Flashguns or cheap studio kit.

Toggerman

Toggerman

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Hi all,

I've been racking my brain about lighting the last couple of days and I've gotten nowhere. I've done many searches and I appreciate this is touched upon quite often but any opinions/advice would be much appreciated.

I have recently been approached by several people in need of a photographer, mostly sports related as that's what I mostly shoot. However there will be some portraiture/group shots involved such as football teams and horses with riders. I have also been asked if I could take some pictures of a local toddler group as none of the big photographers are interested in such a small group (~15 kids). I also have an awards ceremony coming up soon for a local motor club. Obviously the toddlers and awards would need lighting but with the others being mostly outside I'm not sure if they do as well.

I only have an SB700 but I was already thinking about a second flashgun as my wife likes to assist from time to time and it could be handy, but it's not vitally important. What I can't decide is whether to get another flashgun (or 2) and some modifiers, or to go for a cheap studio kit such as those on ebay.
My budget is around £250, although I might be able to justify a little more on the flashgun route as I'm still probably going to pick a second one up eventually.

Help, please :thinking::shrug::bang:
 
My take on this is that if the choice is only between flashguns and ebay specials, then the flashguns are a safer bet - they will give good service and comply with EU safety standards.

But if you're prepared to spend a bit more to get better quality studio flash, it all becomes more complicated and there is no easy answer, because both methods have distinct advantages and disadvantages, as set out very well in this thread,
 
This sounds like quite serious work and my advice would be to get some decent equipment and, more importantly, learn about light and how to use it. Needn't be too costly.

IMHO, it boils down to this: if you have access to mains power, studio heads win every time. Power, fast recycle, and modelling lamp. You can also get portable battery packs for them but that gets much more expensive. If no mains power, it's hot-shoe guns.

On your budget, look at a Lencarta Smartflash for £100-ish, just one, with a nice softbox and white/silver reflector. Get that, see how you get on (it may be all you need, at least at first) then add extra heads and light modifiers. With the right triggers, you can use your SB700 with it, in positions where you don't need too much power.

Contact Garry above at Lencarta and talk himn through exactly what you want to do. There are other brands of course, but at the budget end there is none better, or better value, than Lencarta.
 
Thanks guys for all the input. It is pretty serious but I don't know how frequent it's going to be yet which is why I didn't want to invest too much. On the other hand I do have concerns about the ebay kits and I had already started looking at Lencarta and Interfit heads last night.

I ordered a 2nd flashgun earlier this morning, a used SB900 which I could do with anyway, I will use the flashguns for now with some cheap softboxes and see how it all folds out. If it is more frequent than I am led to believe at the moment or if more work comes out of it I think I'll have to invest in some better lighting than what I'm thinking of right now.
 
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