Pro Line 180

To me the Elinchrom flashes seem to offer the best balance. They are light, compact, powerful and seem sturdy. Wireless triggers seem to be standard kind of making my existing ones superfluous. However, the pass through nature of my current triggers means I could use a lot more lights if I wanted to combine both!

The Bowens flashes seem to be a little more expensive and much heavier at twice the weight of the Elinchrom sets. They seem easier to use though with a single dial for output power. Much faster and easier than a digital up/down for changing ratios. I know this is a plus as the Metz 58s can be a pain to take from 1/1 to 1/256th in 1/3rd stop increments.

2x200s or 2x400s? Don has already said go for overall power so for not much more the 400W/s heads are probably better. Already decided on softboxes as they are better for me because I already have two black/white bounce and one shoot through umbrella (I just hopped they are heat resistant enough).

Think it will be an Elinchrom set in the end.

Elinchrom does sell kits with softboxes and stands....

BTW I "overclocked" my modelling lamps (the units I have are able to handle 300 watts, but without fans, I wouldn't try that high) from the standard 50 watt i believe have been swapped out for halogen bulbs, so I can use them with video... your umbrellas should be fine, but I'd turn the modelling lamps down if I were using them as a beauty dish like I described earlier...

Thanks for the advice.

Yes, the umbrellas would get too hot that close to the bulbs.

300W is quite a lot of light and heat!

Anyone know how the Elinchrom triggering system works, Radio, IR?

Radio. They also have an optical slave built in which you can turn off if you want - I normally set an EF-500 to 1/64 power and optically trigger.

Bret

Skyport from theflashcentre (who sometimes have decent deals on bits) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1sdHD1kuxE

Bret

That is what was confusing me as I could see what looked like an optical sensor. As it is radio that is very good and will mean the equipment we have can be used separately without getting more triggers.