First timer - Sp system- help needed.

[sn4il]

Hi.
I am looking to get my first studio light kit. I'm pretty new to photography but everyday I'm falling deeper and deeper in love with my 20D. Since my regular work hours won't let me catch daylight I decided to practice at home made studio.
I dont have any (ANY) experience with light kits but I did some research and it looks like SP-Systems Excalibur Pro 6400 3 Light Kit will fit my budget and requirements.
Here are my questions:

- will my Speedlight 580 EX be able to fire these lights? Do i need to get some additional equipment like transmitters etc?
- is this kit strong enough to provide good light for room like 15' x 20' ?

I will appreciate all comments, opinions and tips.

mAx

[snibbetsj]

Many people have these strobes and like them, I use ABs so I can't comment on that but you can fire them with a sync cord which should come with the lights. If you use the 580 to fire them, then set it in manual at a very low setting. This should turn off the pre-flash which would fire the strobes ahead of your shutter.

You can get Pocket Wizards or similar to fire them also.

[mjordan]

That is a great setup. These lights will have more than enough power for that size room. I shoot in a 20x14 room (of course I'm only really using the center third of the room) with a SP 6400, SP 3200 and SP 1600 and usually shoot at quarter power on the 6400 and half power on the 3200. I shoot with my lights close as well. If I move them back, then I will up the power a bit.

I use a Pocket Wizard to fire one of the lights, which in turn fires the others by their built in slave sensors. Before I got the Pocket Wizards, I used a PC cord from the camera to one of the lights and did the same thing. You can fire them using your flash, just aim it at the ceiling and let the light bounce back into one of the monolights, which will fire it. You can also put a white card in front of it to direct the bounce as well. Although you can, you probably won't want the light from the flash adding to the lighting from your monolights.

Did you get umbrellas with them? You might want to pick up one of the 60" umbrellas to use on the 6400. That gives a much bigger light source than the 42" ones... if you have the ceiling space to raise it up. I have 60" down to 32" umbrellas and use them all when I'm not using my softboxes. The SP line of softboxes are excellent by the way. And cheaper than most of the others but of the same quality. And the speed ring you get with them will already work on the SP lights.

So start shooting.

Mike

[scottbergerphoto]

I have 3 SP 3200's the 2'x3' softbox, beauty disc, and three umbrellas. I use PW Plus to fire them. I'm very happy with them.