Light stands, speedlite mounting, modifier suggestions?

AlanU wrote in post #14116526
Yohan,

spend your beans $$$$$

The Mathews stand has a very large foot print and the shaft is quite rigid for a small stand. My take is you buy your beefier stands for larger strobes/large modifiers and have super stable strobist type stands.

I agree--stronger stands for large strobes and modifiers, smaller one for strobist. Already set for the former so I'm looking for the latter. I almost forgot what I was looking for and got a bit too focused on absolute sturdiness when it's a balance between sturdiness, light weight, and compactness that I really need for speedlites.

I'm liking the look of your stand. The one mike_d suggested looks good too with the same weight rating and actually a little lighter, but the Matthews is appealing because it collapses.

yohan,

I actually own a manfrotto nano "clone" aswell. I bought an Mpex stand that looks almost identical to the manfrotto but the mpex is actually has a more rigid shaft.

I was quite pleasantly suprised how the Mathews reverse stand dwarfs the manfrotto nano. The Mathews stand is quite compact.

I do like the compact size of my new mathews stands and very pleased that now I have 4 small stands in total that are so compact. The Stackable manfrottos are extremely stable and if you have the right bag you can make them reasonably portable too (but the larger version I have is heavier).

Mpex also has "manfrotto" umbrella bracket "clones" that are very well constructed. I have a handful of those too aswell as the cheaper plastic photoflex/impact brands. The Mpex casted umbrella brackets have ridges so they lock into place vs. the cheaper plastic umbrella brackets.