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Monolights
Am looking to invest in a couple of moderately priced monolights for a studio application. Adorama's Flashpoint II monolights seem to fit the bill, but I don't have any experience with them. What recommendations can my fellow MMers provide? Jul 28 05 08:50 pm Link I own a Flashpoint and a Flashpoint II. I find they are great. 900 Watts for something like $380 with stand and umbrella. Thats tight. The light output is nice too. My main picture was shot with the Flashpoint II and a beautydish - which I made a grid for. The picture of the kids jumping where shot with the Flashpoint II and the Flashpoint Medium Softbox. Easy to adjust - alittle big. Get the 900 Watt model. They are all the same unit just different powered tubes. But its best to be able to turn the power down if needed than not being able to have it in my book. I am now using profoto's only because they are smaller and easier to take on location (multiple ones) and they make more light modifers. The recharge time on the Flashpoints are pretty good too. Excellent basic light. The only thing I hear about monolights - I dont know if its true though is the that the color balance is not as consent shot to shot. Not by much - but not as close to powerpack heads like profoto. Again - its just a rumor I heard somewhere. Dont know the truth behind it. I print my own color work and usually have to adjust the color anyways from shot to shot. From closeup to full length of the same shot/lighting setup. Jul 28 05 09:24 pm Link Alien bees are inexpensive. Calumet/Bowens are what I use. I like their mounts for softboxes and such. It is very sturdy. Very adjustable. Jul 28 05 09:31 pm Link Buy for the long term. You may have these for 20 yrs. Make sure you can get other modifiers (reflectors, soft-boxes, etc) for them. Paul Jul 28 05 10:01 pm Link Its not a bad place to start. For $380 it gets you shooting. Profoto set me back a couple of G's. If I waited to save for that I wouldn't have the image I do already or that experience. I am now continue on to the next step. Alien Bee's are hear are cool too but have no personal experience with them. They are smaller than the flashpoints. But I dont think they have the save small degrees of variable power control of the Flashpoints. Jul 28 05 10:50 pm Link In spite of Mojo's sage advice I like to go American (even though I am a Canadian). I love my old (20 year Dynalite 800 which has outlets for four heads. I have five heads and an old Ascor fresnel lens spotlight modified to work with my Dynalite. I like the built-in recessed reflectors of my heads. I have dropped them many times. The modeling lights sometimes break but the flash tubes are indestuctible. The only disadvantage of the recessed reflector heads is that you cannot use beauty lights or homemade ones like Mojo's. The switches in the Dynalite (I discovered some years ago) are double inside. When they fail I remove the screws of my pack, and carefully open it and switch the wires from one side of the switch to the other and I am back in business. In those 20 years I have had my Dynalite I have had only one complete power failure but the little case with my two Norman 200Bs saved my butt. I have used monolights as boomlights and they can be heavy in such a situation. One Dynalite 800 pack, three heads, five Balcar grid spots, two grid holders, and two soft box speed rings fit in a smallish metal case that I believe would be smaller than three mono lights. Jul 28 05 11:01 pm Link Alexwh - Dynalights are the shit (good thing). I use those two. When I was thinking about what light system to upgrade to I almost did Dynalights because I could get more lights and packs. I could get two packs kits for almost the price of one profoto kit. Both are used in my department and they get used like planes - the go out - come back - put back on the shelf for 20 minutes and then go back out to somewhere else - and they still work great. both the dyna and profoto's I got the profoto's other the dynalites because of the light modifer options and also because when I travel on jobs and I need to rent something - Profoto is the standard in the industry - so I would be able to mix rental with personal. Following the Kiss rule (keep it simple stupid) But still great lights. Not monolites as far as I know. And says on the boom situations you need heavier duty grip gear because of the weight. A monolight is the powerpack and flash in one. Whereas the dyna and profoto's are just the flash head and then the powerpack (the heavy part) is seperate. Jul 28 05 11:20 pm Link Alien Bees www.alienbees.com are very afordable and you can attach many light modifiers. The quality of light is excellent and the octobox is awesome. Jul 28 05 11:22 pm Link check out calumet's travelites [made by bowens, and accept their accessories]. i assist for a guy who has used a bunch of them daily on lifestyle, fashion, and architecture shoots for years without a single failure. dug 'em so much i bought 3 750 w/s units a year ago for $1700 (cheaper now i think) and they've worked flawlessly. cheap, too. http://www.calumetphoto.com/ Jul 30 05 04:08 pm Link Thanks to all that replied. You've given mucho food for thought! Aug 02 05 07:44 pm Link I have both elinchrom which have worked quite well and I just bought some hensel which i havn't used BUT the best feature of the hensel lights is that they have a built in receiver that I can adjust the power from my camera which is awsome if you have a light high up on a boom. Aug 02 05 08:04 pm Link All Norman... all the time.. I use 2 1200c monoheads which are 1200 w/s controllable over TWO channels as there is an outlet for 900 series lamphead also.. both heads controlled on back of ONE monohead.. independent up or down .1 stop.. all steel construction, built like brick shithouses... awesome light quality for shootin skin 22 inch Norman 'beauty dish' with honeycomb grid on a boom stand .. along with .... chimera silverinside 7 foot strip lights with grids..... light control, baby ... yesssssssss Aug 02 05 09:59 pm Link Posted by Paul Ferrara: Good point from Paul. Aug 02 05 10:08 pm Link If you're thinking long-term, there are two things to keep in mind: - can you get accessories for the lights, esp. softboxes? - how expensive are additional lights and parts? I started with Excalibur, a cheap monolight brand. It's limited. I sold it and bought a used Profoto kit on eBay. The quality is great, its expandability is endless. But, and this is a big but for an amateur, I'm scared of breaking a flash bulb, because a replacement will cost me $250 or so. And I can't really justify the prices of most accessories. I'm toying with the idea of selling my Profotos and going with Dyna-Lite, since it's good and more reasonably priced. Aug 02 05 10:54 pm Link Posted by Gavin G: IMO-Calumet=Crap. Of all the the gear I've worked with or owned, Calumet has the worst track record. If you start w/the monolights, odds are, you'll end up building out a Calumet system. Bad news there. The speedring mounts tend to come apart over time. Expect head cord issues if you go to packs. Aug 02 05 11:43 pm Link Flashpoints aren't bad. I like them. Go for it. Return if not happy. Aug 03 05 08:00 pm Link Dayvid LeMmon wrote: Update - I bought another set of lights this week (Nov 20-27). I bought the Calumet Travelite 750's and one 250 and Love them. Nov 25 05 05:23 pm Link Look into the Alien Bee's. They are awesome. I use three B800's with various softboxes, grids, umbrellas, shovels, etc. The value is excellent and the customer service is simply outstanding. I had one piece break - through my own ignorance (!)- and they sent me a replacement within two days. And you'd think they would want the broken piece in return. Nope!! They come in three power levels (B-400, B-800 and B-1600) and different colors. Check out their site www.alienbees.com. Nov 25 05 05:32 pm Link You should also just use the Search function and see the other threads. MANY people have asked exactly the same question in the past month or so. You may find more interesting suggestions. Nov 25 05 07:37 pm Link Craiger wrote: I am a fan of Alien Bees but I will tell you that I just got stung for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I never paid much attention in the past but I just recently discovered that the Bees are not UL approved. Nov 25 05 07:43 pm Link Alan from Aavian Prod wrote: Does this mean that they failed a safety test or that they have not been tested by Underwriters Laboratories? Nov 25 05 08:42 pm Link Brian Diaz wrote: I just didn't want to write a long diatribe. The Alien Bees can't get UL approval because of the deisgn of their flashtubes and the way accessories attach to the light. Nov 25 05 09:42 pm Link Brian Diaz wrote: Alan from Aavian Prod wrote: Great news. Do you think the AB site mentions any disclaimer to remove them from legalities? Nov 25 05 09:51 pm Link Try taking a look at these Same as Alien Bee's less $$$ and lots of Accesories... http://www.patersonphotographic.com/lig … 0Index.htm Nov 26 05 01:58 am Link There are a number of lights that cost around the same as Alien Bees. Photogenic makes the Studio Max II series which are very nice lights as well. One of the advantages of the Studio Max II is that it uses the same reflectors, soft boxes, etc as the professional PowerLight line. What makes that nice is that you can start out with a moderately priced light and when you grow to something better, you don't have to throw away your investment. However, and I want to emphasize this, Alien Bees are popular because they make a good light for the money. They are durable, light and reliable. There are a lot of good things about them. They have also done a better job of marketing which is why they are popular. If you are interested in Alien Bees, and they are the lights you want, by all means, get Alien Bees. Just be aware of the issue when mounting accessories and be careful. If you are going to use them in a studio environment where other photographers will be mounting accessories, make sure you show them the issue and instruct them so that you don't break a tube. All lights have pluses and minues. I just had this issue bite me on an Alien Bee. Nov 26 05 07:18 am Link |
