|
Forums >
Photography Talk >
Alien B vs Adorama Flashpo vs Paterson stellar 300
Experience? Thoughts on each?? Here are my needs: Small Studio set up three or two light for single person. Ideally I would like to use two lights on stands (Highlight/ and background) and my on camera flash as a soft front fill. Useing a reflector to augment where needed. My background: I am working scenic designer, that is what I do for a living, I shoot my sets available light. In taking a class to become better at my craft I have found that I would like to expand my photography a little bit. In doing so I have hit upon helping an image consultant & her clients by doing a workshop on poseing for photographs in a studio setting. So I am going to her studio setting up some seamless and some lights that will get some good headshots teathered. any help is appreciated as I am a bit of a studio noob. :-) Alien Bee: http://www.alienbees.com/digi.html Adorama Flashpoint kit: http://www.adorama.com/FP620APWK.html?s … &item_no=3 Paterson: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/3 … light.html Mar 11 08 10:06 am Link I don't think you can expect help from anyone who has experience with all three of these. The ABs look to be the best bet. The others seem a little "generic" for me. At least the ABs can be upgraded (through AB) or sold for most of what you paid for them if you decide to upgrade or if you just decide to sell them. I think the ABs will be an investment, the generics, not so much... Mar 11 08 10:10 am Link I have used the Stellar 300 set you have there, the monolights are pretty good, fan cooled, housed in metal, BUT their stands, softboxes and umbrellas are something I would avoid at all costs: -Interfit Softboxes and umbrellas give a f-ugly magenta cast (perhaps they use blue toning to make the baffles look "whiter") -The light stands are a POS, and tiny for the strobes, you will be far better getting heavy duty stands -I have heard the same for Alienbees' ligthstands- Impact or Savage Heavy duty stands are very good and not much expensive. Now the pros: they are very powerful, they are fan cooled, sturdy and very well made, they use bowens reflectors -which is good because there is a whole lot of accs to choose for the lights-, exposure is constant and color too. I recommend you do your own package of softboxes -photoflex, chimera are good and remember to get the speedring for bowens monolights- and light stands -impact and savage heavy duty stands are good-  Good luck. Mar 11 08 10:14 am Link Eduardo Frances wrote: Speedring for bowens monolight? you lost me there. Mar 11 08 10:21 am Link Fahrer Design Studio wrote: The intefit Stellar monolights uses Bowens S-type bayonet fitting so it can use reflectors and speedrings made for bowens monolights Mar 11 08 10:34 am Link Gotcha and speedrings are what you attach the softboxes to the flashunit (told you I was pretty new at this) Mar 11 08 10:35 am Link Fahrer Design Studio wrote: yeap yeap Mar 11 08 10:39 am Link Well, there's hundreds of Alien Bees threads. If you were to read them all you might come to the conclusion that they are: 1. A good light for the money. They're designed to be inexpensive but perfectly functional. They're a good value and they work. 2. No, they're not as nice or as fancy as lights that cost much more. (Many will advise you to spend "a little bit more" on lights that actually cost 2, 3, or more times as much as an Alien Bees unit). 3. The accessories are not as popular as the lights themselves. Most people buy stands and softboxes somewhere else. The Alien Bees speedring is priced right and will let you use just about any softbox. 4. There is some color shift as you vary the power of the flash. This is something most lower priced lights suffer from to some extent. The actual shift is relatively small (a couple hundred kelvin from one extreme to the other), and you should be doing a custom white balance anyway. 5. Their customer service is excellent. Mar 11 08 10:48 am Link Yeah I have read about the Bees the thing is the 400 is only 150 w where teh patterson is 300w. If I 2 Impact stands, an Elinchrom Umbrella, a Photoflex softbox, the ring, and 2 300 w patterson it looks like I will spend about 680$. The question is 300w vs 150w strobes. Will the impact stand flash synch with my Canon 430? Mar 11 08 10:57 am Link Fahrer Design Studio wrote: You can get a Photoflex or Westcott umbrellas they are cheaper but great quality Mar 11 08 11:07 am Link Fahrer Design Studio wrote: Go for the Elinchrom D-Light 4 set at Adorama. Mar 11 08 11:11 am Link Eduardo Frances wrote: Wonder if I should get the kit? Mar 11 08 11:21 am Link Fahrer Design Studio wrote: Hmmm If it were me the one buying, I would really prefer to buy the Heavy duty stands rather than normal ones Mar 11 08 12:51 pm Link Knock some stands over in your studio? LOL Looks like I got a package from B&H together for a total of 700$ including taxes in NYC Alinebees 800 Package (300w) with lighter duty stands look to be 844$ So looks like I know what I am getting when my next teaching check comes around. Mar 