Review site for lighting equipment?

Perhaps I'm just not looking in the right places but...<br>

Is there a comprehensive review site for lighting equipment out there?

<br>

I feel a tad lost on figuring out what kind of lighting systems,

gear, etc. is good vs. junky vs. not-so-fully-featured.<br>

What prompts this question is; I acquired some studio lighting gear

from a former wedding photographer for a good price. One of the items

is a wall mounted boom for a strobe. I don't really need a wall mount

for lights, more like just a plain stand for it so I called the local

camera store and asked if they'd be interested in buying it. The guy

on the phone basically said "...as long as it isn't Norman gear, then

we usually buy it." So this got me wondering, where in the market

does my gear stand?<br><br>

Links to sites are much appreciated.

As dar as selling goes, Timber pretty much has it right.

As far as a site that impartially evaluates the qualities of lighting gear, I don't know of

one. There are basically three or four tiers of gear. This does not include battery

powered lights.

I.) top end pro oriented gear ; Balcar, Broncolor, Comet, Dyna-Lite, Elinchrom, some

Hensel gear, Profoto 5, 6, & & D4, Profoto Acute 2 & 2R, & Speedotron Blackline, Sun

Strobo.

II.) middle of the road pro oriented gear: Norman, perhaps some of the higher end

Paul C. Buff gear, Profoto Acute & Profoto Acute Alpha, some of the Hensel gear,

Speedotron Brownline, & Photogenic.

III.) Starter, student & hobbyist level: Novatron, Alien Bees, JTL, the original White

Lightning (AKA: The White Cans)

Professional level lighting can be done with all of the above. What differentiates the

three levels for me is: light quality, build quality, durability, working characteristics, &

range of OEM light modifiers.

One of these days I would like to take examples of all of the major brands into a

studio for a few days and do some real world objective testing.