Bowen 500 kit

scottduffy

scottduffy

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Could anyone recommend me a 2 head kit that i could use as a home studio kit? I was using the above kit last night and really enjoyed it but the guy told me they cost about £800-£1000 and i was wondering there was something a tiny bit cheaper out there that you lovely lighting folk might know about. Maybe £500-£650 or something like that. Thanks
 
Thanks Andrew,

As i am quite new to studio photography can i just ask how important is the strength of the lights? I saw a Bowen kit which included two 400 watt lights, 2 stands, softbox and umbrella plus carry case and cables for £600. This is the kit below the 500 one i was using but not knowing how important the light power is i never bought this.
 
300 -400 watt heads should be fine for a small portrait studio - they'll give you plenty of light but depends what you want to do.
 
As Andrew says.
To be realistic, the difference between 300 and 400 is 1/4 stop and the difference between 400 and 500 is 1/5th stop - what are you going to do with an extra 1/4 or 1/5th of a stop?

It does make sense to have plenty of power and to use whichever lights you buy at less than full throttle, but unless you're going to be shooting large still life sets (furniture for example) or shooting in factories then 300 is plenty. And if you do need more power, you need LOTS more power, using in the thousands of Joules. If you ever find that 300 isn't enough for a particular shot/light modifier then simply 'double' the power by changing your ISO from 100 to 200 with very little loss of image quality.

See this article
 
Thanks guys. This has helped alot. I wasn't sure how important the light stregnth was. I will only be using this in a medium sized room about 4m x 3m. This will be used for portraits of people maybe the odd family shot. Thanks again.
 
Well, I can't really speak for Lencarta, however I can for the Bowens range.... definitely a great set to start with, as you'd be starting with "high end" kit and would last well. If you are set on having their range, perhaps you could have a look on eBay over some time and see if the right kit comes up, as quite often many pro togs upgrade their kit to their newest range or are sponsored by a bigger brand and therefore just flog their well looked after Bowens items.... wish I had done that rather than buying new :-P !!
 
Garry Edwards said:
To be realistic, the difference between 300 and 400 is 1/4 stop and the difference between 400 and 500 is 1/5th stop -
Click to expand...

Garry, I know that watt/seconds is a measure of electricty that doesn't always translate directly to light output, but as a rule of thumb is it not true that a doubling of wattage is a doubling of light output?

That is, 300 to 400 is a bit more than 1/2 a stop, not 1/4. 400 to 500 a bit more than 1/5th also?
 
I have the bowens heads and am really pleased with them, they may be more expensive than some others but I find they are built like a srick brithouse and when it comes to selling they go for good money on ebay so may not cost as much in the long run.
 
I bought Bowens and really rate them, though to be honest i hardly ever use them, but this is about to change now things have calmed down.

Apparently the Interfit stuff is meant to be quite good and reasonably priced.

I once used some imported from a guy on fleabay, Mr.studio1 at a studio in Manchester and the pro their really rated them for the price.

Rob.
 
I've had a pair of Bowens Gemini 500's now for about three years (bought 2nd hand too) and they've never missed a beat.
A mate bought some Elinchrom Dlites and they have been less than impressive regards reliability, a bit patchy on occasion
 
What about room colour guys? Just now it is cream but i was thinking of buying a background that reaches all the way down and accross the floor so should i leave the walls as they are or paint them and leave the background?
 
Depending on the size of the room, cream walls may cause a problem with both unwanted reflection and colour cast.
Grey would be better, black would be best, white would be worst.
 
I think Black might be out of the question. The wife wouldn't be pleased at all. What about backgrounds Garry? Would a black background do the trick?
 
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