Sean,
Mr Studio One's gear is definitely cheap and their feedback looks favourable
I'm also considering buying some studio strobes and have started the research and review trail.
I'm relatively new to what's currently around, its been a few years since I owned studio gear so before I bury myself, maybe another OPF member could give us some much needed advice.
I looked at Mr Studio One's products, 180w and 300w strobes, packaged in kits with soft boxes, and umbrellas etc. Prices range between £180 and £300 inc. postage.
These prices are comparable to Falconeye and Interfit starter kits, whereas Bowens and Elinchrom starter kits are ~£430. Both of the latter are made better, yeild more consistent ouput and recycle quicker.
Comparing Mr One's, 300w strobes against the 200w Geminis (in the Bowens starter kit) and you'll notice a big difference in recycle time, the Mr One's are up to 5s full power recycle against 1.3s for the Geminis.
Going the next level up, say spending £1000 on two heads, softbox, umbrellas, stands etc, really starts to open up the options, depending up what you want to do.
I'm thinking of getting into pet portraits, still life and maybe head / shoulder portraits. I have a one of two smallish rooms available, one is 17ft x 8ft and the other could be 11ft x 8ft (partially converted garage). I may also want portability for client locations shoots .
So i've couple of options based on ~£1000 outlay. I could go for the more digitally controllable strobes (Bowens DX) or stick with the manual ones (Bowens Geminis) and get a battery pack.
As for output, I'm erring towards 500w, this will give me enough output for broad lighting via a wafer or large softbox and provide lots of controllability e.g. stepless 5 fstops with proportinal modelling.
I mustn't forget the light meter, a decent sekonic will cost ~£200. This brings the outlay to ~£1200.
Do any of the pros think this is OTT or out of kilter, guidance muchly appreciated!
