Lastolite's all in one umbrella kits

It's a lot of money for what you get. You can buy all those things for about £40-45 seperately if your not bothered about the Lastolite brand name or the type of bag you use.
 
Really? I've been having a look on line and haven't come across anything near that cheap. Ball park pricing for stands is £30+, brollies, £25+then you're looking at the brackets and bag. Even if I could find the same for £45, I'd rather not get the cheapest set up possible but would rather get something whihc will withstand being put up and taken down a lot and the rigours of travel. Hence asking if anyone has any experience of either of these sets.
 
i think you need to check out fleabay, considerable savings on there, from people with good feedback as well, the stands can be bout £10-15, the bracket bout £12, the bag a tenner and brollie bout a tenner. im going back a couple of weeks, but should be still bout right.
so that brings you out at £45 ish, half price. quality wise no idea, but the stand isnt holding much weight so not a lot of strain on it, same for the bracket and you could spend a little more on a part if you warrant it. (eg buy the brollie for £25)
 
Check out an Ebay supplier called fotosupplies. I've bought 4 brollies and a camera bag from them which come under the brand name "proline" (I've never heard of them either) and I've not ahad a problem with any of it. Their buy it now prices are a little less competetive but go for the auctions and you can pick up a bargain.

Light stands were a tenner each from Tecno.co.uk and are the jessops own brand stands at about a tenner each (half what Jessops charge).

Clamps were from some random ebay shop, I reckon they're all made by the same manufacturer by the look of them and cheap as they are, they're simple things which haven't let me down yet.

To carry all that I bought a large hockey bag from one of those discount sports shops you get in a shopping centre which also has room for the tripod, my 3 flashguns, gels, triggers, batteries, el doblo bracket and triggers.
 
To be fair that kit is quite a good deal as you are getting four umbrellas basically.

For my umbrella set up it goes something like this -

Stand - £35
Clamp - £21
Umbrella - £26 (which is just a shoot through one) (so times that by four if you want the same as the Lastolite kit £104 alone)

It depends on what you want to do.
 
Alas, Tecno are no more, their web site just links straight through to Jessops' own site. I've also checked out the fotosupplies eBay shot and although they have a light stand for sale (£24.99 + £7.50 p&p)they've no brollies or suitable umbrella brackets. eBay in general isn't throwing up too many options for Speedlight stands and brollies.

I've checked pring on the Lastolite kit and have found them c£15 cheaper than list. I've also go to consider the p&p on four different items rather than one kit (unless I can find them all from one source) plus the time taken finding the chepaest source would be better spent elsewhere.
 
A brolly that costs 99p might be okay if you're just looking to keep it open in the studio, but it isn't going to be up to constant transit, unpacking, opening, closing and packing up again. While at 99p is cheap enough to treat as disposable, I wouldn't want to turn up to a shoot relying on something costing less than a Marks and Spencer prawn sandwich. Gerald Ratner anyone?
 
You're right fotosupplies don't seem to have much at the minute but they are definately worth checking back on from time to time as their kit is well made and reasonably priced.

A quick search for "flash brackets" on ebay bought up 101 items including this one
 
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