Studio flash with a Honda generator?

[Tom Duffy]

I ride as a volunteer EMT on two local ambulance corps. I just found out that I've been "volunteered" to take a large group picture of 7 ambulance corps vehicles (probably 10 ambulances and a rescue truck with the corps officers) from a fire dept ladder truck, this Sunday.

I decided that the 8x10 from the top of a ladder isn't appropriate . I was thinking about my fuji 6x9 for black and white and 35mm with color negative film.

I have a White Lightning, AC powered, monolight which I could use for fill flash. Does anyone know if I can just plug it in to portable generator, or is it more complicated than that? I'd hate to fry my strobe.

Thanks for the help.

Tom

 

[mgb74]

I would think powering monolights with a generator has been done before. I'm not trying to be a "smarta--" but why not call Paul Buff and ask them?

 

[Dave Wooten]

you can get a converter from Paul and use your car battery or Paul also has a battery that will power 4 of the 3200 units.

 

[mgphoto]

Yes, but.... As long as the generator outputs a pure sine wave and can handle the amps that your strobes will pull. Using a generator that does not output pure sine wave current can damage your strobes. If the generator is designed to power computers and other sensitive electronics, then it (should be) safe to use with your strobes. Hope that helps.

-Mark

 

[Philippe-Georges]

I have done this several times. BUT, the second time all went wrong!
The first time I was using an Atlas-Copco generator, 3 x 400 V + N, 25 KVA, powered by a 4 cylinder DIESEL engine, so between 1L of 400V and the N line I had 230V. All went perfect for my 3 Multiblitz 3200Js studio flash generators and 8 flash heads with 650W pilot bulbs, plus two 1000 Js mono blocks.
The second time, I was shooting the arrival of a new car model outside a car plant in the port of Ghent (no names called). They wanted (forced) me to use 3 of their own made 16 KVA power generators working on a one cylinder FEUL (99 oct unleaded benzine) engine, one for one flash generator. And all went wrong. The flash generators are taking 20 A to recharge up to 3200 Js in a few seconds. When I refused that way of working, the factory engineer convinced me that there was no problem, theoretically anyhow. But the small power generator, in order to coop whit this 20 A, went up to almost the maximum RPM. What happened was, once the flash generator was fully charged (in about 5 seconds), it stopped taking 20A but the little fuel engine was still running at maximum speed and the tension jumped up far over 250V. So one of my flash generators (= 14 Kilos) jumped up for about half a meter and came down smoking!
The repairing costs for one flash generator was about € 1 600, they paid but I lost the contract...
I never used anything else than a good heavy Atlas-Copco, over 700 Kg hooked on my Volvo, or alike!

Good luck,
Philippe

 

[resummerfield]

Paul Buff has great customer service. Get all the generator info available, and then call Paul.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Don't any of those emergency vehicles put out 110V of stable current? I'd think an ambulance would need that sort of thing.

 

[Tom Duffy]

Thanks for the advice from all. Strange as in might seem, it never occurred to me to call Paul Buff. I'll do that tomorrow. I kind of expected a quick answer as in "no worries, i do it all the time." or "don't even think of doing that!" I'll let you know what the answer is.

David, interesting suggestion, but 99% of ambulances don't put out any 110 volt current. It's only used on special transport ambulances that may need to run patient ventilators on a long transport. The intervalometers that convert 12 volt DC to 110 AC add about $2,500 to the cost of an ambulance. Since an ambulance costs $160,000 up to $200,000, most volunteer squads don't get all the possible bells and whistles.

My backup plan is using the fire truck's big illumination lights as fill. I try to post a picture if anything comes out .

 

[bjorke]

A local rental house has a honda generator to go with their profoto kits, so i'd say "yes"

 

[Tom Duffy]

According to Paul Buff, no problem at all using a generator to power the strobes. The even had recommendations as to which model Honda to use to power a given number of lights. Short answer is to use a 1000 watt generator to power one large White Lightning. As Eric pointed out in his post, Paul Buff has great customer service.