Studio lightning (redone)

[zewrak]

I have decided to build a studio at home. Starting with proper lights. So I have sold some lenses and are still selling some lenses to fund the project. Now, I have been reading up on different brands and types of lights. But I am still a bit unsure where to invest the money. Obviously, compared to a professional, my budget is a bit limited and might seem small. But thats how life is. This means I will not be buying a 30.000$ studio setup, so lets keep those ideas out of here .

Now, there is two packages that I have found that fits my budget quite nicely (had to extend it a bit, but hey, thats how photography is).

The first set is from Visico. The set contains three 300Ws (joule if you prefer) compact heads. One is fitted with a brolly reflector and a silver brolly. Two of them are fitted with 60x90cm softboxes. There is also three air dampened lightstands coming with it. Three synccords (5m) and a radio transmitter/reciever).And a bag that fits everything in it.

Some technical details:
Flash power: 9.32Ws - 300Ws (1/1 - 1/32)
Recharge time: 0,3-1,0s
Model light: 150w halogen
Stability: 0,1EV

The model light can be off, proportional to the flash strength or manually set. It is fan cooled and have the Bowen bayonet for accessories. It has IR and ordinary slave trigger with preflash support (it wont fire on preflash).

The price of this set is about 600€.

The second package is more of a Brand package.

Its the Elinchrom D-Lite 2 package

This package comes with two 200Ws flashes. 2xSync cables, 2xlightstands (which I hear is not that good), 1xSoftbox (65x65) and 1xSoftbox(53x53).

The details here is
Power 12-200Ws
Recharge 0.7s
Flash duration 1/1200s
Stability 0,5%

This set has won alot of prices. And it is a famous brand with alot of accessories.

Price about 600€.

So there you have it. My thinking sofar is;

The Visico wins on power both ends. It's important to note that you can lower the power more then on the D-Lite. And yet you have 50% more at max aswell. This makes it versatile. Ontop of that you can squeeze out another 300Ws considering there is an additional flash.

The D-Lite wins on brand, I do not know if Visico make bad or good flashes, but I know Elin make good flashes.

The D-Lite wins on stability. The reload time and the light is stable. The flash duration is a fixed 1/1200. The Visico flashes are said to have "1/800-1/1200", but nowhere, I can find that you acctually set it, which leads me to think that it depends on the flash, not the user.

The Visico wins on versatility. Three heads is more then two heads. Bigger softboxes, brolly and appearently better lightstands.

Both sets contain fancooled flashes, so no difference there.

So for those of you that use studiolights or have used. What set would you recommend? Is there something else I should consider or you want to know about the sets before making a call? Help a lost soul.

[A G Photography]

I bought a Interfit Stellar 600 kit but while they deliver plenty of power (and believe me, you have never enough of it) one head was defective so now it's on its way home to UK. So while the price was fair enough I can't say the build quality is top notch.
The same was said (build quality) also of the Elinchrom D-lite flasheads. They had a lot of problems once, before they put a fan into them in the last version, but we'd have to see if the fan will solve of all them.
I guess that the price difference between pro lightning gear and less expensive one is exactly in the build quality and reliability.
Unfortunately for things that deliver so much electric power and develop so much heat build quality is very risky to overlook.
If I could going back I'd have spared some more money and went with some pro gear, even if it'd have costed double.