Found a Great AlienBees Case For My B800s

If you’re looking for a padded soft carrying case for your AlienBees strobe lights, then you should consider the Arriba AC-412. It’s what I use. And I’ve been very happy with it. I’m not claiming the Arriba is a competitor to Porta-Brace or Pelican cases, not even close. I want to get that out of the way before I get hate mail saying these bags aren’t as good. No, they’re not. And they’re nowhere near as expensive either (or in other words — they’re cheap in comparison). They are budget bags for mobile people. They are not travel bags. They are not the kinds of bags where you’re going to throw a bunch of other stuff on top of them. They’re the lightweight, around-town bags you put in your trunk or back seat with nothing else on top.

Now that that’s out of the way, here’s what I like about the Arriba AC-412. It wasn’t expensive. It has some padding. It’s roomy. It looks professional (unlike lugging my lights to a client’s in a suitcase). And my three AlienBees B800 Flash Units fit in there easily, along with my speed rings, reflectors, barn doors, power cords, gels, honeycomb, power strip, gloves, sync cords, diffusers, and other gear. See the picture below. I even slip my light box case on top through the handles.

If you go to the Paul C. Buff website, you’ll notice they don’t sell a bag for multiple AlienBees lights. They sell cases for individual lights, but not one for your whole light kit. So I searched and searched and searched … and at the end of the day, I ended up looking at the Arriba DJ cases on eBay and thought: “this could work.” And you know what, for me, it does. It works terrifically. Wonderfully in fact. But I’m not banging the lights around. I understand I have more than $1,000 of equipment in that padded bag. I take it easy on it. I don’t bang my Nikon camera or lenses around even though I keep them in a padded case, so I don’t bang my strobes either. Seems like a simple philosophy to me.

If you’re looking for a padded case for your AlienBees lights, and you plan on carrying it on local shoots, this Arriba AC-412 works well. I’ve had mine since June 2015 and no complaints so far. I only use two of the three removable dividers, so I place the extra divider on the bottom section where my lights are to give it that little bit of extra cushion.

Arriba AC-412 Carrying Case Features.

 

• Case Size: 22.5″ Deep X 12.5″ Wide X 12.5″ High.
• Extra wide mouth design allows gear to be removed quickly and easily.
• Skip feet on the bottom for rugged duty.
• Divides into 4 sections, but dividers can be easily removed.
• Plenty of room for my AlienBees B800s and gear.

If you’re looking for something a little smaller or larger; or a case with wheels, then Arriba has a whole line of cases you may be interested in.  You can find them on eBay here or Amazon here.