Aputure 120d vs Studio Flashes

[Nikkor]

I'm totally ignorant when it comes to lights. I was looking into studioflashes for stills but the whole deal with them is a PITA.

I remember seeing videos about the aputure 120d and that it was 1000W equivalent, would this be comparable to a 1000W strobe??? Because if it is (even if its just 700W equivalent) it would be a much better deal for me.

[tupp]

Strobes are measured in watt-seconds (not watts) and in guide numbers.

 

Guide numbers rate the actual illumination output of a strobe, while watt-seconds usually measure the electrical expenditure of a strobe's "power pack."  A watt-second is equivalent to the expenditure of power of one watt for one second.

 

So, a momentary flash from a 1,000 watt-second strobe is equivalent to leaving the shutter open for one full second with a 1,000 watt constant light source (all other variables being equal).  That's a lot of light.

 

Let's make another comparison between a 1,000 watt constant light with a 1,000 watt-second strobe.  If you shoot 24fps video with a 180-degree shutter, your shutter speed is 1/48th of a second.  So, shooting 24fps video with a 1,000 watt constant light is only yielding the equivalent of 1/48th of 1,000 watt-seconds -- only 20.8 watts-seconds.

 

Generally, if a monoblock strobe and a strobe with a separate power pack have the same watt-second rating, the monoblock will be brighter.  Monoblocks are more efficient because they have no head cable to incur line loss.

 

If you intend to do a lot of stills outdoors and/or shoot stills indoors with large sources (umbrellas, soft boxes), then you will probably be much happier with strobes.  Strobes are a lot more powerful than most constant sources, and strobes can freeze/sharpen action.

 

Strobes allow one to make daytime exteriors look dark, with a short shutter speed and short flash duration.  Most LED and fluorescent sources can't even come close to achieving this power/time density, and using focused tungsten and HMI sources to do the same would probably fry the subject.

[Chris Oh]

Semi-related, because I'd like one less thing to setup/pack.

I wonder what the performance of "modeling LED" is like on this: https://paulcbuff.com/db400.php

"ultra bright LED modeling lamp (400W equivalent, daylight-balanced)"