Expensive flashes cheap camera or mid range camera cheap flashes

[lebanese961]

hello everybody. Recently i build home studio and the only thing missing is the strobe flash kit. I have a 2600$ budget and i have 2 choices now. the first one is to stay shooting with my Canon 600d and get a hensel integra mini flash kit ( a 300w/s and a 600w/s) which is priced 1650$ here in lebanon and get a good lens to work with. or i could buy the Godox, Jenbei, Visico kit which are under 1000$ in lebanon and buy a canon 6d

 

[jaomul]

Not familiar with these kits but proper lighting will give better results than poor lighting. the camera isn't as important when you have so much control over the lights

 

[Designer]

What is included with each respective flash kits? You're going to need some stands, modifiers, and remote RF or cable connections.

 

[Derrel]

TWO flash units is NOT enough for a home studio for either people, or products, or for lighting rooms; you want to have MORE lights, like 4 x 150 Watt-seconds, or 3 x 150 Watt-seconds + 1 x 300 Watt-seconds, or something similar to this.

For most home studio uses, 200 Watt-seconds is plenty for your main light, half that for a fill light, 24 Watt-seconds for a hair light, and anywhere from 10 to 200 Watt-second on the background from one light unit.

With most modern studio type flash units, 300 Watt-seconds is actually TOO MUCH power for a huge number of situations. If your flash is too powerful to start with at Full, it really hurts your flexibility when you get down to 1/4 and 1/8 power levels.

It is however, handy in a 4- or 5-light setup to sometimes to have ONE light unit that is 2x more powerful than all the others.

If you shoot on GRAY seamless paper, and light the paper with two flashes at say 200-Watt Seconds, each, from metal reflectors, one light from each side at 45 degrees, you can "lift" gray paper to pure white background, and then shoot with 50- to 75 Watt-seconds on a main light and get that pure white background.

I would say buy 4 identical, moderate-power lights, not one 600 and one 300...I would rather own five, identical cheap lights. I think for beginners or hobby or light-duty uses, that expensive $400-$600 light units are not good investments: I want more accessories: 10,20,35 degree grids x 2 sets, barn doors, 2 of those, umbrella boxes, 2 of those, 1 BIG softbox, two 60x60 cm softboxes,and some stands, a boom arm,etc.. There are a number of really,really,really important SMALL light modifiers, like the honeycomb grids, barn door sets, and mylar or TuffSpun diffuser discs and gel filter holders that are much more important than the big octabox that most webbies desire so badly.

 

[lebanese961]

What is included with each respective flash kits? You're going to need some stands, modifiers, and remote RF or cable connections.

yes they are included

 

[lebanese961]

TWO flash units is NOT enough for a home studio for either people, or products, or for lighting rooms; you want to have MORE lights, like 4 x 150 Watt-seconds, or 3 x 150 Watt-seconds + 1 x 300 Watt-seconds, or something similar to this.

For most home studio uses, 200 Watt-seconds is plenty for your main light, half that for a fill light, 24 Watt-seconds for a hair light, and anywhere from 10 to 200 Watt-second on the background from one light unit.

With most modern studio type flash units, 300 Watt-seconds is actually TOO MUCH power for a huge number of situations. If your flash is too powerful to start with at Full, it really hurts your flexibility when you get down to 1/4 and 1/8 power levels.

It is however, handy in a 4- or 5-light setup to sometimes to have ONE light unit that is 2x more powerful than all the others.

If you shoot on GRAY seamless paper, and light the paper with two flashes at say 200-Watt Seconds, each, from metal reflectors, one light from each side at 45 degrees, you can "lift" gray paper to pure white background, and then shoot with 50- to 75 Watt-seconds on a main light and get that pure white background.

I would say buy 4 identical, moderate-power lights, not one 600 and one 300...I would rather own five, identical cheap lights. I think for beginners or hobby or light-duty uses, that expensive $400-$600 light units are not good investments: I want more accessories: 10,20,35 degree grids x 2 sets, barn doors, 2 of those, umbrella boxes, 2 of those, 1 BIG softbox, two 60x60 cm softboxes,and some stands, a boom arm,etc.. There are a number of really,really,really important SMALL light modifiers, like the honeycomb grids, barn door sets, and mylar or TuffSpun diffuser discs and gel filter holders that are much more important than the big octabox that most webbies desire so badly.

i would buy the cheap flashes but im worried about the durability and if it might be low built quality.

 

[Derrel]

The Hensel Integra 300 Watt-second monolight retails for $485 in the US, from B&H photo, so you get a very slight price break by buying two 300 Watt-second units, kitted with two light stands, the 7-inch standard grid reflectors, a trigger setup, synch cord, and a wheeled case,and one umbrella for $1,099 from the USA, and they are 110-240 volt AC-compatible. Hensel Integra 2 Light Mini 300 Kit (110-240 VAC) 7048370 B&H

At $485 per unit, the cost per Watt-second is $1.62 US dollars per Watt-second on the Hensel 300 lights. These are fine lights, and the Integra 300 uses a 300-Watt quartz modeling lamp for a brilliant modeling lamp at full power. This is a BRIGHT modeling light!

JINBEI SPARKII-400W from the web is $162 US, so 40 cents per Watt-second.

Godox 250 units are $105 for the 250 Watt-second models or 42 cents per Watt-second

Lusana 250 W-s monolights are $74 US per unit, so 30 cents per Watt-second. These are low-end lights.

There are always trade-offs. The Hensels are HIGH-grade lights, but you're paying for more features than you might need, about 4x more than the Jinbei lights. But again, investing in 600 Watt-seconds through a single monolight is largely, wasted money, IMHO...that's a lot of money, all sunk into ONE, single, OVER-powered light source. It would be bettter to buy three of the 300 Watt-second Hensels than a single 600 and a single 300.

At ISO 100, a 600 Watt-second light from a HIGH-grade monolight brand and model like a Hensel, ought to deliver a Guide Number of roughly 290 in Feet at 100 ISO level, or f/29, and with a softbox on it, probably f/22 at 10 feet. F/22!!! So...you are basically going to have to dial the thing down to 1/4 power, or 1/8 power--all the time at normal distances.

I just consulted a couple of my flash units: one delivers a Guide Number of 105 at ISO 100, the other tests out at Guide Number of 135 at 100 Watt-seconds.

 

[FotosbyMike]

Have you checked out the PCB Einstein lights Paul C. Buff - Einstein E640, 9 stops of adjustment (2.5W/s - 640w/s), 250watt modeling light(adjustable). And if there is ever an thought you want to do any type of action, fast moving shoots these lights have great duration times to freezes the action.

 

[Designer]

As to the Einsteins, he might not be able to afford the shipping charges.

Nevertheless, I would like to see Derrel's opinion of those compared with Hensel or the Jinbei, Godox, and Lusana to get some idea of the relative cost/quality/output of each make.