Which is better quality?

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Spiderwebb

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Bryan
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Hi everyone,

I’m looking at 3 brands of lighting kits on ebay, all come with different set ups and vary in price. Which is better quality, some helpful advice would be much appreciated.
So the first is Neewer
Second is Godox
And the third is Jinbei

The kits I’m looking at contain stands, softboxes, flash heads and tubes, digital trigger and of course a carry case.

Many thanks
 
Not a helpful response, but an honest one...
Both jinbei and Godox make both high quality and very low quality gear.

But neewer doesn't make anything, they simply rebrand products made by others.

In other words, you need to include links to the products you're interested in.
 
The short answer is Godox.

The long answer is none of the above, each of those companies have released some pretty terrible products at one time or another so you shouldn't be buying based on brand but rather the specific product model/range.

So if you want a more helpful answer, it's best to:
  1. Explain how and where you're going to use the equipment
  2. List what specific equipment you're considering and why
 
mike weeks said:
Some Newer is rebranded Godox
Jinbei has also been rebranded by the likes of Lencarta
Godox is the OEM for many sellers

Like all gear there is better and worse so you would need to see the actual kits

Mike
Click to expand...
Lencarta did not rebrand Jinbei products.
 
Neewer is a knock off copy of Godox kit (it may well even come from the same factory).

Jinbei kit is now somewhat old fashioned.

Godox have probably the best lighting system available on the market which is pretty much links seamlessly across the range of heads.

However, do yourself a favour and buy the kit from a British stockist like Lencarta. The price difference won't be that much and you'll have a decent warranty and support.
 
Last edited:
mike weeks said:
...

Like all gear there is better and worse so you would need to see the actual kits
Click to expand...

This^

@Spiderwebb theres no need to be afraid of linking to the actual products, it’s far more effective than a hypothetical question.

As a UK buyer though, id say Godox and then
From Essential Photo or Lencarta for after sales and customer service
From EBay to save a few quid but have no fallback

From your previous posts though, I’d be considering a pair of AD600’s and a twin head adaptor, a 120 gridded Octabox and a long throw reflector as a start.
 
DemiLion said:
Neewer is a knock off copy of Godox kit (it may well even come from the same factory).
.
Click to expand...

Neewer is not a knock off copy of anything that’s just utter nonsense. Neewer like many similar companies have companies like Godox make product for them but branded Neewer it’s exactly the same product. Plenty of other companies do the same thing like Flashpoint, Pixapro etc.
 
Many thanks for the flood of responses, I’ll read through them all and reply accordingly with links I “hope”.
 
mike weeks said:
@Spiderwebb my reason for stating that Lencarta rebadged Jinbei is because many including myself were happy with the gear. I also have softboxes in the same shape and size from Jinbei and Lencarta and other than the label you would be hard pressed to spot a difference

Mike
Click to expand...
And jinbei have never made softboxes - 'their' softboxes ARE rebrands :)
 
mike weeks said:
QED I am right, Jinbei made it and rebadged it Lencarta, now what was difficult about that?

Mike
Click to expand...
Not so at all. Right now, I'm away and only have a mobile phone with poor reception, but when I get back home I will reply with full details, and you will either recognise the reality, or not.
 
Here are some links, I hope they work. If not let me know and I’ll just take screen shots.

So this first link is a Jinbei kit.
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/152807528947

Second link is a Neewer set.
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/401462375857

Third link is Godox.
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/152252094420

With all due respect I’m looking for something of the same or equivalent especially in value to the above. I’d be quite partial to other brand suggestions as well.

Anyway now that I’ve released the cat amongst the pigeons I’ll leave it up to you guys to point me in the right direction.

Kind regards.
 
Phil V said:
This^

@Spiderwebb theres no need to be afraid of linking to the actual products, it’s far more effective than a hypothetical question.

As a UK buyer though, id say Godox and then
From Essential Photo or Lencarta for after sales and customer service
From EBay to save a few quid but have no fallback

From your previous posts though, I’d be considering a pair of AD600’s and a twin head adaptor, a 120 gridded Octabox and a long throw reflector as a start.
Click to expand...


Hi Phil

I’ve posted some links in this thread below

Many thanks
 
Garry Edwards said:
Not a helpful response, but an honest one...
Both jinbei and Godox make both high quality and very low quality gear.

But neewer doesn't make anything, they simply rebrand products made by others.

In other words, you need to include links to the products you're interested in.
Click to expand...


Hi Garry
I’ve attached some links to one of my posts in this thread
Cheers
 
mike weeks said:
@Spiderwebb Question is how much are you prepared to gamble your budget? whilst it may cost a bit more to buy from a UK dealer you will get peace of mind, remember most electronics failures happen at start and end of life

Mike
Click to expand...


Any recommendations on uk dealers/web sites mike?
 
