monolight recommendations

I'm looking to buy a set of monolights for studio portraits as well as on location, such as couple/individual portraits at events. I'm looking for monolights that I can attach barn doors and some color gels, and grids. Novatron M600 was recommended to me, but those were almost $1000/ea adn it looks like they are transitioning to new ownership and there is no way to order online.
What are my other options that will suit my needs? I'd even consider strobe /pack heads. I dont have a big budget, only $1000 total and I would like to get possibly 3 same wattage lights if I could.
Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Check out Interfit Stellar X300 kits at B&H - I just purchased an X600kit and
an X300 unit - very well made, lots of nice features for the price. Also
look at Alien Bees/White Lightning and Calumet's in-house brand - all
get good reviews.

ELT_Photo wrote in post #6753859
Check out Interfit Stellar X300 kits at B&H - I just purchased an X600kit and
an X300 unit - very well made, lots of nice features for the price. Also
look at Alien Bees/White Lightning and Calumet's in-house brand - all
get good reviews.

How do you like your stellars X specifically color wise? I remember using the older stellar 300 and they were nice but the modifiers had a ugly magenta cast -softbox and shot through umbrella-

Color seems to be spot-on w/ softboxes - I use Photogenic shoot-thrus
so thats not a problem. Supposedly, X series modifiers are all new designs.

Regards,
Eric

I'll check out the Stellars. Thanks! I've checked out the Alien Bees. I like the price but they dont seem to have barndoor and gel holder attachments for them which is what I'd really like to use.

I have 2 Normans, and 2 Photogenics. I have no complaints about either. I have used Novatrons as well and had no problems. As long as you stay with the major brands you will be fine. AB's get pushed on the net a lot, but the others mentioned are as good if not better and all 3 I have mentioned have been around for MANY years. AB price and service is good though, so I hear....
Don't rule out used. I have seem some good deals on craigslist.

laurielozano wrote in post #6756515
I'll check out the Stellars. Thanks! I've checked out the Alien Bees. I like the price but they dont seem to have barndoor and gel holder attachments for them which is what I'd really like to use.

Sure they do:

Barndoors
http://www.alienbees.c​om/lmbd4.html

Gel Holders
http://www.alienbees.c​om/gelh.html

The Alien Bees barn doors are a very poor design. I've written about this many times. The leaves are not tapered (not even 2 of them) so that means that you can never close down both vertical and horizontal aperture at the same time. Most good barn doors have tapered leaved that do allow for this and I strongly recommend against the AB barn doors for this reason.

A few months ago, a camera store had a pair of SP Systems Excalibur 3200 monolights on sale, used, for a low price. The seller didn't want the lights and thought they were flawed because he didn't get the same light output each time. After buying the lights and messing with them for a while, the problem was found: the lights would fire at lower power if the "ready" indicator wasn't illuminated. Waiting for that "ready" indicator to light up made the difference.

A couple of weeks ago I tossed the lights in the trunk and used them for a weekend at a costuming event. Used them with a basic setup, two 45-inch Westcott umbrellas and half-power, and they worked fine.

IMAGE IS A REDIRECT OR MISSING! HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'text/html' | Byte size: ZERO

a kit by mail order

ELT_Photo wrote in post #6754941
Color seems to be spot-on w/ softboxes - I use Photogenic shoot-thrus
so thats not a problem. Supposedly, X series modifiers are all new designs.

Regards,
Eric

Awesome thanks a lot