Lithium Battery Pack

[Beauty Through a Lens]

I am looking into getting a vagabond, but I'm not sure what wattage output I should get.

I'd have two 800 Alien Bees (modelling light would be off) plugged into it & it would need to last me between an hour and a half to two hours at most. I wouldn't be used that often so I don't need anything to high end, but quaility is important. Suggestions

[Manfred M]

Adrian - I have the unit shown in the image with two battery packs, not the newer (and more expensive) Lithium Extreme unit for use on my Einstein 640 flashes. These can use twice the power that your Alien Bees do (640 W-s versus 320 W-s on the DB-800s). I believe the rating is for 200 - 250 flashes for a pair of Einsteins running at full power, so you should get double that with your Alien Bees.

I've never run into a situation where I have even needed to switch battery packs yet, but frankly have not been a heavy user. I rarely use them at full power and usually I'm probably shooting at 1/4 power, even in outdoor settings. I have a four hour shoot next month where I will be using two lights, so I might actually need to use the second battery pack then.

I never use modeling lights when shooting with the battery.