Spiderwebb said:
Hi Phil

I’ve posted some links in this thread below

Many thanks
Click to expand...
Well the neewer and Jinbei kits are simply junk, the built in reflectors and absence of actual mounts for attaching modifiers make them suitable only for people who only care about the fact they’re cheap.

As Mike says, the Godox ones are cheaper than a proper UK dealer, but the softboxes and stands will be inferior, they’re sold by box shifters who don’t understand the basics (they come with dumb triggers, when adding smart triggers would have cost not much more).

If it was my money... I’d put together a decent Godox kit and examine the price against Lencarta / Essential.
 
Phil V said:
Well the neewer and Jinbei kits are simply junk, the built in reflectors and absence of actual mounts for attaching modifiers make them suitable only for people who only care about the fact they’re cheap.

As Mike says, the Godox ones are cheaper than a proper UK dealer, but the softboxes and stands will be inferior, they’re sold by box shifters who don’t understand the basics (they come with dumb triggers, when adding smart triggers would have cost not much more).

If it was my money... I’d put together a decent Godox kit and examine the price against Lencarta / Essential.
Click to expand...

Cheers Phil.
 
The kit you've linked to on eBay is shipped from China, so it'll probably take 2-4 weeks to ship, don't be surprised if your savings go up in smoke if customs find it and you will have absolutely no warranty support outside of 30 day eBay protection.

It would have been nice if you could have answered my question in post 4, no way to know what you actually need otherwise.
 
Jim_Tod said:
Do most electronics not fail at end of life?

Wine has been partaken of, so may be a user error in understanding.
Click to expand...

If you look at a distribution curve of electronic equipment failure it is not normally a straight line failure/time relationship. The 2 biggest times are early and late life these graphs I have borrowed illustrate it,
bathtub.gif
 
mike weeks said:
If you look at a distribution curve of electronic equipment failure it is not normally a straight line failure/time relationship. The 2 biggest times are early and late life these graphs I have borrowed illustrate
Click to expand...

But more importantly as a user and not as part of a manufacturers large sample group- when my electronics fail that's their end of life?
 
Jim_Tod said:
But more importantly as a user and not as part of a manufacturers large sample group- when my electronics fail that's their end of life?
Click to expand...

Point being if you have a UK sourced piece of kit and it fails in early life you have warranty, if it fails later well a possible repair or the bin

Mike
 
What PhilV said. the Godox one is the best of the three by far, in terms of performance, design and accessory range, but none are currently repairable.
 
simonbarker said:
The kit you've linked to on eBay is shipped from China, so it'll probably take 2-4 weeks to ship, don't be surprised if your savings go up in smoke if customs find it and you will have absolutely no warranty support outside of 30 day eBay protection.

It would have been nice if you could have answered my question in post 4, no way to know what you actually need otherwise.
Click to expand...

Sorry Simon
I’ll try my best
I’m just after a starter kit nothing too expensive, some kits can fetch for a thousand plus so I’m quite happy to one day invest in something substantialy more expensive but not right now.
Ideally I’m after a kit which would be mains powered, 2 (max) flash heads with bulbs plus softboxes or one softbox and one umbrella attachment with stands. Trigger set up as well.
Something versatile in a sense that it can be set up in a small studio for portrait work, not interested in product work. Also keen to do some equine portrait work as well, so that would be in doors ie, small arenas, covered barns etc etc. Lighting can be quite dull in these types of areas so I guess the wattage output would be up for suggestion.

Anyway I hope that’s enough if
Cheers
 
Spiderwebb said:
Hi everyone,

I’m looking at 3 brands of lighting kits on ebay, all come with different set ups and vary in price. Which is better quality, some helpful advice would be much appreciated.
So the first is Neewer
Second is Godox
And the third is Jinbei

The kits I’m looking at contain stands, softboxes, flash heads and tubes, digital trigger and of course a carry case.

Many thanks
Click to expand...

Bryan, where in the UK are you located?

Mike
 
Spiderwebb said:
Sorry Simon
I’ll try my best
I’m just after a starter kit nothing too expensive, some kits can fetch for a thousand plus so I’m quite happy to one day invest in something substantialy more expensive but not right now.
Ideally I’m after a kit which would be mains powered, 2 (max) flash heads with bulbs plus softboxes or one softbox and one umbrella attachment with stands. Trigger set up as well.
Something versatile in a sense that it can be set up in a small studio for portrait work, not interested in product work. Also keen to do some equine portrait work as well, so that would be in doors ie, small arenas, covered barns etc etc. Lighting can be quite dull in these types of areas so I guess the wattage output would be up for suggestion.

Anyway I hope that’s enough if
Cheers
Click to expand...
The ‘small home studio’ answer is a couple of 300Ws heads (200 would be ok too, though less of them about)
The equine answer is a completely different kettle of fish, bigger modifiers and much more power and possibly portable power too.

