Lighting choice

I have never used studio lighting, so I am in the dark so to speak.

What I want
Portability
Use for both indoor and outdoor locations
Remote triggering
At least 1/1000s flash speed, faster is better, but I imaging more costly too.

Both Elinchrom and Bowens are readily available in AU, and offer some starter kits. But I am open to suggestions.

Based on my research, I will opt for the AlienBees Einsteins with Vagabond Mini for power and cybersync for triggering - hopefully by september. Seems to be the best bang for your buck not including the chinese brands (ie. Jinbei, Godox, etc.)

I can't seem to find AB in Austalia

Why 1/1000 flash speed?

I would like to freeze motion, long hair flicks, twirles, jumps, pets etc

DamianOz wrote in post #16170912
I can't seem to find AB in Austalia

http://www.paulcbuff.c​om.au/

protege wrote in post #16171145
http://www.paulcbuff.c​om.au/

I have no PERSONAL experience of this, but I believe that even warranty repairs involve shipping back to PCB in Tennessee. The time factor and shipping costs may be a consideration - yes, accordng to their website (complete with bad spelling, which doesn't inspire confidence in attention to detail) the international customer bears the cost of shipping both ways even for warranty repairs.

I've read numerous tales of lousy service for international customers - BUT nobody ever bothers to report good service, we only ever get the moaners making inordinate amounts of noise. Inside CONUS, I understand the service is excellent.

Specs look good, I wonder what the failure rate is, do many people experience problems. A few others have commented similar about OS support.

D I need to use the Buff soft boxes and umbrellas or will other brands fit?
Is the 10 foot light stand sturdy, or would it be wise to go with the 13 foot, the hight shouldn't be too concerning
Potty there isn't a kit listed, all in a nice carry case

Einsteins, and a few just coming to market Chinese monolights with IGBT power control, along with speedlites, are the only real options for stopping action. Profoto and Boncolor also have some packs that will do a creditable job for a lot of money.

Einsteins, at least the ones I have are sturdy and won't need much service attention. Its possible to use any modifier with them that will take a balcar mount adapter.

For light stands, the critical concern is the diameter of the legs when extended. That usually means 13Ft stands when using mid to larger softboxes. Lightstands etc. I would purchase locally. Especially if you have to pay shipping.

I bought my lighting equipment from Paul and didn't have a problem. I've never tried other brands, but the Einstein, Cyber Commander, VML, PLM combo is a joy to use.

Here is the return policy page for Australia:

returns

It seems that you do ship back locally if there is any problem. Their return policy is very generous.

I think you should also consider modifiers as well as lights. I'm perfectly happy with Buff ones, but if there are some Profoto or Elinchrom modifiers that you want, that could be a consideration.

Is balcar a type of connection / mount, or is it an adaptor to connect 2 different mount types?

If I was to use Elinchrom modifiers, will they attach directly to the Einstein? Or do I need an adaptor?

DamianOz wrote in post #16172671
Is balcar a type of connection / mount, or is it an adaptor to connect 2 different mount types?

If I was to use Elinchrom modifiers, will they attach directly to the Einstein? Or do I need an adaptor?

If you look on most lighting modifier websites that offer speedring adapters they will have an adapter designated Balcar/Whitlightning. That's the adapter to use for Einstein.

Here's one example: http://www.adorama.com​/MOLSRAB01.html

Elinchrom now makes a speedring for its softboxes that works with Einstein.

Eloinchrom Einstein ring: http://www.adorama.com​/EL26534.html

Thank you