Studio Lightning - what to buy

[CeeCee]

I have the 10D and am now ready to invest in some studiolightning.

As i have learned - or rather told shortly by a salesemployee for AcePhotonix - i have to consider what to buy. As he told me the digital slr´s are much more sensitive than the analog e.g Nikon F3.

So therefore, he stated, - i must buy a studio system which spans over much more F-stops due to the 1.6 extension of focallength.

What are you´re comments and advice, before i go out using my creditcard.

Thanks in advance
C-Denmark

[daveh]

CeeCee wrote:
So therefore, he stated, - i must buy a studio system which spans over much more F-stops due to the 1.6 extension of focallength.

That's a pretty garbled message. Somewhere along the line you or the salesman joined two completely unrelated facts: a power control is nice to have and the 10D has a focal length multiplier.

Some things to think about: Continuous or flash? How much light do you need? Do you need high shutter speeds? What's the budget? Will non-daylight balanced light present any problems etc.? What experience do you have? I think a lot of people would be well served to play around with some cheap "non photographic" lighting such as worklights before spending a lot of money. I've seen a few cases where someone buys some lighting and then complains about things that wouldn't have been true if they had selected another product. Trouble is there's no global "right answer" so telling you not to buy what they bought doesn't help.

All that said, I like Alien Bees myself - good bang for the buck for my application but I don't know enough to say about yours. There are many other good choices and completely different categories.

[Longwatcher]

My research says I will probably be getting the Alien Bees for studio lighting sometime this fall when I need to go back indoors. (Currently saving money for trip to Jamaica).

In the meantime, I get by with a couple of Home Depot worklights and a couple of continuous studio lights a 150 watt and a 600 watt (which is way too powerful except to reflect around the room). Those and my pair of 550EX flashes. So far I have gotten the best studio results with an off-camera 550EX and one worklight.

The nice part of the 10D is you can adjust the camera to your lighting to get the desired effect probably easier then you could with film. While yes the sensor is probably more sensitive to light differences then film, this can be corrected via the camera or in Photoshop.

It probably does not matter what you use, but in my case I decided I want the flexability of good studio lights and the alien bees seem to give me that, so as soon as I have the money they are my choice.
[note: I would have considered white lightnings also, but can never get the site to come up for some reason]

Just my opinion and research.

[CeeCee]

So what you are saying is : there is no difference in the studio flashhead from the analogue days compared to the digital age with digital SLR´s.

I have sighted a used of 4 flash heads by Elinchrome. 2x250 Wand 2x500 W plus extra equipment.

It can be set to 4 stops and the pilotlight is 100 % adjustable.

Will this suit the 10D ?

Thanks again - and yes i know my initial posting was a weee bit psycobabble...sorry :-)

claus

[daveh]

CeeCee wrote:
So what you are saying is : there is no difference in the studio flashhead from the analogue days compared to the digital age with digital SLR´s.


The only differences I know of are:

Don't use a flash with a scanning back (doesn't apply to the 10D)

You need to be careful of contrast and glare because of the limited latitude. (Think more like slide film than print film.) However, this is a matter of softening and positioning, not the basic lights themselves.