stands I have around, not fond of the Broncolor Pulso (long post). I can see why Pros like the Primo Flash Packs too, they are 1/3 the weight of the Pulsos. As long as you don't need asymmetrical firing, you are Golden with Primo.