Pricing out a fairly basic speedlight kit. (Shopping in Canada)

Good day. The studying continues, and the budget grows.

I have been spending some time working on putting together a budget and ordering up some additional gear so I can get into semi-complex controlled lighting shots. I've been tossing around various setups, and I think I've basically just dug myself into a hole that is easier to start asking questions to people with a better idea of current gear than I have.

I have recently added a 430EX-II to my gear bag, but am still in the process of deciding what gear to go with to get it off camera

After a fair bit of reading, I think I've basically convinced myself to go with YN manual flashes to supplement the 430EX-II, and I'm still debating between a pair of YN-560II, or picking up three YN-460II. Ideally those would be the only items I order from out of Canada. In the past I have not had great luck with customs, and I would like to get the rest of the kit from within Canada.

In the past I've also had sellers "Be Helpful", and save a few dollars on shipping over what I was expecting, which has resulted in surprise $50+ brokerage fees, so another reason to support Canadian Retailers where possible for me.

Stands:
I am thinking that for now I will go with a pair of fairly simple 5' or 6' light stands, but prices seem to be all over the place and reliable reviews or details on those in the $20-40 range have been hard to come by. I will likely add an 8' or 10' + boom to the kit sometime later. I had seen a fairly inexpensive stand with turf pegs for soft ground, but I seem to have lost the link.

Umbrella Adaptors:
Assuming someone doesn't suggest a stand that comes bundled with decent ones, I think I will be going with Opus Umbrella Hotshoe Mounts, which I've seen at TheCameraStore for $30. Had been planning Manfrotto 026, but I haven't seen them for under $60 this side of the border.

Triggers:
Cactus v5, planning a pair of Duo kits, best price I've seen so far has been $90 a set. I mostly like their locking feet, and AAA powered Transceiver design.

Gels:
Still not sure what to get in this department, but I'm planning to assemble slide holder style hoods for my flashes rather than going with hook and loop attachments. Any suggestions for in Canada sources that would work well with the rest of the setup I'm planning that will give me a bit of flexibility without going over $50-$80 range?

Umbrella/Softboxes:
Really lost on what to get to start with here. I'm somewhat tempted to go with just a pair of basic shoot through umbrellas to play with for now, and then figure out where to go from there/mod them.

Reflectors:
Vary wildly in price, and debating if I get an actual reflector, or just rig something from bright white cloth that I already have.


Batteries/Chargers:
Basically settled on getting a Maha 8 Cell smart charger, around $70 in Canada. Problem I seem to be having is getting Eneloops. Seems they are either not sold online at Sanyo distributors listed on their site, only sold in AA 4 packs with a charger, or the large Family Packs with charger and C cells that I have no use for. Not opposed to any other brands, but eneloops keep getting overwhelmingly positive reviews, so I figured there was likely a reason for it.


I'm planning to start ordering things by Monday, and hopefully people here can help me keep my budget low and keep me from forgetting any stupid little items that I'm likely over looking or would find exceptionally useful. Ideally I would put a kit with charger, batteries, and such for the 3-4 flashes (existing flash without accessories, dedicated stands for at least two.) for around $500, but so far things keep creeping closer to $700.

I'd go with a pair of YN-560IIs, those will be great flashes to learn on. For light stands I'd suggest ordering from B&H, there are duties and taxes but you get way more stand for the buck than you would ordering in Canada.

I use those Opus umbrella adapters and they'll work as well as any others.

Also for batteries I'd suggest Powerex batteries, or even just the 8 battery charger. I use that charger all the time and it works very well.

Other than that it'll be a solid starter kit. Also check out standbagger bags for carrying all your flash gear. I suggest the Grab n' Go bag. Excellent solution for the travelling strobist.

Luckless wrote in post #14685022
Good day. The studying continues, and the budget grows.

I have been spending some time working on putting together a budget and ordering up some additional gear so I can get into semi-complex controlled lighting shots. I've been tossing around various setups, and I think I've basically just dug myself into a hole that is easier to start asking questions to people with a better idea of current gear than I have.

