Vagabond Mini powering the BMC

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David

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Vagabond Mini powering the BMC

PostSun Dec 16, 2012 7:18 pm

In another thread paulkosmala asked about powering the BMC with a vagabond mini from Paul C Buff. I have the mini for my strobes but hadn't even thought about using it for the BMC and was about to pull the pin on the switronix package at B&H.

So I hooked up the Vagabond to my BMC and it's going pretty good. The vagabond also has a usb plug for powering other such devices so I plugged in my laptop as well. They've been plugged in now for about 6 hours and so far the vagabond has gone from 75% power to 25% power.

Some con's: The Vagabond is about twice the weight of the switronix and has about a 30% larger mass. Mounting options are limited because it only has one screw mount in a tight corner. I have it clamped to my tripod and it's fine for me because I'm not running around with it and work mostly in a controlled environment, but if your run and gun it might be a little awkward.

Some pro's. It has 130wh as opposed to the switronix 70wh and it's certainly looking like it'll easily have twice the run time. It's also only $230 against the $300 of the swit and has the same recharge time. Best of all the battery is actually detachable from the Vagabond and spares/replacements are only $80. So basically for the same price as the switronix you can have around 4 times the running time.

I don't know if this is of any help to anybody but there it is.
Last edited by David on Mon Dec 17, 2012 12:38 am, edited 1 time in total.
David Daniel
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Margus Voll

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Re: Vagabond Mini powering the BMC

PostSun Dec 16, 2012 8:07 pm

Great find i think!
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David

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Re: Vagabond Mini powering the BMC

PostSun Dec 16, 2012 8:46 pm

Ok, so I just plugged in a kino flo and thats going nicely as well.
David Daniel
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paulkosmala

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Re: Vagabond Mini powering the BMC

PostSun Dec 16, 2012 8:56 pm

David wrote:In another thread paulkosmala asked about powering the BMC with a vagabond mini from Paul C Buff. I have the mini for my strobes but hadn't even thought about using it for the BMC and was about to pull the pin on the switronix package at B&H.

So I hooked up the Vagabond to my BMC and it's going pretty good. The vagabond also has a usb plug for powering other such devices so I plugged in my laptop as well. They've been plugged in now for about 6 hours and so far the vagabond has gone from 75% power to 25% power.

Some con's: The Vagabond is about twice the weight of the switronix and has about a 30% larger mass. Mounting options are limited because it only has one screw mount in a tight corner. I have it clamped to my tripod and it's fine for me because I'm not running around with it and work mostly in a controlled environment, but if your run and gun it might be a little awkward.

Some pro's. It has 130wh as opposed to the swintronix 70wh and it's certainly looking like it'll easily have twice the run time. It's also only $230 against the $300 of the swin and has the same recharge time. Best of all the battery is actually detachable from the Vagabond and spares/replacements are only $80. So basically for the same price as the swintronix you can have around 4 times the running time.

I don't know if this is of any help to anybody but there it is.


I was going to just screw it on a tripod leg, but I'm really glad to know that it works, and the running time is pretty long.
I originally got the vagabond mini for strobes, but have since been using it for all sorts of things. glad to know it works...
What I'd really love to see from paul c. buff is a replacement battery 2x/3x in size - (reminds me of the dvx days with the normal and larger batteries) that can fit in the vagabond mini for more run-time.
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paulkosmala

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Re: Vagabond Mini powering the BMC

PostSun Dec 16, 2012 8:58 pm

David wrote:Ok, so I just plugged in a kino flo and thats going nicely as well.


How long does it last with a kino flo?
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David

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Re: Vagabond Mini powering the BMC

PostSun Dec 16, 2012 9:01 pm

About 20 minutes so far but I didn't plug it in till the battery was getting towards the end. Its awesome!
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Thomas Schumacher

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Re: Vagabond Mini powering the BMC

PostSun Dec 16, 2012 11:13 pm

Thanks for that!
https://www.gernemehrfilm.de/
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Bill Rich

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Re: Vagabond Mini powering the BMC

PostMon Dec 17, 2012 2:11 pm

Thanks for posting this! Great idea for a battery solution! Plenty of power and quite affordable.
Bill Rich
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