Broncolor Flash Pack Bonanza

[Mal Paso]

Getting full yet? LOL With the optical spot I'm up to 15 flash heads and 20KWS. The optical spot isn't marked as the 2,000 but has the 2400WS flashtube.

[Daniel Unkefer]

Getting full yet? LOL

Yes! But I have bought boku small and large plastic boxes and reorganizing (labeling) everything in the studio so it's all right at hand. A big job!

SONY DSC by Nokton48, on Flickr

This arrived yesterday from Germany. Another Broncolor Universal Fresnel 1600J Spotlight. Now I have three of these, works great with my Primo and Pulso Flash Packs. Also bought an extra flash tube for this (it's a special one), and they kindly threw in extra modeling bulbs. Good price and useful to me. POP POP POP.

I'm done for now!

[Mal Paso]

I'm done for now!

Famous last words!

I have most of my strobes in 6, 16 inch tall Rubbermaid HD Totes and one of the short totes. They are the only totes worth buying! One pack with cables, 2 heads, reflectors, etc in each tote except for the single 4KWS head and power pack. I made an inventory so I know what I have and which tote an item is in.

[dxp]

I like the Visatec 1600B I have, perfect for my uses. I bought another one recently (as a backup) for $90, turns out it is like brand new, fully tricked out. So he had three more of them, so I grabbed those as well. A quick friendly call to Kevin at KHB confirms how to bring these babies out of coma. Set to lowest power setting, let it soak for a bit. Five pops or so at lowest power, then gradually increasing power, popping at 1/4, 1/2, and finally full power. It'll either work or go bang. These are brand new units and revived nicely. $899 each originally in the Broncolor catalog. With reflectors, power cords, flash tubes, modeling lights it's a great deal IMO. The modeling light by itself is $65 online so I'm pleased. Kevin agrees

That's a nice pickup! I see the 1600B come up for sale from time to time here, but not that cheap, and not in such good condition.

I recently picked up a trio of Minipuls C200 monos in superb condition, apart from one unit with a rattling fan that the seller overlooked. So he gave me a little discount which dropped the price to below 150€ a head—pretty good I think considering the power they put out. I just wish they had the beep when power is recycled.

I've actually had a nice little run of late picking up some different bits and pieces to add to my setup. I still haven't got around to replacing that loose rivet in the P65 reflector I bought earlier this year, but I got a good deal on a 4-door barndoors attachment to suit it. Then last week I took delivery of a min-condition P45 narrow-angle reflector, which has the same diameter and so can share the same attachments, and then finally also grabbed a set of grids a couple of days ago, to fit them both.

Also grabbed the Pulso-mount snoot, which I've been looking for for a little while, and a mat-finish protection dome that suits the Pulso G and Unilites—that'll be useful with my Pulso-flooter modifier. And I've also ended up with multiple copies of the Pulso soft light reflector (aka Bron's silver beauty dish) in order to obtain the matching grid and diffusor accessories, and lastly have just collected the "official" beauty dish (i.e. white interior) since I want to compare that to the silver one that I'm keeping.

So I have quite a few reflectors and modifiers to play around with now—it's good fun—and a few things I need to offload as well!

[dxp]

Famous last words!

I have most of my strobes in 6, 16 inch tall Rubbermaid HD Totes and one of the short totes. They are the only totes worth buying! One pack with cables, 2 heads, reflectors, etc in each tote except for the single 4KWS head and power pack. I made an inventory so I know what I have and which tote an item is in.

Here in Germany I'm trying to build a storage system for my little home studio based around the Tanos Systainer containers. They're quite expensive compared to most tubs or competing lines from other manufacturers but have some handy features that make them appealing to me. And being able to stack them several units high and roll them around on matching carts is great also.

[Mal Paso]

Here in Germany I'm trying to build a storage system for my little home studio based around the Tanos Systainer containers. They're quite expensive compared to most tubs or competing lines from other manufacturers but have some handy features that make them appealing to me. And being able to stack them several units high and roll them around on matching carts is great also.

The Tanos Systainer system is much nicer but Rubbermaid stacks too just not as well. I need a couple clients with deep pockets like the old days. In the old days there were plywood/metal boxes that were heavier than the equipment. I built a chest 40x18x18 inches from solvent welded white ABS sheet that would hold 6 heads with the reflectors nested in the middle and slots for the barn doors and gels on each end. That was all the light stuff, I packed the power packs separately. It was beautiful but the fire got it and I don't have the inclination to build another. So it's Rubbermaid tubs for now.

