2 Monolight Light Question

Monolights vs shoe flash

Although you can obviously do some nice work with shoe mount flash units, I am a strong proponent of true studio strobes over jury-rigged hot shoe flashes. The studio strobes, even fairly inexpensive ones, have multiple advantages over hot shoe flashes.

• Can be used on light stands without adapters.
  
  
  
• Have various light modifiers such as snoots, grids, barn doors available to be used without adapters.
  
  
  
• Powered by A/C, not feeble AA batteries. Recharge time stays constant.
  
  
  
• Are usually far more powerful than shoe mount flash.
  
  
  
• Many have removable reflectors making softbox use better. Using a softbox to diffuse light which has been concentrated by a hotshoe flash reflector is like freezing water before boiling it to make a cup of tea.
  
  
  
• Have built-in optical sensors allowing the use of inexpensive and simple IR triggers.
  
  
  
• Have a wide range of power settings available.
  
  
  
• TTL or ETTL exposure control is unnecessary when shooting in studio.
  
  
  
• Studio lights are priced competitively with Canon hotshoe flashes.
  
  
  
• PLUS; THE MAJOR ADVANTAGE: The studio strobe will have a built-in modeling light making portrait lighting a simple “What you see is what you get, situation!”

To me, the only advantage of using speedlites over studio strobes is portability. If you want to be able to stuff your entire kit (camera and all) into a camera case and go on location, then speedlites are for you. Otherwise, it's just so much easier (for me anyways) to have modeling lights and multiple modifiers that are quickly and easily changed out, with easily adjustable power. I can adjust the power on my strobes without even looking, just turn a knob a little one way or the other until I get it where I want. On speedlites like the 430EX or 580EX you have to use multiple button presses for one change... which gets to be a real pain after a while.

I've got an Interfit 3-light kit as my first set of studio lights, but I've found myself only using 2 for most of what I've done so for.