Portable Lighting

[Nob3y]

Am wanting to get some postable lighting.
Needs to have flash heads and while not having to be a top brand make needs to be reliable,easy to use/set up and give decent results.

Any suggestions?

[Peter]

Go for one of the starter kits from Bowens or Elinchrom if you can afford it. I bought a 2 head Elinchrom kit in the early 90's and it's still regularly used in my set-up to this day.

Go for 500 joule heads if possible.

[Nob3y]

Will check out the prices of those,thanks for the suggestion.

[Snappy]

I swear by my Bowens kit, but I have looked after it. the good news now is that you can get hold of cheap accessories to fit via eBay from China. Also 7dayshop.com were doing some really cheap brollies a while back.

If you do need a flash trigger, again I've been very happy with the Chinese cheapo version I use. It's yet to let me down.

One thing I would mention, if you're looking to shoot rapid fire is that you need heads that recharge quickly. It could be worth getting a more powerful head than you need and turning down the power to take advantage of the shorter recycling time.

[Glamsnapper]

Hey Nob3y i've recently started using kit from these guys:

www.strobeam.com/eu

and i've been well happy. I have 2 x 500 watt heads which kick out plenty of juice and are super quick when used as a standard studio strobe from the mains. They also work of battery powered packs with Li-on batteries which can give up to around 1000 shots on full power (manufacturer quote) although i've never had my pack run out on me on a shoot. The real beauty is they are G3 technology and have their own receivers built in and can be banked up and controlled remotely.
If you run at FP mode which is effectively half power they will fire in burst rates of 9fps....and it does work as i've tried it!
Might not be the price point you're looking at but very nice kit, and fully recommended.

Good luck matey

[Nob3y]

sounds promising but going on what you say will need another set up for HD video.

[Nob3y]

Ouch their prices are too much for me lol

[Glamsnapper]

I can give you another very good option actually matey....check out these guys:

www.quantuum.pl

They are Polish but very very good and reliable kit with a very good price point. I had 2 of their 750 watt heads and they were cracking!!!

[Nob3y]

Ouch they also out of my price range