The Back Control Panel
The Back Panel of your AlienBees™ Flash Unit is the Control Panel, offering you clear control of the flash unit’s features, conveniently labeled and collectively located, for simple and quick manipulation. With a slide fader for flashpower control, you can adjust the output steplessly over the 5 f-stop power range. The modeling lamp can be turned on or off with the white model “On” button, and the lamp may be used as a recycle indicator with the grey “Cycle” button. With this button pressed, the modeling lamp will dim as the unit recycles, then come back on when the unit is fully recycled. You can also have the modeling lamp track the changes made in flashpower with the “Track” button. Furthermore, with a red dump light and a green ready light, you can clearly see the unit’s recycle and ready status at any point during your shoot. The red test button allows test flashing and will additionally dump any excess charge in the unit when charged from a higher to a lower power setting. The back panel additionally holds the sync jack and remote jack, as well as the slave cell.

The Power Supply and Flash Capacitors
Using precision voltage regulation and well-designed internal thermodynamics, AlienBees™ flash units produce consistent and correct output levels. The precision regulator continuously monitors the back panel control settings, the status of the back panel switches, and the remote control input to determine the correct amount of energy to be applied. As AlienBees™ flash units require ac power, each unit comes with our heavy-duty 15-foot power cord, with a three-wire grounded plug to connect to a standard 120 Vac, 50-60 Hz power outlet. An optional 25-foot extended power cord is available separately, if needed.

The Sync Cord
Our heavy-duty 15-foot Sync Cord arrives with each unit, so that you may connect the light to your camera. This sync cord has a 1/8-inch stereo plug on one end to connect on the back panel of your flash unit, with a PC-connection on the other end to connect to your camera. If your camera does not have an outlet for PC-connection, the sync cord can connect through your hot shoe with an adaptor (see the Hardware Page to find our Hot Shoe Adaptor). With the sync cord, your flash unit will only take its cue to fire from you, firing only when your camera shutter is pressed.

The Flashtube
Each AlienBees™ Flash Unit arrives with our single-ring, daylight-balanced flashtube. All models use a 14mm tube. This user-replaceable tube offers 250,000+ flashes, with inexpensive replacements available. The flashtubes used in AlienBees™ units are daylight-balanced at 5600ºK, providing accurate color rendition. See our Hardware Page to find out more about our replacement tubes.

The Modeling Lamp
The close correlation between the flashtube and the modeling lamp in several parameters allows us to offer WYSIWYG (What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get) modeling. With matched intensity ratios, matched light patterns and diffusion, the output of the modeling lamp will match the pattern of light you will see on film. The AlienBees™ arrive with our standard 150 watt modeling lamp. Our standard bulbs have a medium Edison-type base, and a 3000+ hour lifespan. As all bulbs become exhausted by use, the user may simply, quickly and inexpensively replace ours, with replacement bulbs in various wattages available from us (see our Hardware Page).

The Slave Cell and Slave Tripper
To reduce the number of cords in your setup, the bees have sensitive built-in slave trippers, allowing you to sync a single light to your camera, and reliably fire the remaining lights in your setup via their slave cells. The slave cell will fire whenever it "sees" any flash of light, and may be disengaged by plugging a sync cord into the sync jack on the back panel.

Internal Venting and Cooling
AlienBees™ Flash Units incorporate axial-flow thermodynamics to reduce heat build-up, and they have a built-in cooling fan that allows extended, all day shooting sessions, and prevents overheating.

The Protective Shipping Cover
The black polycarbonate protective shipping cover arrives in place, positioned around the flashtube and modeling lamp. This opaque cover will protect your lamp and tube while in transit, and must be removed prior to use.

The Reflector
Each AlienBees™ Flash Unit arrives with our standard 7-inch silver field reflector, having an 80º beam spread. The reflector has a hole for fitting umbrella or brolly box poles up to 3/8-inch in diameter. The reflector additionally has a recessed outer lip for directly snapping in our honeycomb grids.

The Housing
The bees are housed in polycarbonate Lexan (the same material used to make bullet-proof glass!). Our swivel bracket stand mount is attached to the housing, fitting most light stands up to 5/8-inch. With a tightening knob to attach your flash unit securely, and an adjustment arm to change the position and direction of the unit, this solid stand mount is designed to withstand heavy tightening and bending stress. The housing is additionally fashioned with a hole and a long groove for holding umbrella poles (up to 3/8-inch diameter). Umbrella or Brolly Box poles can slide through the hole on the top of the unit’s faceplate, then slide into the long groove. Once set, the pole is then tightened into place with the black umbrella screw on the top of the housing.

The front faceplate is the interface for your accessories, with four holding fingers that expand and contract to hold various reflectors and speedrings for softbox use. On the top of the unit housing are the bees’ “antennae.” These antennae are actually the lever controls for holding and releasing faceplate accessories. When squeezed, the four holding fingers will contract to remove or add your shipping cover, reflector, or speedring. When released, the fingers expand back into the holding position.

The housing of each AlienBees™ unit is available in any of our five bold colors: Martian Pink, Mello Yello, Alien Green, Deep Space Black and Star White.
 
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