Strobes- Photogenic or? / Monolights

[Phil Indeblanc]

I saw a recent post about strobes, and today I had trouble using mine...

When using my Photogenic Mono heads(1250(500w)-2500(1000w) DR's, all with IR remote) it looks like they can't take too large of modifiers, like the XL softboxes. If you start to turn them from horizontal to vertical etc, the locking clips just don't work.

Another shortcoming is the fact that I like to use them on the rail system most of the time, and other times on light stands and what-not. But they have an either upside-down elbow or a right side up. The tech said that you shouldn't have them upside down. I do often times ignore this. Then I realized that if I have them sitting right side up, I think the XL softboxes wouldn't detach.

What to do?  I have about 6 of these and 3 have gone bad that need repair for one thing or another. The other 3 are still ticking well.  Before these I had Norman 900 series with a few power packs. They still work great, yet I like the monolight ease of things, and of course the 1/8 stop adjust on each head. I also like that I can remotely change the power with the remote.

Currently this is their spec....
Flash Duration:1/1300 second at full power, Power Control is full to 1/32 range (6 f-stops) with 0.1 f-stop resolution digital display,  Recycling Time is 0.5 to 1.5 seconds recharge, fan cooled. modeling light can dim and track the stobe output. Built in slave.

Any other heads with remote  good flash duration, easy replace tube and bulb, compact, (not those long rocket looking things like Vistatech), yet built a bit better? I would love some with LED modeling lights.

Should I upgrade to another lighting system by slowly piecing it together or do I repair these, and pay an additional $120 each that Photogenic wants to charge me to add an elbow on either side to have both top and bottom use?

Any recommendations?

[Phil Indeblanc]

The influx of posts has got me a bit confused. All these suggestions are so helpful. So split! :-)

I'm leaning towards getting the problematic ones repaired and having the elbow on both top and bottom installed on 3 of the units.
I had already checked out The available heads on B&H and Adorama. I noticed they don't carry PaulCBuff, or other indy brands. So either you pay a chunk of money for something a beginner would grow out of quick, or you give up a kidney.

Considering all the modifiers I have, and even some adapters from Norman to Photogenic, It maybe either paying out of the nose retail to replace them, or it would take too much time to find used or deals.  Unless I can use all these on other makes(since it does work at least from Norman to Photgenic.

Unless there is some outstanding reason to switch out, I maybe sticking to this.

[dwswager]

The influx of posts has got me a bit confused. All these suggestions are so helpful. So split! :-)

I'm leaning towards getting the problematic ones repaired and having the elbow on both top and bottom installed on 3 of the units.
I had already checked out The available heads on B&H and Adorama. I noticed they don't carry PaulCBuff, or other indy brands. So either you pay a chunk of money for something a beginner would grow out of quick, or you give up a kidney.

Considering all the modifiers I have, and even some adapters from Norman to Photogenic, It maybe either paying out of the nose retail to replace them, or it would take too much time to find used or deals.  Unless I can use all these on other makes(since it does work at least from Norman to Photgenic.

Unless there is some outstanding reason to switch out, I maybe sticking to this.

I don't use my monolights all that often, but I have been extremely happy with my Paul Buff stuff!  If I was to get something new, that is where I would start.

[Michael N. Meyer]

Do your XL softboxes use standard speed rings? If so, you should be able to get new speed rings for a different system mount and continue using your various softboxes with whatever lights you move to.

Chimera has several adapters that allow you to mount a speed ring to a grip head so that the monolight or pack head isn't taking all of the weight of the modifier. If you have Chimera speed rings, this might be worth exploring.

I'm in the midst of moving away from Paul Buff monolights because they just aren't consistent enough at lower power settings. It doesn't matter how fine you can tune your output setting if the actual output varies by a third of a stop from pop to pop. Buff's newest offering, the Einstein, which I've not used, may be better in this regard. If what you like is the 1/8 stop adjustments on your Photogenics, this inconsistency would probably rule out Buff products.

[phila]

I've used Bron of over 23 years now and would not consider any other brand. A couple of Minipuls 800 monolights did sterling service for just over 20 years before I replaced them with Minicoms. A Mobile pack is soon to be replaced with a Move pack. The six Pulso A4 packs I had a hand in buying for a large studio 22 years ago are still going strong...

[Phil Indeblanc]

I'll have to look into the adapters on the softboxes, and yes I have a couple Wafers which I really like. I have the Photogenic and its also nice, but deep.
I'll do a search for Chimera adapters stand, or something see what comes up. 

Yes the low output increments are important. Well its not often that I need 20w, or 30w, but when I do I need it to perform.  I had heard good things about the Pual Buff, but never used them. I should do some searching on the Einsteins, and see if that does better on low output.

As far as Bron. I had a Pulso pack a4. I sold off. I even had an old BRAUN(not related to Bron) pack. This thing was a classic, which I learned how to use strobes on. I sold that as well. I ended up needing more packs to vary the output and I went Norman route vs Broncolor.

The Normans had the 2k dual output head packs and they had a simple knob, and unlike Norman packs today, these were built well. They varied so much with different model suppliers over the years. Some models were good, others had issues, and you'd hear about exploding capacitors, so I stuck with the old rounded 4 head 2KD, and the newer squared off 2 head 2K packs. I have a 4 head model pack that is newer A8 or something?  but a control board that is $400 for the rare part has it sitting in storage. I still use the norman2K square packs that do a solid job. My rear light in studio is always using that for a 12" Frenl light.

I like the Monolights for their individual versatility. For travel. I think I'll look into the Einsteins, and the adapters from Chimera.
Maybe a repair is a good route?  I wish I knew more about the guts of these, to either anticipate a failure, or when repairing have it replaced with a better part. Thanks.