britek lighting????

anyone use these??? i found a decent looking kit on ebay Item number:

3837180100. anyone think its worth it??? i have no clue on studio

lighting. i use a digi rebel.

I think you'd be well advised to look into some other brands, rather than snap up one of these Britek sets. Look at and check with Alien Bees. Funny name, but fairly serious lighting system. And they are made here in the USA. Easy to deal with too. check their web page. I bought mine a couple of years ago and love them. Briteck doesn't tell you that to change a lamp which is good for a limited number of flashes, you will pay a substantual sum. With bees, however, they last about five times longer, and are simple and inexpensive to replace if that time ever comes. The Bees are not the only ones I would choose before these cheaply made Briteks, either. Check several brands. Good luck.

I've got a set of Britek PS-300's, and they're alright starter lighting, but I recently upgraded to a Calumet (Bowen?) 750w/s head, and am -much- happier with it. That said, it cost me >2x what two Britek heads cost, and if your budget doesn't go that high, it's not the -worst- start.

Lots of people here will recommend alien bees. Based on their fame, you could expect them to hold their value well. I wouldn't expect the same from briteks (rather, I'd expect to throw them away when they stop working).

Joshua- This is not an answer to your question, but I was wondering how you plan to trigger these lights. I just got an alienbee light and thought I was going to hook it to my rebel via a hotshoe/pc adapter, but then found out that this can harm the rebel. You may already know all this, but just in case someone forgot to inform you as they did me that you will need a wein safesync to connect any lights to your rebel. Good luck!

Alien Bees are safe as their sync voltage is about 5.6 volts. You do not need a sync-safe with the alien bees.

I do have bee's and will definitely put them up against britek's lights any time. These are very good lights for the money. Their customer service is first rate, also if you are a phot student (even a 49 year one) you get a 10% discount. Also, you might want to look at a post from last year that I asked the same question.

 

G

I jumped at the Briteks on ebay because a) I had no money at the time, and b) I didn't know any better.

 

My wife was using them mostly, and didn't get any decent results. One of them would not fire roughly 1 in every 10 shots.

 

Finally we got fed up, had some extra cash, and sprung for a couple of bees. OMG, what a difference. In comparision, the briteks look and feel like toys. At least I can use them for a hair light or something... too bad the softbox that came with them doesn't fit the bees. :-(

 

Bottom line is after using something else, I now feel like I completely wasted my money on the briteks.