Cheap Studio Lights.......

[eyob_kidanmariam]

I saw so money cheap studio lights on ebay. Are they safe to consider them? I mean durability and also repair.

Some of them claim that they have a support center in US so that they can guarantee the fix. Any one using one of

those Stobelight kits?

[summerleif]

Don't do it.

 

If you live in the U.S. buy some quality lights from a reputable U.S. source. The cheap lights usually lack features, and are made of plastic. Buying on eBay from a foreign source will cost you in shipping and import duy as well, if you read the fine print.

 

If you really must purchase cheap lights, you can get them from U.S companies like Calumet or Adorama who at least provide a warranty and reasonable shipping fees..

 

Cheap:

 

http://www.calumetphoto.com/item/CF0502K1/

 

http://www.calumetphoto.com/item/CF0514K1/

 

 

Better:

 

http://www.calumetphoto.com/item/CE1440/

 

http://www.calumetphoto.com/item/BW4305/

 

Even Better:

 

http://www.calumetphoto.com/item/BW4375/

 

http://www.calumetphoto.com/item/BW3715/

[jim malone]

Good, Fast, Cheap....Pick any two!

 

Seriously, if you are limited on funds (and who isn't?), buy the best lights (and other gear) you can afford - in the long run, they will be much cheaper than the "bargain basement" varieties.

 

eBay is good for finding someone selling name brand, high quality, used equipment, but I'd stay away from "cheap studio lights".

[kittybuddha]

The only problem is that Calumet rarely has anything in stock! They make a good product but just don't seem to

care about their customers enough to keep merchandise available. Last year I'd planned on purchasing about

$7.000.00 in lighting equipment & despite repeated promises nothing ever came to fruition. What bothered me most

was the customer service reps completely indifferent attitudes - they just didn't care if I bought from them or not.

After 3 months I gave up & bought everything from B&H. I'll never shop at Calumet again.

 

So I'd look at B&H. They're usually highly professional & nearly always have items in stock. Of course you could go

with Alien Bees. People rave about their lighting equipment & they're cheap.

[summerleif]

Actually I did end up buying my Bowens Gemini Digital strobes from the B&H web site, bhphotovideo.com. It does seem a little odd that Calumet Photo, the parent company of Bowens, seems to have more trouble stocking Bowens lighting products than B&H Photo. Regardless, I really like my Bowens Digital strobes. These seem to be very good value for money.

 

I have purchased a lot of other studio support products from Calumet Photo, via their web site. Those items seem to be in stock. They are great quality for the money. I have numerous air-cushioned light stands, and all sorts of studio gadgetry purchased from their web site.

[summerleif]

Features and what is missing on "cheap" strobes:

 

One of the features usually lacking in "cheap" strobes, is adjustment granularity. The highest quality lights can be adjusted in 1/10 f-stop increments. The "cheap" lights are often limited to full, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 power output adjustments.

 

The highest quality lights are now digitally controlled, such as the Bowens Gemini Digitals, which can be configured to display output level in f-stop or joules via their LED panel.

 

The highest quality lights have short flash bursts, which makes it possible to stop action of very fast events, like breaking glass, bursting balloons, even gunshots.

 

The highest quality lights have very short recycle times, The accepted standard when operating on AC power is 1 - 2 seconds, and usually on the lower side of that even at full power. Operating as fraction output levels, the best lights recycle in sub-second time, which makes studio work faster and smoother for both photographer and subject.

 

There are many other features that are usually missing or limited on "cheap" lights.

 

Studio strobes are still a business that often provides features at a price. Photographic studio lighting is not a high volume business, such as companies that sell digital point and shoot cameras. However, most of the quality companies create products that last quite a long time, and provide very high levels of reliability.

 

So research lighting very carefully and make an informed choice.

[tim_ludwig2]

Take a good look at the lights made by Paul C. Buff, Inc...the White Lightnings. I've got two Ultra 1800's and 2

Ultra 600's that have given me nearly trouble free usage for over twenty years (maybe three quick and cheap

repairs in that time). If you've got a problem, it takes about a week round trip for repairs and they have a

terrific warranty...three years the last time I looked. They're based in Nashville and have a wonderful customer

service attitude. They also offer some of the most reasonably priced stands, soft boxes and other modifiers that

you can find while maintaining very high quality.

 

One definite word of advice. I would absolutely go for monolights like the White Lightnings. Systems with

central power packs may last well, but if the pack goes out, you are sunk until you can have it

repaired......sometimes overseas and often taking weeks or longer. (Yes, I've had this happen to me and it wasn't

pretty.) By the way, In some of the high end pack systems, a single head may cost nearly the same as one

monolight with built in power and very high output.