I’m no equine expert, but if I was shooting horses I’d prefer to work outside where it’s far easier to create a pleasant composition rather than in a cramped barn. And that’s definitely where the £££ goes up exponentially. YMMV but I think you’ll struggle to get decent images in some stables, there’s more to ‘studio’ photography than chucking up a background and some lights on stands.
 
Spiderwebb said:
What about Pixapro Gary do they make decent gear?? Here’s a link

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/171426678560
Click to expand...
Pixapro is a reputable firm that rebrands products made by others, the flash heads in that link are made by Godox and are O.K., the softbox however isn't something that I could recommend - get one that has a good quality RECESSED front diffuser.
Spiderwebb said:
Sorry Simon
I’ll try my best
I’m just after a starter kit nothing too expensive, some kits can fetch for a thousand plus so I’m quite happy to one day invest in something substantialy more expensive but not right now.
Ideally I’m after a kit which would be mains powered, 2 (max) flash heads with bulbs plus softboxes or one softbox and one umbrella attachment with stands. Trigger set up as well.
Something versatile in a sense that it can be set up in a small studio for portrait work, not interested in product work. Also keen to do some equine portrait work as well, so that would be in doors ie, small arenas, covered barns etc etc. Lighting can be quite dull in these types of areas so I guess the wattage output would be up for suggestion.

Anyway I hope that’s enough if
Cheers
Click to expand...
For general purpose use, get a kit with one softbox and one reflective umbrella - very versatile.

You will 'need' an enormous amount of power to light an arena or barn, and this will cost thousands, but when the overall (ambient) lighting levels are low, just turn up your camera ISO, that's what everyone does. As it happens, I know a bit about horses because I help to run a horse rescue and rehoming charity. And Mike weeks photographs horses.
 
@Spiderwebb I actually have a 3 head version of the Godox set you linked to (from a different EBay seller, that was UK stock and cheaper than the 2 head kit).

I'm certainly nowhere near as experienced as Mike, Gary, Phil, etc. but can make a couple of observations on my usage of it which may help.

The reason I go the 3 head kit, BTW, was my wife 'volunteering' me to provide a 'photo booth' style shoot at my God Daughters Alice themed 16th Birthday party - which we organised at fairly short notice (her dad had passed away from cancer earlier in the year, and her mum was not in a state to be organising a party) - anyway, this left me needing to light a background and subjects in a section of a large lit hall - so 3 lights was the simplest option I thought (I was learning as i went on this one!) - and EBay was the only way to get what I needed in the timeframe.

The heads themselves worked well - exposure was consistent, fired on demand, plenty of power - in fact, my only real criticism of them would be that I would have liked to REDUCE the power a bit more - which the Lencarta Smartflash 3's will offer. This would make it easier to get a balance between the multiple lights.

I did nor use the supplied trigger, as I use a Sony DSLR with a differnt hot show, but my existing radio triggers have a 3.5mm jack output, so worked fine triggering the units - slave mode on them also worked fine (one of my triggers stopped firing par way through the evening, so I simply switched that head to slave, and all worked as before).

The supplied stands are OK, but I'd not want to try them at full height - fortunately I had a couple of much more solid air damped stands, which I was a lot more comfortable with using.

The Godox softboxes seemed fine, but do take a while to assemble / disassemble - I've since acquired a large octabox of the quick assemble 'umbrella' style (Lencarta Profold are of this type) - which is so much easier!


In short - if you can afford to spend a bit more and get a kit from Lencarta (for example), you will be glad you did in the longer term.

The extra on more robust stands, quick assemble softboxes, and greater range of power adjustment will all be things you wish you had it you dont!
 
For portrait work id start up with something small light and portable e.g. Speelights or the Godox AD200 360 series. That way you can do portraits of humans and headshots+ of horses. For shooting animals Id keep it as simple as possible, a key light and a rimlight or maybe a background light.
Ill recommend getting the Godox S-bracket for Bowens for mount flash and modifiers and get quality modifiers from the start. A Westcott 180cm reflective umbrella with diffusor should do with an AD360 for horses especially if you up your ISO. Same umbrella or a white showercurtain on a boomstand makes for great "windowlight" even with speedlights (showercurtain) and softboxes up around 90-120 cm will work fine also with the small flash. For big modifiers you will need omnidirectional/barebulb heads. Small lights up to AD360 with smaller softboxes or umbrellas to around 125cm will work well on Nano- and 1051 stands from manfrotto though they may be to short for horses. Here you may need something big, tall and heavy like e.g. boomstands.
 
mike weeks said:
Bryan, where in the UK are you located?

Mike
Click to expand...

Up in York mike,

I checked your web site out, nice work mate.
I heard from other folk in here you do equine work. As I said I’m just starting out and so far in the last say 6 months I’ve done some eventing work myself. Although early days and as they say we’ve all gotta start somewhere and build from there.

Kind regards.
 
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