Hey People,

  I've got a lighting purchase to make, I've done an absurd amount of research over the past six weeks and I'm really having trouble deciding what to do.

My Dilemma... I live in Australia! If I lived in the U.S I would've made my decision five and a half weeks ago.

Here's the long and short of it.

I need 3 monolights, I'd like them to be no less than 500 w/s, I have $3000 AUD to spend ($2600 U.S)

There are only a few companies which produce monolights that are either high voltage 240v or multi-voltage, for use in Australia. They are:

Bowens (Would prefer fan cooled units)
Hensel (I'd quite happily own the Integra Pro Plus 500's)
Elinchrom (Mixed reviews on the models in my price range)
Photogenic (No comment)
Profoto (Too expensive for my budget)
Alien Bees (they factory fit the bees with 240v for an exta few dollars)

Of these companies Bowens, Elinchrom, Profoto and Hensel (in order of availability) are sold in Australia for extortionate prices in comparison to the U.S or Europe.

For example:
BOWENS Esprit Digital DX500 - B&H (New York) = $747.95 U.S
BOWENS Esprit Digital DX500 - Borges Imaging (Melbourne) $1,512.75 U.S

All the other lighting brands I've listed above suffer the same ridiculous price difference.

The plot thickens...

I was very close to going with 3 Hensel Integra Pro Plus 500's, until I contacted B&H customer service and found out the warranty on all of the monolights I've listed is only good in the U.S, no international warranty on any of the lights I'm looking at.

Which narrows my decision making process to three not so desirable options.

1. Buy the Hensels from B&H and do without the warranty???

2. Buy locally, suffer the exorbitant prices and only end up with two instead of three lights

3. Buy Alien Bees 240V units? P Buff has made it quite clear his interest is firmly in the local market (U.S) Buying into Alien Bees would mean I have a dead end kit, I can't buy into White Lightning because they don't provide 240V units and I don't see myself incorporating Balcar gear in the future.

Obviously I can't expect anyone to make this decision for me but some opinions and/or Ideas I may have overlooked would be really great.

Can you go with a 120v set of lights with a quality step-up adapter to allow you to plug them into the 240v circuits? That could dramatically drop the price.

Just a thought.

How would buying the AB's be a dead end? They have some of the best customer service out there, and you can always buy additional units. Heck, air shipment takes only a couple days at most if you ever need service.

Check this:  http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1 … 120V_.html

I've been shooting with the 3200 for the last three years, the color temp is daylight, they are a little big but sturdy and super reliable, If I go to the Antartica or to Africa to photograph I'll bring one of those. I don't know about the Voltage, but check them. Everything in my port was done with mine. And good luck!!. T.T

Hey thanks for the replies.

  The voltage transformer was the very first thing I considered. The reasons why I decided against it are 1. They're not as cheap in Australia as they are in the U.S, a 2000w step up/down converter is about $200 (I've researched all online and bricks and mortar shops) 2. It's a seriously heavy beast of a thing to have to cart around, about 30lbs! 3. Not really a big deal but I can't buy 120v modelling lights locally. Everything considered it just doesn't seem like a great way to go. Definitely to be avoided if possible. Weighing up the cost vs inconvenience... maybe I should reconsider?

The AB's would be a dead end system in the fact that there is absolutely nothing (for 240v countries) aside of 3 monolights AB400, 800 and 1600. The maximum output I can ever have at my dispose is 640 w/s, now for some people I'm sure this is enough, however I'd prefer to have a little more room to move. As JiminChico said "Buy some AB's, then you can easily sell them on ebay if you want something else" This would probably be the plan, however I'd be left with a bunch of PB/Balcar modifiers... maybe I should look more closely at Balcar for the future.

The SP Systems monolights are all 120v, but thanks for the link.

I don't think I've left anything out in my considerations, I am glad however that a few people have put the 120V converter back in my thought process. The words of my teacher keep ringing in my head.. Photography is a game of compromise! I guess i'm just going to have to accept the fact that I can't have my cake and eat it too on this purchase!

Why monolights? I believe speedotron (and many other brands) makes a their packs in 240v. Any reason you don't want a pack/head combo?

Hey Frog.. Thanks for the reply. Pack and heads are certainly not out of the equation, I'd be very happy with a Speedotron system. Unfortunately they're only 120V so the step up/down transformer comes back into the equation.

It looks like anything I buy from the U.S is only going to have a local warranty, I guess this is a compromise I'm going to have to live with, If anything goes wrong I'm just going to have to send it back to the States... Customer service is going to be important!