 

If one monolight blows, the rest of your set is still in operation. You may be inconvenienced and have to

rethink some of your lighting patterns, but you are not out of business. For me, power pack systems are only

viable if I can afford a back up pack to sit on a shelf until needed.

[summerleif]

AlienBee strobes plus Vagabond II battery system is an alternative to Bowens Gemini Digital plus Travel-Pak+ battery system for portable strobes that can be used outdoors where AC power is not available.

 

I agree that mono lights are a much more cost effective and practical approach to studio lighting that pack and head based systems. The pack and head approach is in large part a legacy design in terms of electronics. Mono lights are possible today because of advances in electronics, including digital circuitry and smaller, more efficient, cooler, capacitors to fire the strobe's flash tube.

[nathan_stiles]

Alien Bee's Vagabond II is quicker (and cheaper) than the Travel Pak, but heavier. I personally would rather have the 9lb. Travel Pak. Also, my Vagabond has trouble w/ over heating, and then it stops working until it's shut down for a while.

 

Monolights are the way to go, if you are using only a few heads-- some of the info above is mistaken though:

 

Monolights are cheaper-- may not be the case. The reason why some heads cost as much as a single monolight, is they are rated for 2400 w/s. When you upgrade, your starter 400 (800?) w/s pack to 2400, you get to keep the heads you already had. When you upgrade your monolights, the small ones get dusty until you need a low powered kicker light. This is why large commercial firms don't use monolights as a mainstay. (if someone wants to tell me about the large firms that keep some mono's laying around, I know... they are extras for accent lights or small projects-- or an exception to the norm).

 

You need a back up for a pack and head-- no more than you need a back up for a monolight. If you have 5 monolights, and need 5, then when one blows you are out of luck. The mistake in thinking is that when a power pack goes, you are SOL. Normally the first thing to go on a power pack is a capacitor or a plug. IF a capacitor goes, you can still use all your heads, but at 3/4 or 1/2 power (this is subject to change based on the brand and model). If a plug goes, you have one less socket to use-- in a 4 or 6 socket pack, you may be able to use all your heads, but w/ less flexibility in ratios.

 

The Pros of monolights are at it's highest w/ the least amount of heads-- w/ only two heads, the control you get from a monolight is huge. And the benifit from a pack system is close to nothing.

 

The Pros of a pack system starts to show at 5 heads and more (some studio, and most high end commercial set ups). Your ratio control (normally two packs by now) is more efficient, b/c you are distributing more power instead of just not using. If you need to make an adjustment, you don't have to lower a head from a boom to access the controls. You don't have to open up a lighting modifier to get at it, and you don't have to run around to each head-- you adjust the packs that are sitting on a wheeled cart at waist/torso level beside you.

 

 

So... 3 heads or less: get monolights, no question. Five heads or more in the future: I'd strongly suggest a pack system. That four head range... coin toss for me. For a pack system, I use Speedotron Blackline, but like what I know about Dynalite. For mono's, AB's are a good value here in the states.

[digitmstr]

Spend the money on ONE good monoblock and softbox to start with. Add a reflector and you can do all sorts of portraits with that setup.

[charlesheckel]

As noted above, you do indeed get what you pay for, and if you're planning to use your lighting setup regularly--and

particularly if you're going to be making money off it--higher end lighting equipment is the way to go. I agree that the

Calumet equipment in the first referral is pretty good quality at a reasonable price. If cost is no object, you might

consider an Elinchrom setup with a number of very fancy reflector units--no, not the flash heads, just the reflectors for

them--that run $3000 apiece.<p>

If you're learning and not sure where you want to go with your kit, very inexpensive strobe heads are available that run

off AC ("mono lights," I suppose), and can be fired with photo slaves and a synch cord, assuming your camera

accepts such. They do have longer recycle times, use energy less efficiently, have shorter service lives, and may

not have good color balance or match well with other units. None of the above should stop you from replacing one

defective cheap strobe head with another, or from making surprisingly good portraits with a single head directed into

a cheap umbrella.<p>

Another consideration is that some high-end digital cameras have a lot of built-in smarts that work with proprietary

flash units to produce correctly balanced and exposed multi-unit studio-type shots automagically. With non-

proprietary flashes, the magic will not work, and some, particularly the older models, have trigger voltages that will fry

the innards of the Very Latest Technology. If you're not going to be working with higher-end connectivity such as

Pocket Wizards, be sure to invest in a gizmo called an optoisolator for around $15.