Reasonably portable studio lighting-advice needed

Flash In The Pan

Flash In The Pan

Suspended / Banned
Messages
27,793
Edit My Images
Yes
Looking for suggestions for some decent, reasonably lightweight but powerful studio lighting. I'm not looking for a "£100 Ebay set", budget up to about £750 or so, but ideally a bit less to allow for an invertor etc for outdoor use.
 
Camera shops usually recommend Bowens. This isn't surprising because Bowens are available for resale, some other makes aren't available to retailers.
A lot of them recommend Interfit. This isn't surprising either, because they make a good profit on Interfit products.

Bowens are in fact a good product, just mentioning the profit motive because it can influence recommendations. Bowens are however expensive for what they are.

Another good make is Lencarta. Very, very similar to Bowens but at a much lower price. Same accessory fitting, again the accessories are much cheaper.

And Elinchrom is the other good make. Again, they're expensive and the accessories are expensive too.

All 3 of these manufacturers produce battery powered studio flash as well as mains, although you get much better value from mains powered units.

There are plenty of cheaper brands available too, but basically you get what you pay for.
 
I have a fairly large lencarta based setup - I found the quality of most parts very good! It could be better but you get what you pay for.

Overall I was very pleased with my setup.
 
hyakuhei said:
I have a fairly large lencarta based setup - I found the quality of most parts very good! It could be better but you get what you pay for.

Overall I was very pleased with my setup.
Click to expand...
I know what you mean about the quality of most parts - the softboxes are the weak point of the gear you bought from Ebay, they work OK but aren't as well made as the other items.

Lencarta have a new range now, fully Bowens compatible, includes folding softboxes too.
 
The softboxes are a bit ticky, I found most of the light modifiers to be sub standard I'm afraid - actually set fire to one of my Gels lol

That said, the quality of the light was fantastic, very little variation. The optical triggers could be better but they worked well enough - great value for money.
 
Thanks for the tips Garry, I'll keep that in mind when I'm in the market for such a lighting set up! I was initially interested in the Interfit package they had for £250 but the guy in the shop suggested the quality wasn't amazing and so recommended the Bowens package. That was a bit out of my price range at the time so passed on both for a speedlight set up.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top