Newsgroups: rec.photo

>I am looking at purchasing a strobe system for a home studio. My main
>interest is fashion photography, so I am looking for a system that can 
>handle head shots as well as full body.  I have done some preliminary 

>Speedotron Black Line: Reliable, flexible, short recycle times, powerful.
  
 There is another advantage you should consider.  Speedotron Black Line
 equipment is usually readily available at professional photo equipment
 rental places.  You may only need that fourth head or additional power
 once a year and you can probably rent it for $20-$40 bucks instead of
 buying it for $300+.

>DynaLite: Reliable, flexible, portable, short recycle times, powerful.

 Get at least one of the bare tube heads that DynaLite recently announced.
 This should give you better results in Softboxes and allows large (16"+) 
 reflectors.

>White Lightning Ultra: Affordable, portable, flexible. 

 If you buy these, make sure to get the remote control.  Putting a 
 monolight high up on a boom as a hairlight makes it really difficult
 to conveniently make power level changes. 

>1. What would be the minimum amount of strobe power needed to do decent
>head shots,
>   and full body shots (500 w/s, 800 w/s, etc).

 This is a tough question, but here is at least one take on it.

 First you need to define the quality of light that your looking for.
 A large (40x60") softbox or a 16" reflector? The former can soak
 up 50-400 w/s for an F8 head shot and up to 2000 w/s for a high key full
 length.  The latter can deliver F8 w/ 25 w/s for a head shot but 
 probably isn't the best choice for full lengths since it requires 
 more careful control of shadows. 

 Secondly, when you talking about a powerpack based system, how many
 light sources do you intend to use?  A main light, a fill light, a
 background light and possibly a hairlight would require four light
 sources.  To predict the power necessary in the powerpack, you must
 estimate your needs and add up the sum.  In the above full length example,
 a large softbox might need 1200 w/s, the background light 200 w/s and
 the hairlight 400 w/s.  (Since the softbox is large, you may not need a 
 fill light).  For this example you would need a 2000 w/s power pack.

 Also keep in mind that a single powerpack system must be flexible enough
 to deliver the power ratios as in the above example.  You should consider
 the capability to lower the power levels <200 w/s an advantage as you
 may need this if you use a direct reflector which is typically very 
 efficient.

>2. About speedotron, being on a limited budget, would it make more sense
>to buy a brown line unit now, and later upgrade to a Black line unit, or 
>would it be smarter to wait until a Black Line unit can be purchased.

 What ever system you buy, make sure to consider the compatability of
 reflectors, snoots and soft box mounting rings.  You will find yourself 
 spending significant amounts of money on these items so they should move 
 forward to what ever light system you'd like to eventually acquire.

>3. Could anyone comment on the pros and cons of purchasing the strobe
>systems above, or other systems you found to be reliable and worth 
>considering.

In general:

   Monolights - 
      + reliability (if you have three and one breaks you have two!)
      + Ultra systems have wide power range 
      + May not have the reflector assortment common to pack systems
      - typically don't include fans which are important if you
        run you modeling lights for long periods of time and are
        flashing the unit a lot
      - typically heavier than light heads, so booms must be more
        sturdy and (possibly) more expensive 
      - only one light head per monolight (if you have three, you have 
        only three)

   PowerPack Systems -

     +- reliability (if you have three heads and the power pack breaks 
                     you have none! but.. since lamp heads are lighter
                     and seperate from most of the electronics, they usually 
                     survive shocks that a monolight might not.)
      + convenient for boom use since lamp heads are light weight
        and power controls are on power pack
      + most lamp heads can have fans for continous use
      + typically have a wide range of reflectors designed specifically
        for their light heads 
      + expandable. If you have a free light head socket, you can add more
        sources (although you don't add any additional power)
      - individual control of each lamp head is not as flexible as
        monolights like the Ultras unless you use several power packs ($$).
      - portability (more pieces to track, long, thick, flash cables)
      - larger packs may not be very friendly towards household power
        systems

Final thoughts:

 I use Norman flash gear and they have an excellent catalog that includes
 detailed discussions of reflectors, efficiency, light quality etc.
 No matter which of these systems you buy, get this catalog and it will
 help you fill out your equipment list. 

 Consider used equipment.  Most of these systems are sturdy and there is
 very little discounting on new systems compared to 35mm camera equipment.
 Watch out for the cost of replacement flash tubes. They may surprise you!

> I've been bewildered by the numerous choices in studio strobe lighting.
> Could you please tell me how to determine the reliability of various
> systems?

Find out who services (or rents!) professional lighting gear in your 
area and talk to them.

> Also, how does a person decide whether to buy mono lights or a set of
> lights and a separate power supply?

See Above.

>I have been using 3 photogenic POwerlight - 600 monolights for quite 
>some time. They are excellent lights, the only complaint I have is that 
>they lack an audible ready signal, only visual.  They pack a heck of a 
>wallop, are variable over 5 stops, recycle in seconds, and are quite 
>reasonably priced.

I've got one of these and your right about the ready light!  I also wish
the flash tubes were cheaper (they cost >$150).  But I do think Photogenic
does the best job of designing portrait reflectors to mach their flash tubes.
Newsgroups: rec.photo