I've only been shooting since September 06 and only senior/family/and a baby at that. I have a few senior shoots, a couple family shoots, and a possible engagement coming up that are going to be on location. I have been using reflectors (with very good assistants I might add) and a 480EX w/ a Fong LS2. I have an AB400 and AB800 w/ reflecting umbrella and a large softbox. I am probably going to end up shooting by myself while I'm shooting at college, seeing no one I know wants to help...yeah kinda sad. Will having portable power help me do this alone? Do I buy the AB Vagabond? As mentioned, I'm a college student and I'm still trying to save up for a MacBook Pro. I'm just trying to make a few decisions and I figured I'd ask y'all who know a thing or two about photography.

By the way, I am truly impressed with the talent on this board. Thanks!

Matthew

The Vagabond works as advertised. I've never run out of power using it. But I don't use it all day, either.

I don't know if having portable power will make it easier to photograph by yourself. I just got this mental image of plugging your lights into a friend -- never mind. If you have access to power, you're fine. If not, well, you use your 480. Another thought is to get a power inverter and then you could plug your lights into your car. That's really all the Vagabond is -- a motorcycle battery and a power inverter. And the charger. And the wiring harness. And the compact case. But you get the idea.

Just make sure to run your car to charge the battery before you drain the battery too much.

The Vagabond is a good solution for a good price. The Dynalight system is better, but much more expensive.

The inverter in the Vagabond is not just a plain old $40 unit you can pick up at any store. It is a sine wave inverter. The cheap ones are modified sine wave, and they will damage your lights.

As a few people from OSP West can attest to, I use a pure sine wave converter made by Innovatronix. It provides 1200w/s of power, which gives me about 400 full power flashes out of my two dyna-lite UNI400JR Monolights. The thing is incredible, and for $250 plus a very reasonable shipping charge, it comes to you from the phillipines.

See the Innovatronix Explorer 1200 Pure Sine Wave Converter HERE

It ain't pretty... or light... but it's damn cool. I whipped it out (my god, that sounds bad!) on an engagement shoot the other day, and my clients were quite impressed. Now that's saying something lol.

Pardon the horrible joke. I'm going back to watching SNL now. But seriously, check that thing out.

I have the V150 to power my Bees. I considered the Innovatronix, but decided to go with the Vagabond- easier to get parts if necessary and Paul Buff has excellent customer service should anything go wrong.

Honestly though, as a college student on a budget, I would look into cheap manual flashes and pocket wizards. Check out the Strobist blog for the run-down on this approach...

http://strobist.blogspot.com/

Huh. That doesn't look obnoxiously big--only a tad longer than a foot and only a couple inches longer than an Elinchrome Ranger Pack. How heavy is it?

i'll have to weigh it next time i'm out in the studio (been sick for a week, not motivated to move!) but i'd say it's about 12-15 pounds or so. it really isn't that heavy or cumbersome. i love it!

if you're gonna get one, make sure you read their compatability chart - it will work with most strobes, but some don't like the pure sine wave power and will not work. my Dyna-Lite UNI400JR monolights work very well with it, and I've used it with AlienBees as well... but they say my wireless 1000w/s dyna-lite packs won't work with it. however, being the rule-breaker that I am, i did try one of the packs on it, and although it recycled pretty slow, it did work... sort of.


PS: as far as getting "replacement parts" there isn't really anything that would need to be replaced besides the bettery, which innovatronix will send you if it gets damaged for some reason. if you take care of the pack though (keeping it plugged in when not in use is important!) it will last for years.

After figuring out a budget and listening you and others, I bought the Vagabond. I have been very impressed with the customer service of Paul C. Buff, and its a very short ride from Nashville to my house on UPS truck. It is arriving today...but I'm at school and I won't see it until the weekend. Anyways, thanks for your input...I was looking at the innovatronix and it looks good as well, but as I said w/ the Vagabond. Thanks again!

I use the Innovatronix Explorer1200 with two Richter Star 500 Flashs.
Works GREAT for me.
With one flash full power i get about 650 flashs out of the baby.

Cu
Juergen