Studio Lighting Equipment

[LAVrod]

Anyone here have a cheap studio lighting setup? What do you use. I am trying to budget a set up that i can bring around for portrait/fashion photography.

Also does anyone know if any of the cheapie kits on ebay worth it?

[pegdragger]

I got a great set of lights on ebay from Amvona. They were cheap. Like 200 bucks. Found a couple strobes pretty cheap too.

[mikep]

Take a look at Norman and Speedotron strobes on Ebay.
They are decent quality and reasonably priced used. Also be sure to get a soft box.

And at least they are pieces you will keep for a long time and not feel like you will need to upgrade later on.

[LAVrod]

Thanks, i will check all of those out.

[LAVrod]

What do you guys think of this?
http://www.adorama.com/POPL350K.html
a local guy is selling it to me after some bargaining used for $1000? is that over kill or will it do for some hobby portrait shots? I am also considering this instead but it is a no name brand but seems to be a decent deal:http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=220237424545

[texasv-rod]

Seems like overkill for just a hobby. I like the ebay kit, though.

[Max]

We have a set of novatron lights, they were like $500 but that was 12 years ago. Not sure what they sell for these days.

[LAVrod]

Seems like overkill for just a hobby. I like the ebay kit, though.



yeah i know it sounds like overkill but i am debating whether like lenses, sometimes it is best to just go for the good stuff than buy the cheap stuff to eventually want to upgrade again later on.

Still, not sure if the extra $400 is worth it, i guess if i keep it around for a while, it'll be okay. I just really dont want to buy crap and regret it. If the cheaper one is good then great, but the photogenic is true and tried and the features is much better (wattage, recycle time, etc).

Initially i was thinking of upgrading, by buying a lens (about $1k) and another hotshoe flash but for almost $400 plus wireless hot shoe triggers, it would cost me like $600 for the flash alone.

So i thought that I might as well get a studio kit for the price and hang on to my current single hotshoe flash for portability. And I may have to save more for the lens at a later time.

[Michael Hetrick]

Looks like a good price for reasonable quality equipment. Less than 50% of new is hard to beat, if I could buy bikes like that I would be happy.