[dxp]

The Tanos Systainer system is much nicer but Rubbermaid stacks too just not as well. I need a couple clients with deep pockets like the old days. In the old days there were plywood/metal boxes that were heavier than the equipment. I built a chest 40x18x18 inches from solvent welded white ABS sheet that would hold 6 heads with the reflectors nested in the middle and slots for the barn doors and gels on each end. That was all the light stuff, I packed the power packs separately. It was beautiful but the fire got it and I don't have the inclination to build another. So it's Rubbermaid tubs for now.

I've noticed that many of the older two- or three-head lighting kits from Multiblitz that are frequently advertised in second-hand channels, come in their original aluminium cases/chests, that are designed to neatly hold the complete kit. And from time to time I've also seen more generic, but very solid aluminium transport cases, included with studio lighting kits, where one of two generators is located in the centre of the case with two heads at each end. It does look very heavy though, as you said.



The above is (poorly lit) shot of a couple of my Systainers. The ones with the drawers I really find handy as you can keep a larger item above (e.g. a Godox AD600Pro flash) and then a bunch of accessories underneath (charger, cables, spare parts etc). It also makes some things accessible even when at the bottom of a stack.

The top Systainer is a T-Loc IV (the IV designating its height relative to other models). I've worked out an arrangement that neatly holds three (or even four) nested Broncolor P70 standard reflectors, a P-travel reflector underneath that stack, a set of P70 barn doors, and two of the 3-piece P70 grid sets. I still need to build an internal frame/divider setup to keep everything properly in place and safe for transportation, but even just for stationary storage it's a nice way to do it, and is a pretty efficient way to keep all those related accessories together. And yes I do like to keep spare pieces of tape on my Systainers if there's a chance I can reuse them later.

[Daniel Unkefer]

Lighting Test Octobox 45 Balloon 90 f19.5 EI 100 CFV16 50 Dist by Nokton48, on Flickr

FOBA DUPLI Acryl Cone great for photographing shiny small objects. Broncolor Quadrofix Universal Mount Soft Boxes, with Quadrofix Supplemental Diffusion Screens. olde style works well on the C171 Monolight, and my Olde Blue Universal Heads. Testing new Lighting Scheme Broncolor Balloon at 90 degrees to set camera left, Octobox 150 at 45 degrees camera left. Primo 1600J Heads on each unit, fed by 1600J Primo A2 pack. Hasselblad Digital CFV16 50mm black CT* 500C/M Body EI 50 F19.5 one pop. I like this lighting may leave it set up. I'll steam the wrinkles out of this muslin and it's good to go. The Apple Boxes from B&H are something that should be in every studio, I stained them last summer and they are finally cured and ready to use.


dxp,
Regarding wobbly rivits in Broncolor Reflectors, I ended up using four strips of good Gaffer Tape from B&H, it secures the rivits so the reflector mount becomes rock solid. Simple easy solution. My Broncolor Silver Beauty Dish has stopped wobbling.

[Mal Paso]

Well I slipped again, just ordered another 2000 WS optical spot, 2 lenses, spare bulb, $125. Half the price of a flashtube or Chinese Bowens mount spot attachment.

Didn't know they had 1/8 Apples. Lab scissor stands are great for tabletop as you can adjust the height.

[Daniel Unkefer]

Yeah Well we all slip LOL

Arca Swiss Stovepipe Auto Makiflex 150 Xenar Prontors by Nokton48, on Flickr

This is the Broncolor C200 Monolight ($2500 in the catalog) with Pulso Silver Beauty Dish with HoneyGrids Comb, attached to ceiling, pointed straight down, with FOBA heavy duty Combitube Mount. Leave this set up all the time. Broncolor states that the C200 puts out as much light as a lot of 2500J units. So a Mono Powerhouse takes pro Pulso stuff. FOBA Sweep Table with Vinyl Photo Background from Amazon. FOBA made background sheets for the DIMIL table I'm looking...

That's an Arca Swiss 4x5 Magnifying Hood on my Auto Makiflex. I got the idea from Geoff Berliner. Very High Eyepoint. Eyepiece tilts 90 Degrees. Plaubel used to say "Every studio needs a reflex camera".