With two 1250s feeding any number of heads you can get the same power (2500WS) as one 2500 feeding any number of heads. The two 1250s will recycle twice as fast and draw twice as much line current. This will put a very heavy load on Vagabond and the two 1250s will likely recycle slower than one 2500 as a result of the extreme load on Vagabond.

The sync speed of any Zeus is limited by your camera - typically 1/250 second. The fastest flash duration possible is 1/3000 second t.5 (1/1000 second t.!) using a Zeus 1250 and bi tube head.

Thanks for the fast reply.

I like to have a back up to everything that is why I was considering the pair of 1250s. I may have to rethink this.

One more question, again sorry for not being more up on your product reading all the great customer service posts, I need to be.

using two heads with a 1250 will I be able to get 625w out of each at full power.

I am really looking hard at this system over the Profoto or Hensel.

Yes, you can get 625WS from each head, or you can get 312WS from one and 937WS from the other.

Two 1250s is not a bad idea. In the studio you'll get half the cycle time and, as you say, redundancy and four outlets. But you would have to have two circuits in the studio because two packs on a single 15A breaker will almost surely blow breakers. In most field use you would probably only need one of them - 1250WS is a lot of power.

Hello,

Will Alien Bee's ever supply a battery/vagabond that can power the Zeus system with a faster recycle time? I've used them outside and its killing me to wait 6-9 seconds for the power pack to recycle back.

Vagabond II is getting close to the practical limit of small batteries and inverters. You should probably be looking at around a 5000W gas generator.

Dear Paul, first, the warmest regards from Russia, I am happy I will become your customer soon, just sorting out the best value for such longdistance shipping/customs/etc.

A. I have a rather stupid question but anyway: I want to buy two Z2500 powerpacks (with all the stuff around them) but I understand that it's way too much power for indoor lighting. At the same time, I want to have powerfreedom when overpowering bright sunny daylight. And now, the silly question: is it bad for packs/heads to operate on 1/32th or 1/16th of flashpower most of the time? I heard smth that it's not okay to use monolight on edge power setting, I mean, the lowest and highest is not okay if you're concerned about the longer unit's life. Or it's plain b**ls*it and I can use Z2500 in any desired flash output setting with no worries attached? ))

B. I've read ZeusOnline.pdf manual and didn't understand flash duration table. What is t.5 and t.1?

C. I plan to buy two Vagabond II's with two extra batteries but reading the manual it seems it's not that fast and easy to replace the battery in the field, there are screws and screwdrivers involved. Do I have to afraid for battery life and keep a 1:1 spare or just one extra battery for both units will do the thing? $70 is not an issue at all, it just will be hard to keep 4 batteries charged or remember to charge the spares every 2 months (according to manual)..

Thank you thank you!
Roman Gorchakov

There is no detrimental effect to operating our equipment at the low power settings constantly.

With any flash system it s good practice to allow the system to charge to full power occasionally - say every few months. This keeps the capacitors "formed" and helps preserved their life.

As for t.1 and t.5 there is a good explanation here:

http://www.paulcbuff.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=59

As for Vagabond batteries, they do take a little effort to change. I would think that one spare battery would be wiser than trying to keep several batteries charged. Instead of changing batteries in the Vagabond to keep them charged it might be easier to buy a small car battery charger (about $25 in the US) and use this to keep any spare batteries charged.

Hello Paul, Very interested to purchase your zeus generator, I would like to know how can I use it in europa where AC is not 110 but 220~240 Volts under 50~60 Hz? I think I need a transformer but what VA Power ? Is there a possibility you make a multi voltage Zeus companion ?
Chris

The 240V market is not large enough for us to justify the cost of producing 240V Zeus. The market would be big enough if we were a globally distributed company but this would require us to jump through all the Euro regulatons hoops. All of this would be detrimental to our direct-to-customer USA structure. A 1500W 240V to 120V transformer would be ideal to power Zeus and shouldn't be very expensive in Europe.

Whew, this subject is for me too. Your site says only true magnetic transformers should be used and I can't find this characteristic in stepdown transformers listed on the sites you (your employee) mentioned as reliable source on the http://www.alienbees.com/nonus.html page. Does this model http://www.110220volts.com/Merchant2/me ... ransformer seem to be okay for Z2500?

Thank you!

http://www.innovatronix.com/detailpage. ... egoryid=42


Is this a viable option for powering the Zeus? Some one refered it to me but I'm hoping for some feedback. I'd like to use it as a back up to my vagabond and UE 1000 gas generator. Will the above item produce a faster recycle time?

Paul,

Concerning the Flashpower Output Adjustment Slider on the Zeus Power Pack units. The manual on page 10 states that Reductions of power via the slider result in somewhat longer flash durations and slightly lower color temperatures at the lower power settings.

On page 3 of the manual for the last paragraph, a reference to stepless flashpower output adjustment over a ful 5 f-stop range.

Based on the above, is it correct that the when using the Flashpower Output Adjustment Slider on the power pack, the power reduction is accomplished via voltage adjustments and Not capacitor switching; resulting in longer flash durations. If the above is true, that would mean the fastest T.1 flash duration for the 1250 power pack is 1/900 second. Power reductions below full power would result in a flash duration slower than 1/900 second.

I was under the impression the Zeus power packs reduced their Output power via capacitor switching resulting in faster flash durations as power is reduced. I thought this was why for reduced power outputs, the recycle time was shorter.

Using the power slider will increase flash duration as most monolights.

Using the ratio switch switches caps and will shorten durations. Using two heads will shorten the duration.

If you use only one head, set it on 3:1 ratio and use the B outlet for minimum. This gives you 1/4 the capacitors (and power) and much faster durations.

All of this applies to virtually all power packs, excluding very high end Broncolor packs that us IGBT control instead of voltage control.

Zeus pack and head has about the fasted durations per WS of anything on the market.

Thanks for the reply Paul.

One more question regarding the Zeuss power packs. I shoot sports, so the recycle times and flash durations are vital. Assuming I have a Z1250 Power Pack and a Z2500BTH Bi-Tube Head with only half the head plugged into the A side of the pack (nothing plugged into the B side of the pack) with the Power Distribution switch selected to <3/4, what will the T.1 flash duration and recycle time be (937.5 WS going to half the Bi-Tube Head)?

I assume the recycle time will be slightly less than 1.2 seconds (full power recycle time) but I am not sure about the flash duration (whether it would be faster or slower than the advertised T.1 flash duration of 1/900 second for full power using the Bi-Tube head).

The T.1 flash duration of 1/900 second on full power is based on the Bi-Tube head plugged into both outlets on the 1250 pack with equal power (635 WS) going to each half of the Bi-Tube head. The secenario I have results in 937.5 WS going to only half the head which I am guessing would result in a slower flash duration since there is a greater amount of power going to the single head. If the duration is slower, it might not be fast enough to stop the motion blur for a basketball players hands.

Thanks for your time.

First, the t.5 duration of Zeus 1250 with bi tube at Full Power is not 1/900 second, it's 1/3000 see http://www.white-lightning.com/zeus_specs.html

!/900 is the duration of a standard head with Zeus 2500.

With only on half of the bi tube head plugged in at 3/4 power (938WS) you can expect a flash duration around 1/2500 second and a recycle of about .8 seconds.

You would get about the same numbers with both tubes plugged in with the power slider set to about -.5f.