Alienbee ABR800 review…

The Alienbee ABR800, my own take on this ringflash! I wanted to buy this flash, not as a means as just another strobe, but a way to open up my strobist abilities further. Even before I started photography about 2.5 years ago, I have always wondered how photographers did this effect that this sort of ringflash produces. For those that do not know, it creates a ring around the eyes, as well as a defined border of a shadow around the subject you are shooting in the background. These kind of flashes are highly used in fashion photography. I have read that the ringflash was originally invented for photographers to use during crime scenes for even light and more detail.

When I first received the ABR800, I was so excited to get it in my hand. Coming out of the box, it comes with the ringflash itself, reflector dish, diffusion ring to place over the flash, umbrella adapter, 8 inch sync cord, ringflash mount, ABR800 manual, 3 replacement modeling lamp bulbs, 15 foot power cord, and camera mount (not pictured).

When I took it out of the box, it did seem a bit cheap. It did not necessarily feel fragile, but the reflector dish and the diffusion ring was flimsy, and the locking mechanisms to hold the ringflash/reflector/diffusor in place was not the best idea. When I mounted everything, I kept tightening the locks almost my hardest just to ensure it wouldn’t go anywhere.

The ringflash, when mounted, can be adjusted up and down only, not left to right. The thing that makes your camera shift left to right to make it perfect inside the 4 inch diameter circlular opening is the camera mount, which is the major turn off about this product. What Alienbees expects you to do is use their mount to be mounted on your camera permanently with a regular slotted screw. The tripod mount that usually stays on your camera is now removed and put onto the bottom of the ringflash mount. This makes the camera, when not using the ringflash, somewhat cumbersome. The piece that is now staying on your camera (which I was not able to take a picture of because it’s on my only camera) instead of a regular tripod mount is a plastic block that is about an inch in height, an inch in width, and about a couple inches in length. If anything, this is probably my only gripe about this ringflash. I suggest Alienbees redesign their mounting system to accomodate keeping your tripod mount on the camera instead of their own block of a mount. The photo below shows where the tripod mount goes.

One thing I really like about this ringflash, that other ringflashes cannot do, is the ability to be mounted on a lightstand as well for a general purpose strobe. The ABR800 also comes with an adapter that goes in the circular opening to use your umbrellas with as seen in the photo below. If you want to shoot with the ringflash handheld, it is very lightweight. I was somewhat surprised by this, seeing as it is a pretty big object. When resting, I was still able to keep the ringflash rested against myself with my camera strap around my neck.

All alienbees have pretty much the same controls, which are on the back. It has the power slider where you slide the knob to select the power output of the flash. The sync port to plug your sync wire that goes to your camera to fire the flash. An optical slave in order to trigger the ringflash if you are only able to fire one flash. This will pick up any light from a flash in the area and be triggered by it. The next three controls is for the modeling lamp. A modeling lamp is a continuous light source coming from the flash head which lets you see a live preview on what your lighting would look like. The first button is for turning the modeling lamp on or off. The second button, “tracking”, is for creating the modeling lamp’s brightness, according to how much power you have set your flash to go off from the slider control. The more power, the more the modeling lamp glows. And the last button is “cycle”. This is for letting you know when the power in the flash unit is restored so that you know when to do another photo. The modeling lamp turns off as the power is restoring and turns back on when power is restored. The last button and set of indicators is the test button and indicator lights. The test button you press to make sure the flash is working properly. You press it and the flash unit goes off. The “Ok” light indicator is green. It lets you know when the flash is ready to go off. The “Dump” light indicator is to let you know that you need to dump the energy stored inside the flash unit. This usually is in need when you were shooting at a higher power and start shooting at a lower power.Then you have the control jack, on/off power switch, AC adapter, and the unlock/lock to lock your reflector dish and diffusion ring in place.

The thing that sets this ringflash aside from its main competitors is the price compared to how much a “professional” ringflash is. For this unit, it is $400 on alienbee’s website, and if you apply your student discount that they offer, it is $360. The other companies charge roughly $1000 for something similar to this. The only real difference may indeed be the build quality in between the two. One thing I do wish this flash had was lower power than 1/32. With the amount of voltage going through the unit, I doubt that would be possible though. If I want to shoot a close portrait, even at 1/32 power, and iso 100 on my camera, I have to have my aperature set to f/18. As I have said, my only real complaint about this product is the mounting system. I do not even know if I can fit my camera in my bag because of it, I have not tried it yet, haha. But, this ringflash system is definitely a good product aside from the cons. It takes a while for you to get used to how to use the ringflash for some good looking photos, and I still have to have some practice with it, I have not used it to its full potential yet. The pros definitely outweigh the cons and if you are looking for a ringflash for photoshoots, this may be for you. If you have any questions about the ABR800, feel free to ask with a comment. Or you can reach me at my email savagedrift@gmail.com