ok. I need to buy lights, 2 minimum - 4 maximum of 400 f.u. or more but all depends on the $$$ and quality so I'd rather get 2 but good ones if you know what I mean.
I heard that www.alienbees.com has the best affordable lighting equipment as well as quality - others say ebay, but I need advice. What do YOU THINK?
Id preffer to buy a package. where? what???

HELP.

The alien bees stuff rocks.

Let's see: I have a speedotron black line kit that cost about $4000, and a single alien bees AB400 head. Guess which one I use the most? Yup.

There are 2 things I didn't realize when I went with the big guns:
- you'll need a suburban to carry all your gear to a shoot
- you'll get tired of shooting at f/32 all the time

Novatron used to sell a thing call a "fun kit" that came in a nice box and was relatively inexpensive -- but it was definitely low-end gear. It's what I started with, back a million years ago.

I wouldn't recommend buying a kit. The reason is because the kit implicitly makes a lot of assumptions. They try to include a couple grids and a reflector and whatever - but what if you're someone like me who's addicted to softboxes? You'll wind up buying more stuff and having expensive stuff lying around you never use. Ask my wife.

What I recommend is that you buy 3 alien bees heads. An 800, and 2 400s. They make plenty of light and unless you're shooting a lot of infrared (the reason I got the speedotron) or your doing interiors of cathedrals, you won't need gigantic amounts of light. I find that even with my little alien bees head I am often shooting at f/11, which is right in my "sweet spot" DOF-wise. If you're an f/64 kind of guy then head for big boomers. If you like your aperture wide open then even an alien bees 800 may be overkill. Seriously, I know a guy who ignored me, got an 800w/s strobe so he could do close-up product shots against a sweep, and wound up having to keep it dialed way back permanently. Resist the urge to get more than you need. You can always use a tripod and pop the strobe twice, four times, or whatever.

I do NOT like alien bees softboxes. They are not as high quality as the stuff for my black line kit - but then they cost 1/5 as much. I would get high quality softboxes from a 3rd party.

And - last but NO WAY least - since you want a "kit" go search on ebay for pelican cases! You can get them for dirt cheap from some of the reputable ebay sellers that specialize in luggage. Then you can make your own "kit" that has exactly what you want, nestled in cut foam, exactly where you want it!!

mjr.

MJR has great advice.  I would buy at least three lights  I also own
Speedotron and its cool but if you plan to travel they are very
heavy.  They are workhorses though.  I've used White lighting
which I think is the same company for the Bee's which I've heard
great things about.  If you are serious about shooting buy the best
it will last.  Personally I'd avoid ebay for lights.  Pros tend to beat
their equipment up.

I have three Calumet Travlite 750’s and one Travelite 250 (now the Travelite 375). I love these Calumet/Bowens lights. I also have a set of Speedotron brownline and a set of Novatron (the 240 fun kit), which works well in a pinch and can be left in the trunk without batting an eye. I have an old set of Ascors as well, but havn’t even used them yet. Oh, and I have one White Lightning (Paul Buff) Ultra 1200 that I’m going to sell.

All my Calumet use the universal adapter for accessories which is very nice and it brings the price down on softboxes and reflectors and such.

I don't think the Alien bees have much in the way of accessories, might check first if thats what you want.

Compare the guide number of anything you look at.


Single 750ws light
http://www.calumetphoto.com/item/CE1105 … ns=1&sc=US



Kit
http://www.calumetphoto.com/item/CE1447 … e=PRDINDEX

I use Elinchrom lights and LUUUUUUUUUUVVVV them...