Hi all,

this topic is for people who are trying to decide wether to buy more speedlites or a cheap studio flash setup with a mobile power pack. Since last weekend I bought a second-hand walimex portable strobe kit (300W) for around 350 â‚¬. That's very cheap for a studio strobe! Especially since there were 4 different kinds of softboxes in there, two flash heads and a mobile powerpack (which, as expected, will have to be serviced in the next couple of weeks, partly the reason why the price was so low). So I made some comparisons between a speedlite duo - which I've strung together, so that they form one flash, effectively doubling the power - and a single walimex strobe. Here are the results:

Light amount:

TIE. Both, the speedlite duo and the walimex strobe output the same amount of light on their max setting. The walimex seems to have a slight edge here.

Light color:

STROBE WINS. Using the same white balance ("flash"), the speedlites are considerably warmer in their light color. The strobe's color is more neutral.

Control:

TIE. While the speedlites can be tuned down to 1/128th power, the walimex strobe only goes down to 1/4 power. This is very limiting especially when combining ambient light and strobes. But on the other hand, the strobes feature a modeling lamp, which makes my live just so much easier! My canon flashes, two 580 EX II, cannot be triggered optically - the walimex strobes however have this capability and are actually suprisingly sensitive, I could trigger them with a speedlite at 1/128th power standing in another room.

Ease of use - Triggering:

STROBE WINS. The walimex comes with a pre-equiped sender/receiver to trigger it, which is great and seems to work just fine. For the speedlites, you need to either purchase a separate sender or one of these long offshoe cables (got mine from Zebraflash). Cables are dangerous, you or your model might trip over it. Also the combination of two flashes is a little bit of a hassle. I had to wrap some tin foil around the speedlite stack, so that the lower slave flash could see the IR from the master flash.

Ease of use - Light modifiers:

STROBE WINS (for now). I didn't find a speedring compatible to a speedlite duo yet - so I can't really use a heavy softbox on them yet. However even if I should find something, I think it's safe to say that the bigger strobes with their sturdy heads connect better to a speedring then a flimsy speedlite duo contraption.

Ease of use - weight:

SPEEDLITES WIN - BY FAR! Wow, no competition here. If you like to travel very light, forget about the strobes - especially since the power pack is really heavy. Period.

Ease of use - battery power:

CAN'T DECIDE WHO WINS. Allthough the powerpack will last longer, their is a long list of downside. First and foremost the weight, mentioned above, but it's kind of noizy and it will likely die of old age after just 2-3 years. It's much easier to just buy 4 AA accu batteries for you speedlite. What's more, you need to charge the powerpack for 6 h for the flash heads and another 6 h for the modeling light. But then again, THEIR IS a modelling light, which is really useful.

Using a light meter:

STROBE WINS. On the walimex strobe you can either connect your light meter directly via PC cord to the strobes, or connect it to the sender unit which came with the set and can be screwed to your hot-shoe. I got more or less consistent results using my meter (a Kenko), a professional strobe will likely have much more consistent results, but for my needs, I can live with a tolerance of +/- 1/3 stop. The speedlites however really don't work well with my meter. I posted this problem in another thread here, it seems that the preflash is messing up my meter reading. I disactivated any preflash or focusaid flash, but still the reading is consistently way too low. I start to think that the IR communication between the two flashes messes up the reading (6 stops too low). So, until now, my meter is useless when used with speedlites.

So all in all, I must say I am much in favor of the cheap strobes - with one exception. The weight. And since I don't own a car, their is going to be some tough times when I use those puppies in the field. I hope I have helped some of you who are thinking about their way to use external flash. Also, feel free to leave your own comments on the subject.