Need help in choosing continuous lighting kit

[choya]

Hi. I’m a newbie in photography. I need some help in choosing a continuous lighting softbox kit for product photography (mainly apparels: tops, bottoms, long/short dresses and some bags & accessories).


I like the way Abercrombie photograph their products laying flat and would like to use that technique too:
http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn220/kyw1ns/abercrombie.jpg

I will be putting the apparel flat on a white cardboard on the floor as the background. So I think it would look something like this except I won’t be using the camera tripod & boom:
http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn220/kyw1ns/500_lightstripod.jpg


I am currently looking at this Flashpoint Two Light 18X24"Softbox kit (US$109) from adorama.com:
FEBK50701 Flashpoint Two Light Softbox kit with Fluorescent Bulbs, Stands and Carrying Case
Is this good?


I’m also looking at Interfit Photographic Ez Flo Fluorescent Lighting Kit 20 x 20" (US$185) which is more expensive than the Flashpoint:
INT151 Interfit Photographic Ez Flo Fluorescent Lighting Kit with 2 Heads, Ez Fit Softboxes, Adapters, 28 Watt-lamps, Light Stands and DVD
This Interfit has 4 lamps unit while the Flashpoint has 1. However, I also read from reviews that there is only an on or off switch for this Interfit, with no feature to switch how many bulbs you are using. What difference does it makes with different number of lamps? Would 1 lamp be sufficient enough to achieve the result I want?


Are the softbox dimensions ok for apparels photography? Do I really need 2 softbox? Or can just 1 softbox achieve the result I want?
What do you think of these 2 kits I mentioned above? Or do you have any other recommendations? I would prefer to use Fluorescent bulbs and I’m hoping not to exceed 200USD for a kit as I’m quite tight in budget. I’m from Singapore and I roughly estimated the shipping would cost me another 100+USD too.


The reasons why I prefer not to get from my local stores are 1) reputable brands prices are marked too high up here in my country. 2) Those brandless or generic brands don’t seem to be durable enough. I believe those are of inferior materials, made in China types and I’ve read some horrible reviews about generic brands that some even broke during first assemble.


What do you think about doing up my own kit by getting parts from the same brand? Like getting the softbox, light stand, wire & switch separately, would it be cheaper? However, I’m a newbie, I’m not sure exactly what parts to get and will they fit each other. So I would really need detailed help and instruction if I were to do that.


Greatly appreciate your kind help. Thank you

 

[Big Mike]

So I think it would look something like this except I won’t be using the camera tripod & boom

Use a tripod (and maybe boom).

If you don't want to use a tripod, then get strobes (flash) instead of continuous lights.

 

[sarconastic]

Definitely use the tripod and boom, product Photos need to be sharp.

Here is and affordable boom , Manfrotto Boom http://astore.amazon.com/str80d-20/detail/B000OPWSYM

Check out this link. This stuff is made by a company called Cowboy studio. I have several pieces of their gear and it's very well built.
Continuous light kit --->http://astore.amazon.com/str80d-20/detail/B001P7CAZ0. They have some continuous LED lighting too that is getting pretty affordable.

Just curious why you would want the heat from Continuous vs Strobes?

Thansk

kevin