Power Packs & Heads

Photography power packs and heads offer an alternative to monolights, or strobe lights. Professional photographers rely on power packs for quick changes in lighting angles. The power pack acts as a generator for the flash heads to run from. All controls are located in the power pack. Depending on the system a power pack can contain controls for infrared, optical, and radio-slave triggering. It also controls a flash head's light softness or hardness.

Power packs distribute power to heads in a couple different ways. Either equally to each head, or by giving more power to one head above the rest. More flash heads means more items to carry on location.

An AC power pack can handle anywhere from two to four flash heads with lighting that is softer than what a monolight produces. These power packs work great when an outlet is available. Many photographers purchase these as backups for a portable power pack.

The use of a portable battery power pack lets photographers move the pack anywhere without needing to search for outlets. These allow the photographer to lay flash heads in areas too small for strobe light use.

A popular system among photographers is a mobile power pack. These battery operated packs offer more options for traveling photographers. Use the lights by themselves or as lighting fillers. The downside of using a battery operated pack is the light recycling times are slower than those used on other power packs. A battery operated power pack takes up less room than a portable power pack.

A 12 volt power pack is available for home and professional use. These include instructions on power pack use and how to charge a 12v power pack.

Companies like Elinchrom, Profoto, Speedotron, Lumedyne, Dyna-Lite, and Balcar manufacture photography power packs & heads as separate components, or in kits. These lights and kits can get expensive. The Acute2 2400ws ProValue Pack sells for well over three thousand dollars. This kit comes with a power pack, two flash heads, and a Tenba air case. A cheaper kit, the Speedotron DM402, includes four flash heads, a 400ws power pack, snoot, a Sync cord, light stand, but no case, and sells for just over a thousand dollars. Power pack and head kits with less power and flash heads go for a lower price. Search online, through auction sites and in classified ads for used power packs and heads as a cheaper and more cost effective solution.