Are Photogenic and SP Systems monolights good choices??

[james_whitcraft]

I have about $700 max to spend and need a portable strobe setup to

take around - occasionally - on a college campus.

 

We need more than just on-camera flash shots, but are on a budget.

 

I have a Nikon F100 film camera, and will go digital soon.

 

Given the price, are kits consisting of Photogenic Studiomax II heads

a good choice?

 

How about SP Studio Sytems, like the Excaliburs or Pros?

 

Thanks so much....

[danny_lee2]

I use an SP systems 3200, not bad for the price.

[mab]

I use Photogenic 2500DRs as my main studio lights, and have a couple

of the Studiomax 320s as portable lights and as extras.

 

The 320s are reasonably good; they're light enough to not require

really heavy-duty support (assuming you don't have big or unwieldly softboxes, etc). They're about as heavy as a conventional power pack head, but without needing an external powerpack. There's a good range of accessories available for them (e.g., speedrings for most softboxes, snoots, grids, etc).

 

They're not as

powerful as more expensive lights, but respectable within their

price range. The worst feature (a consequence of the lack of a fan) is the low-power modeling light, dim enough to be next to useless under many shooting situations, especially

behind a softbox/diffuser or at any distance from the subject.

 

I have no experience with the SP lights.

 

-matt