These kits compared to Dynalights.

[JakobPritchard]

I'm looking to buy my first studio strobe kit, and I've got a few options I'm looking at/

I worked this summer with a dynalight kit. For my purposes, it worked very well. I don't remember what wattage it was, but I can say that for stuff close to the lights I was shooting at f/22 at ISO 200 at the lowest power setting. That is to say, I found the power to be overkill. It was a 2 light kit with 2 umbrellas, and I found that to be sufficient for where I'm at in photogrpahy, though I would have liked a third light and maybe a softboxes over umbrellas.

For my personal kit, I've been looking at the JTL DL-600 mobilight kit. At about $700 it has two monolights with two battery packs. The battery pack option is pretty attractive to me.

I'm also looking at the Smith-Victor 4-light Soft Flash Kit which comes with four monolights, a couple of softboxes, a mini-boom and some other stuff. At about $900 it looks pretty good to me on paper.

Can anyone give me a comparison of these kits to dynalights (wish I could tell you what model of the dynalights). What's the difference between the Smith-Victor and a Norman kit, for example, that costs more than twice as much but looks to be a similiar set up (as far as I can tell). Am I losing wattage, durability, something else? Will I be able to buy battery packs for the Smith-Victors down the line?

Also, I'm curious: the dynalight had a single synch cord which hooked into a sort of transformer. With monolights how are multiple strobes fired... optically?

I know this is a ton of questions. IF anyone has any insite I would really appreciate it.

regards,

Jake

[Bern_Caughey]

I much prefer pack & heads to monoblocs due to the weight distribution when rigging. Heads are much lighter then monoblocs & the pack can be hung from the stand to help weigh it down. The lighter weight of the head can be important when booming or clamping to an existing fixture & such.

Generally head & pack systems have 250w modeling lights while many monoblocs have 125w or less.

If you need to rent extra gear, Dynalite is widely available across the USA & it is a very, very rugged pro system. The other systems you've mentioned are mostly aimed at amatuers & will probably not hold up as well as the Dynalite & you'll rarely find them at rental houses.

I put the Dynalites just below the Acutes & they are less expensive. I would start with a 1000w pack & a couple of heads & build from there. If you need more power you can connect a single bi-tube head to two packs. The bi-tube head is also more effecient inside the beauty dish due to it's tube design.

Regards,
Bern Caughey

[KenRexach]

I have 4 Alien Bees (1 800 and 3 1600's) and they are great. I have all 4 + a "vagabound" battery in a Pelican 1620 case (+3 pocket wizards, cables, grids and softbox rings). Its a very portable setup with good power. The monolights are pretty light so the dont require heavy stands or booms. They are very adjustable, steplessly down to 1/32 power wich is awesome.

Only downside is when mounting the lights up high one has to lower or climb a ladder to adjust the light. Thats it.

Besides that the Alien Bees are realiable and consistent + quite affordable. If you dont plan to take them out of the studio a lot consider the white lightings which are a little tougher/heavier and offer a tad faster flash durations. (+ a 3200 model for more power)

[Francis_Specker]

It's better to have overkill than underkill with power. You can always drop in a neutral densitiy filter over the lights or lens to cut the light, no way to pump up the power if you are already maxed out. If you are using a soft-box, the dyna-lite heads are fan cooled, which is important. Dyna-lites recyle quickly and are very light weight. Mono-lites have a power unit for every head, the weight adds up if you need a lot of heads or if you need a lot of power. Go for the quality, who wants to buy something twice?

[Jeff_Thompson]

Let me give another plug for the Alien Bees as being the most underappreciated value in the strobe market. I was a user of the original White-Lightnings until I switched to Dynalites. I made the move because I didn't like the heavy monolights on top the the stand and I also felt like I needed more credibility with clients than the "amateur" White Lightings gave me. I loved the Dynalites - the light quality was great and with two 1000ws packa and four heads I could light almost anything.

Fast forward four years and I have made a complete about face. First of all, I decided i really didn't like dealing with the pack, cable and head system. Since I usually work without an assistant, I kept remembering how easy it was to deal with the monolights. The core of my new system is three 400ws battery powered Lumedyne packs and heads which I love for the portability. I just strap the pack to the light stand, put the tiny head up top and off I go - NO CORDS!

But I felt like I still needed some bigger AC lights and this is where the Alien Bees come in. Sure they have a stupid name and graphics, but luckily they can be romoved and covered up quite easily. I rarly use the lights with just a straight reflector, so any quality of light issues become fairly moot. The lights barely weigh more than the dynalite heads, so I don't worry too much about putting them up high. They are incredibly cheap for what you get and the customer service is awesome. Get the big ones and you'll have plenty of power. I'm old enough now and have been doing this long enough that I don't care is someone sees these cheap looking lights instead of a more prestigeous model!

For someone starting out they have another great feature - They have a 60 day no questions asked return policy. Give them a test drive and if you don't like them, you can just send them back. Thats a deal that's pretty hard to pass up.

Jeff

[Chip_Louie]

Hey Jake,

If traveling and shooting people we take a Dynalite M1000XL pack with 2 or 3 Dyanlite 2040 heads, Pocket Wizards or the Dynalite IR hot shoe trigger. We add some larger (a pair of 45" and one 60"), and a smaller (32"), umbrellas, Manfrotto ultra light stands and backlight stand. The best thing is that it all fits in a single old black Haliburton alloy case! This is the best for travel kits with plenty of power and very portable.

If shooting anything other than people I prefer to haul a my usual 1/4 ton of Black Line Speedotron gear. It takes POWER to light stuff!


Cheers/Chip

[Scott_Dobry]

You can't go wrong with Dynas. They are the Honda of lighting. They go forever, are very reliable and are great value. Plus they are extremely lightweight and small but pack a punch with good recycle speed. I traveled with mine extensively and they never gave me any trouble at all.

I switched to Profoto Acute for the accessories and the built-in wireless (which, is no suprise, Dyna-Lite now offers too).

I pretty much agree with all Bern said.