Lighting Kit: Good Deal & Good Equipment?

[JustAnotherGinger]

So trying to avoid never ending threads....I have gone through a bunch of the previous posts. I took all that info and went on the hunt for a good speedlite kit. I would be using this for portraits indoor and outdoors. I am using a Canon T3i. If I am missing any factors, it has slipped my mind.

Will this kit work for my needs?

Speedlite Kit

Speedlite Kit

[StevenGWebb]

You are in an unenviable position. You want some lighting for portraits without having to sell the farm to own it. It's tough to assess a product for another not knowing what their expectations are. Will this outfit work? Probably it will function. Will it do what you expect? Most likely not. The chief shortcoming of hot shoe flash units in portraiture is the absence of modeling light. Of course the work-around for that is chimping. Does that pose a problem, not if your subjects don't mind.

Another thing to consider is the power output. If your shooting outdoors is very early in the morning or late in the evening you might be OK with this kit providing you will enough main light. If you are pretty skilled you can probably use this kit for fill light outdoors, but then you could also use a reflector if you had that much skill.

I have no opinion about the reliability of either the flash unit or the trigger. This is not the level of equipment I would outfit a retail portrait studio with, but it's not nearly as expensive. If you are looking for something to occasionally set up and take a few pictures of the kiddos, it's probably fine. You'll probably get much prettier light than if you use a pop-up flash or camera mounted hot-shoe unit.

Best wishes on your endeavors.

Steve

[JustAnotherGinger]

It's not about getting the cheapest stuff possible. Maybe I should rephrase the title/question. I was simply trying to establish if anyone has had any experience with the equipment, in order to gauge if it was a good deal. Obviously, as I stated above I am not looking to outfit a retail portrait studio. I saw the setup that Abel had posted in the "Great Deals" forum, after I posted this, and will most likely use that. Thanks for your help Steve.

[StevenGWebb]

You're welcome. I'm not sure I was helpful. I tried.

Steve

[brewercm]

I loved this line down in the technical details.

Outer black lining keeps unwanted light from being reflected into your photo

[Tom]

I don't have experience with that kit, but I have extensive experience with the Strobist kits at MPEX and love it. I have a handful of the LP160 speedlights - they put out as much light as the $500 Canon and Nikon lights, at less than 1/3rd the cost.

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