Canon 20D manual Home Lighting Kits, SP Studio System’s Two-Light Excalibur Kit, Best, Buy

>GEAR GUIDE 2005 REALLY INTO IT!

Home Lighting Kits

78

SP Studio

System’s

Two-Light

Excalibur Kit

$ $420 street

www.bkaphoto.com 800-250-8394

Excalibur monolights are the Cadillacs of SP Studio Systems’ many strobe lights. They’re well-built, with user-inter- changeable flashtubes, standard house- hold modeling-light bulbs, and optical slaves. Best thing? Excalibur studio kits are amazingly inexpensive. For less than $425, you get two 160-Ws Excaliburs, reflectors, two umbrellas, carrying case, sync cord, and two air cushioned light- stands. Neither the flashtubes nor the 60-watt modeling lights are blazingly bright, but for many applications, espe- cially for digital portraiture, they’re more than adequate.

Dyna-Lite

UNIJR-PS1 Kit

$1,000 street www.dynalite.com 800-722-6638

You usually get more power and more accessories for your money with a kit than purchasing items individually. For the most shooting flexibility, check out systems that are also battery-operated. Dyna- Lite’s UNIJR-PS1 kit, for exam- ple, provides a 400-watt-sec- ond, 3.5-pound monolight, plus

a Jackrabbit battery pack for location shooting, cables, charger, and a reflec- tor. Its Uni400 monolight features a four-stop power range, 1.4-sec recycle times, a built-in optical slave, and user- replaceable flashtubes. The Jackrabbit will power 75 full pops before requiring recharging. Best thing? With proper cables, the Jackrabbit will power your hot-shoe flash and digital SLR, too!

Paterson Interfit

PRO 1000-watt

Two-Head Kit

$980 street www.patersonphotographic.com

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✚It’s no secret that POP PHOTO editors are partial to monolights. Most of the product photos you see here were lit with Elinchrom Style mono- lights. Recent articles here about home studios have stressed monolights, as well. Unlike studio strobes that require bulky external power packs, monolights have all their electronics, including transformer, in the light’s housing. The benefits are fewer cables to snare you, no power packs to trip over, fewer electron- ics to spook portrait sub- jects, and generally less expensive and more trans- portable kits.

LIGHTING KITS: PRO-LIKE LIGHTS AT AFFORDABLE PRICES

770-947-9796			Adorama
Do you need power pops			Flash- point II
to light distant subjects or			620 Kit
allow smaller		apertures?	$240 street
The Paterson Interfit two-			www.adorama.com
monolight	kit	offers a	800-223-2500
bright 2000 watt-sec-			This single-light kit is a very attractive
onds (i.e., two 1000-Ws			entry-level buy for newbies wanting to get
heads), with reflectors,			serious about portraiture. The 620 is a
umbrellas,	8-foot		solidly built, fan-cooled 300-Ws mono-
lightstands,	and a		light with a built-in carrying handle, pro-
sync cord, all for under $1,000. With			portional halogen modeling light, stepless
steplessly variable output (from full to			output from full to 1⁄8 power, and a user-
1⁄32 power), a bright 250-watt quartz- replaceable flashtube. While the kit has
halogen modeling light, and built-in opti-			no case, its 10-foot air-cushioned light-
cal and infrared slaves (the infrared			stand and 45-inch white umbrella (with
requires an optional transmitter), this is			removable black cover) are both better
an unusually complete and powerful kit.			quality than you’d expect for the price.

OK, SO DON’T GET A KIT: SUNPAK PLATINUM LINE
BEST	Do you already own	times, variable output from full to 1⁄8
	lightstands and umbrel-	power, user-replaceable flashtubes, and
BUY		a built-in optical slave, Sunpak’s
★las? Fuhgetabout kits.
Some of the best monolight-only		Platinum line of monolights may attract
buys we’ve seen belong to		professional as well as amateur
Sunpak’s Platinum line, ranging		buyers.
in power from 150 to 1000
watt-seconds. The amply
powered, 300-Ws unit, for
example, sells for about
$180. With rugged con-
struction, 3.5-sec recycle

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