extreme budget lighting

dean messenger

dean messenger

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Dean
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well this just arrived today.
total cost for the lot was £32 !!

£23 for the monolight and £9 for the reflector/umbrella/octobox.

the monolight has on off switch beauty light , 250 watts on the strobe flash, varibale power dial and recharge time of around 1-2 seconds depending on setting.
came with sync cable too and works perfectly with my yongunu wireless triggers
the umbrella is a deep reflector style with silver interior and has a velcro attached front diffuser.. again does what it says on the tin . and is 80cm . all supplied in a nice little bag.

think they must have messed up with the monolight as its now listed by same company for £43. still even at the price its solidly built and a real bargain.

prefect for small front room /spare bedroom sized studios.

throw in the couple of shoot through umbrellas , 5 in 1 reflector and 2 speedlights think for under £100 all in cant really go wrong.

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Certainly a bargain but take into consideration there's a reason it's so cheap, recessed flash tube, no fitting, questionable build/QA/reliability. Of course saying that makes me sound like a miserable git but it's still true. :p

Strangely the umbrella looks over engineered by normal standards (from a glance), most of the time it's the same cheap design over and over again. I don't know how good these heads are but they're in a similar price range to a secondhand Interfit (Stellar, EX) which seems a better use of cash to me.

Let us know how you get on with it.
 
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Sorry u lost me when u said no fitting..what part are u referring to ? As for umbrella its a standard octagon shape softbox type..nowt fancy about it but seems to work fine. As for recessed flash tube again not surewhat you mean the flash tube part is in a conical recess which makes sense for protection which looks the same as most others ive seen..still at the price of a couple of large pizzas not gonna complain lol
 
dean messenger said:
Sorry u lost me when u said no fitting..what part are u referring to ? As for umbrella its a standard octagon shape softbox type..nowt fancy about it but seems to work fine. As for recessed flash tube again not surewhat you mean the flash tube part is in a conical recess which makes sense for protection which looks the same as most others ive seen..still at the price of a couple of large pizzas not gonna complain lol
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Branded studio heads use their own fittings so if you buy for example a Bowens softbox by changing the fitting adapter you can use it with another brands head and it also makes it easier to find other types of modifier that will fit your head (you'll have to hunt around for say a snoot while finding a Bowens, Elinchrom fitting one would be much easier). They do make a sort of universal fitting for heads like that but it's pretty grim.

I meant it's got a velcro strip and the material looks a little thicker than normal (could be completely wrong there of course) and the deeper design.

Because it's recessed that causes the angle of the light to be narrower, in the worst case it means certain modifiers won't work as well (brighter in the middle as opposed to being uniform). For the scope of this head it's probably not a huge deal. You may want to have that umbrella moved as far away as possible because of it.
 
There's no doubting the value. IMHO these things make quite a good case for someone on a tight budget wanting to do a bit of home portraiture now and then. Stick an umbrella on it (white for preference) and away you go. In the right hands, results will be excellent. If it goes pop, throw it away.

These things are a bit of a road to nowhere though, as far as good softboxes and other light modifiers are concerned. Basically, if you're keen, start how you mean to go on with a pukka system. I think you can fit stuff via a crude kind of universal adapter, but few folks spending £23 on a studio head are going to be fitting £150 softboxes and beauty dishes anyway. I don't share criticisms of the recessed flash tube - that's no different to Profoto (ie, the best) and saves getting a small reflector to prevent spill with umbrellas. Recycling tends to be slow at full power (and often not fully recharged when the beeper sounds) but with 250Ws you don't need max output for most things. Flash brightness is quite likely to vary a bit shot to shot, but not that much and that's not really a deal-breaker for non-professional use.

So not for me, but compared to the Bowens Monolights I started out with (a few decades ago) I bet they're pretty good. And those Bowens cost an absolute fortune back then :D
 
not exactly cheap now when you look at lastolite, bowens, elinchrom etc.. a basic starter kit of a couple of units and umbrellas is going to be more like £400+ as i do mainly cityscape and landscape anyway this is just a little side venture since my surgery has limited my outdoor activities... if nothing else its a perfect learning tool for indoor lighting angles and whatnot. i dont have space for a home studio so its not worth my while paying out for expensive kit thats gonna get pretty much little use. at best it may get dragged around to someones house to shoot there kids which isnt really greatly practical being as its a mains unit.. still nothing ventured nothing gained .. cost less than the money saved for the beer free october thing ( or in case of some people less than ne night out on the beer ! )
.. once ive got a suitable "model" i'll post some shots.
 
I think its great for the money, and not much lost if you find portraits are not your thing.
Looking forward to seeing some of the results. Make sure they're good, or everyone will say the lights are crap.:p
 
At that price you simply can't go wrong. I know what these things are sold for in the trade and you paid a lot less than the trade price so, for whatever reason, you got a bargain.
I also know the 2 brothers who came up with the design, many years ago and I wouldn't trust any product designed by them. Although that flash head is now made by a reputable Company, it is very much made down to a price and my advice to you is not to leave it connected to the mains when you're not in the room with it - but then perhaps that advice should be followed with all electrical appliances.

Have fun with it and view it as a learning tool. But don't be hard on yourself if your results are inconsistent because varying power and varying colour are to be expected with lights sold at this kind of price point.
 
Excellent find. You will have to post some of your images using this.
 
I used to have that studio kit. EBay special. It was a great starter kit and for the money pretty unbeatable.

It suited me since I only ever used them very occasionally.

In the end I sold them because I just don't do portrait work but whilst I had them I'd no complaints and is argue they give the branded stuff a good ruin for their money
 
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