Oh! I'm not interest in those Einstein. I was just amazed at the performance charts... And daydreaming. I'm sure they are out of budget anyway

Thanks for your suggestions!

WOW! what about these beauties?!
Look at this data comparison!

Thanks for your suggestion, Alan. Never heard about that brand. While at first glance they seem good and affordable, I couldn't easily find technical support and spare parts around the corner here in Portugal.


Thank you Peter. Wise advice, yes. My main reason for acquiring a studio system is for product and still live and eventually some fashion or portraits. 1/1558th/sec will be enough to stop any natural human movement. Power wise, for what I expect to do with the kit, I hope 2x500w is right. I want to be able to use wide apertures to minimize DOF in still life and I'm afraid that with more than 500w I couldn't do it, unless I hag the lights way far from the subject... And even with 500w I'm not so sure about it!... Well, I'll just have to research more. :/
Any advice on this is much welcome,



Thank you for your input, Ken. For now I'm leaning towards Elinchrome. The built-in radio receivers and cooling fan as well as shops near my area, are great advantages.

Thank you very much Peter. That kit is a very good option. Guide number 90 is good. And flash duration of 1/1558 is just about enough to freeze motion. I guess for now I don't need to freeze a bullet...

Thank you Dave. The Cactus V5 is a great tip (seen a review on Youtube).
I have the AF-540 FGZ Flash but I'm not going that way because I could use the modeling light in the studio heads for composing still live.

Peter, thank you for your input. I don't care, for now, about light modifiers or backgrounds, just a straight simple kit of 2 or 3 flash heads and standard softboxes and respective stands. My question is what power. For instance, lets say I'll have 2 x 500w... besides tabletop productions, would it be enough to lit up a couple of fashion models, full body?

Thank you, Don. I'll check strobist.com.
I'm more into a flash kit rather than constant light for a few reasons: I prefer to spend a little more now than having to pay a huge electricity bill every month, due to the large amount of time the lights would be on, for me to set still live compositions, let alone the heat produced by them. Also, I could use in the future the ability to freeze motion in portrait/fashion shoots, and that's hard to achieve with constant light.

Hello all,
I've been a "natural light" landscape photographer all my life but now, with a possibility of product table top and portrait photography assignments coming my way, I'm thinking about acquiring a studio strobe kit. I have a 40m2 room available so, in your experience, what brand/power would you suggest for a good relation quality/cost up to 1500 Euros?
Also, as I'll be a beginner in studio lighting, does any radio trigger works with my K-5 and K10D or must I use a Pentax dedicated one?

Thanks a lot for your help.

Carlos

Hello all! It's been some months after my last post.
This is just to let you know that I've decided to buy the DA 17-70 f/4 SDM.
I have it for some time now And I'm very happy with it. It gives me a little more wide and tele than the kit lens and I use it in almost every photo situation.
I've just uploaded my first photo in the gallery. I hope you like it!

Cheers!

Yes, I know Peniche, a city with an immense fishing tradition, one of the best places to find fresh grilled fish for lunch!
And I also know Óbidos, a beautiful town with its typical houses in between the castle walls. Lots of photo ops in both places.

Taking for granted that you know what Fado is, a Fado restaurant is a place where you can dine and spend the rest of the evening at the table, listening and watching a Fado singer supported by players of weeping portuguese guitars, in melodies full of emotion. Eventualy, any customer of the restaurant can spontaneously stand up and sing a theme himself too. This is one of the most typical things about the portuguese culture that Lisbon has to offer.

Here is a sample of what you can find in the LUSO restaurant in "Bairro Alto" neighbourhood.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8viUQOi4D8

Thank you everybody for your thoughts. You got me real confused now...
Apparently I have a lot to think about.

I know the kit lens is good. I'm using it since I bought the camera 3 years ago and I will keep it. What I'm looking for now is one lens that cover from wide to mid tele so that I have more focal depth options with just one lense, to use when I go out to the park with my kids, for example.

I haven't been lucky with my Tamron 28-75 f/2.8. A friend brought it to me from NY but unfortunately it is a bad copy, (the right side of the photos are soft from f/2.8 to f/11) so I don't use it much.
Other than these, I have the Sigma 75-200 f/2.8 HSM, that I love but don't use on a daily basis.

Of course, the primes are the best glass one can acquire. I have the old ASAHI Pentax 50mm f1.7, bought by my father in the 70ties to use in his KX. It produces sharp images, with perfect colour rendition and a beautiful bokeh, but still, limited in focal lenght.

Oh well... I'm going to give some more thought on the matter.
I appreciate all your help.
Thanks again,
Carlos