11 08 01:17 pm Link Go with Hensel, they pretty good. Mar 11 08 01:54 pm Link Fahrer Design Studio wrote: The image below was done in a 9.5' x 12' room with one AB400 over head in a brolly box. The background light was provided by a Sunpak DS20 hotshoe flash, triggered by a "poverty wizard". Fill was provided by a large silver reflector below the camera. The little "sparkle" light at camera right was provided by a Quantaray MS-1 shoemount slave flash. I have no idea what the w/s ratings are on the hotshoe flashes, but the asa100 guide numbers are about 28 and 22 feet respectively (as tested with my flashmeter). The AB400 was cranked down to about half power. Camera setting was f/8 @ 1/200sec, asa200. All this is to say that, while generally speaking more power is better, you really do not need a sh*tload of power to do headshots, particularly in a small space. Just for the record, I have an AB800 and another AB400. They have not been out of the case in some time. Mar 11 08 04:47 pm Link . Mar 12 08 08:15 am Link Here's a vote for the Bees. The customer service is superb for when something breaks, they are very popular so there's lots of threads and info out about them, also since they are popular you can easily sell them for good $$$ if/when you need to upgrade to something fancier. Mar 12 08 09:56 am Link Fahrer Design Studio wrote: Telling ya you cannot go wrong with the Elinchrom kit. I have shot a lot of lights and Elinchrom's consistency got me convinced. Mar 12 08 09:59 am Link I like Dyna-Lite. Same spec's and quality of the more expensive lights like Pro-Foto or Broncolor but for a lot less. I use em, have a pack thats almost as old as I am and they are still kickin'. Have always thought about getting AB's, but for the little bit more I feel I have gotten my moneys worth Mar 12 08 10:10 am Link Imagenes wrote: I just invested my tax refund in a set of AlienBee B800s. Best photographic purchase I ever made. I noticed an immediate improvement in the quality of the images I was producing, even bigger than I saw going from a point & shoot to a DSLR. More importantly it made everything just so much EASIER. The time savings alone makes it worth it. Mar 12 08 12:26 pm Link I vote for the Alien Bees, but I am biased having had them for over 4 years now. However, I felt the need to point out, that unless they changed their light stands, AB light stands are identical to Impact light stands (except for the label). I know I have both AB stands and Impact stands that are identical (and for trivia, the impact stand had to be repaired, while the AB ones haven't). I do note the heavy duty stands are the best to get if you are going to be using softboxes or especially boom arms and softboxes. Mar 12 08 12:50 pm Link I am working with the Flashpoints. I looked at the AB's but in the end two things pointed me to the Flashpoints. One they are in NYC so I can pick up parts and accessories in an hour. Two the accessories are a lot cheaper then the AB's and they are well made for the price. Just like camera's are cheap compared to glass, I am finding that lights are cheap compared to soft boxes, grids, gels, snoots, barn doors etc. Mar 12 08 02:18 pm Link PS spend more and get more power, you can always turn them down. http://www.adorama.com/FP1820PWK.html Mar 12 08 02:19 pm Link Yeah flash points are under consideration, how are the stands. Both Flashpoints and Stellar are available in NYC. I think given my space that 300 w should be fine. Maybe 620w. I will have to go down to adorama now and check them out. How is there customer service? The wedding kit does look good. But this is wht I put together at B&H: 2-Impact Air-Cushioned Heavy Duty Light Stand 1 - Photoflex Convertible Umbrella 30" 1 - Impact Light Kit Bag 1 - Photoflex Speed Ring Octo Connector 1 - Photoflex LiteDome Q39 Softbox Small - 16x22x13 2 - Interfit / Paterson 2 - Stellar 300 Watt/Second Monolight Total pre tax & Shipping - 700.72 I like the 5 f stops with the patterson down to 1/32, but I see flashpoint might save me some money how is the adjustability it only goes down to 1/8 at how many stops? I am shooting Digital SLR, I won't be doing medium format. this kit is tempting: http://www.adorama.com/FP620APWK.html at 529 I might be able to afford another flash. Mar 12 08 03:33 pm Link And looking at Elinchrom http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/4 … t_Kit.html this looks like a good kit. grrr to many good choices out there. Thing is I wonder if the kit with the bigger softboxes might be the way to go. Mar 12 08 03:49 pm Link Digital Extreme wrote: HAve you shot Alien Bees if so how would the AB400 compare to Elinchrom Mar 13 08 08:48 am Link . Mar 13 08 03:26 pm Link i've been shooting with a stellar 150 for 2 years and never regretted the purchase. when a tightening knob broke, they overnighted me a new one. my next purchase will be the 300. Mar 13 08 04:08 pm Link Ian Weintraub wrote: How is the refresh AB400 will refresh in .6 seconds(150 w) AB 800 will Refresh 1 second (300w). Stellar will refresh in 1- 2 seconds (300w). Mar 13 08 04:34 pm Link |