I have recently added a 430EX-II to my gear bag, but am still in the process of deciding what gear to go with to get it off camera

After a fair bit of reading, I think I've basically convinced myself to go with YN manual flashes to supplement the 430EX-II, and I'm still debating between a pair of YN-560II, or picking up three YN-460II. Ideally those would be the only items I order from out of Canada. In the past I have not had great luck with customs, and I would like to get the rest of the kit from within Canada.

Hello there.. =) i'll try to help as much as i could..first of all, you said that you have just added a 430EX flash..just wondering, do you have any experience with off camera flash (OCF)?if you do, and are very familiar with OCF, then getting another flashes would be a great idea. If however, you are just starting out with OCF, i'd suggest you start with single flash first, and slowly understand the fundamental tips and tricks, the characteristics of the lights, etc before adding another flashes. Once you are familiar with single light, you can move to multiple lights. Not trying do underestimate you friend, but if you are just starting (OCF), having multiple lights setup might and will confuse you.

I'd go with the Cheetah Boom since you said you are likely to add a boom. And since you are planning to add another flashes, i'd take a look at the Nano stand as well. You can find a cheap Nano like stand (I think it's from Phottix). Boom will be the main stand to hold the light, the Nano stand would serve as a secondary stand to hold rim lights, hairlights, or anything.

It's good to have the umbrella adaptor on your lightstand. I basically don't remove it from my lightstand.

You can just put a velcro on the side of the flashes and at the side of the gels..you can refer to strobist.com website..A lot of people are using velcro to attach gels to the flash..but i just use the gel holder that comes with my flash.. =)

i had the same experience two years ago..but i started with umbrella..once i have mastered or understand how umbrella works, then i moved on to softbox. This way, you can save some money. I doubt you'd buy both and use both at the same time. Unless, like i said earlier, if you are already familiar with light characteristics and have some experience with these modifiers, you can buy both and start playing. What i'm trying to say is that start off with any modifiers you like. Learn how it modifies light, and how to control it. Once you're comfortable with it, move on to the next modifiers.

You can buy the 5 in 1 round reflector. I don't think it cost that much. I'm from Malaysia, and it's quite cheap out here, less than $30 USD

I have both Sanyo Eneloops (Harmolattice) and the Maha Powerex. I use them interchangeably. Both serve me very well with my SB900s..

I can't answer for you, but i was just giving suggestions. If you are on a tight budget, i'd say start off with minimal gears and learn to master it..example, i wouldn't buy both the umbrella and softbox at the same time if i have zero or minimal knowledge on these modifiers. Same goes to the flashes. If i have little or no experience in OCF, i would start with single flash and take my time to learn about OCF. Once i'm comfortable with single flash, i'll add another flash and so on and so forth.

just my 2cents

Cheers
Ady

Thanks for the suggestions so far. Always nice to get people to bounce ideas off of. Lighting is easy enough in my mind, as it is all just math and physics. I have a degree in Computer Sciences and have been dealing with harder problems than lighting calculations for years.

Getting three or four lights doing what I want and expect should be easy enough. (Getting the scenes looking good and artistic? Well, that's another story.) I figure if I get myself setup with a single off camera flash rig, then I'm just going to want two or three more for different shots in a few weeks anyway. Already thinking of a photoshoot for a sports team that I think would be more ideal with five or six flashes for ease of use, but we likely wouldn't be doing it for a few months, and I can just order another few YN-560s in that case. (And there I can likely convince the team to foot the extra gear bill directly.)


I did take a closer look at B&H's shipping policy, and since they offer Purolator, instead of a Russian Roulette fee'n'tax importer, I think they just became my new source of camera gear. I do feel kind of bad about not supporting fellow Canadian retailers, but that feeling does go away when I look at the "Half Price" Canon brand batteries I can order from the US.

Still working out what to get for stands. Probably going with just a pair of super cheap $20 jobs for now, and saving the boom for later in the fall. They should work well enough to experiment with and figure out what qualities I really need in my stands.