studio flash advice?

Deadlock

Hi,
I just wondered if anyone had any input on studio flash systems as I've been having problems with mine and lost confidence in them.

I purchased an Interfit EX200 twin head kit a couple of months ago.
Unfortunately within 100 shots one of the heads blew. i.e. light grew very bright over several seconds and was accompanied by a loudening fizzing sound until both suddenly cut out.
The head was returned to the manufacturer and they sent me a replacement/repair.
Then a couple of days ago the same thing happened again, but this time after a day long 1000 shot session.

A local camera shop said that during prolonged use, if they begin to overheat they cut out, and you swap the head until the other head has had a chance to cool down.

Does anyone have any experience of this?

I have a similar shoot scheduled in a couple of weeks so any advice would be appreciated.
How cheaply can I do what I need?
What makes/models should I consider?

500W is sufficient.
Continuous lighting systems are no use for me.

Thanks

ziggy53

I have no experience with Interfit.

I use a pair of Flashpoint II Model 1820A monolights, 900 Watt Second actual, 1800 Watt Second effective power. They have been trouble free even in outdoor shooting and large church venues. They are fan cooled and I have not had any problem with duty-cycles or overheating.

http://www.adorama.com/FP1820A.html

Deadlock

I'm somewhat restricted in my choice so I'm hoping that these will do the trick.
http://www.bowens.co.uk/content/pages/kit400.html

ivar

Deadlock wrote: »

I'm somewhat restricted in my choice so I'm hoping that these will do the trick.
http://www.bowens.co.uk/content/pages/kit400.html

I've used Bowens quite a bit (albeit different blocks); Very nice stuff

Deadlock

For the sake of completeness I wanted to update this post.
After some advice from a few sources it appeared the bowens would not be sufficient for my needs at that price range and I was advised to for for the Elinchrom 400W kit.
http://www.elinchrom.com/products.php?p_id=200#content

A handy thing about it is that it comes with an inbuilt receiver and a trigger for the camera. In this way if my own triggers and receivers fail for any reason, I will have a backup to switch to.

The only thing I noticed which was unusual was that there was no inner baffle to the supplied softboxes. There was no noticeable spotlighting effect on my images however.

r3t1awr3yd

I have old interfit 150ex's and have never had shooting all day issues.

Village Idiot

What's your budget? I recently discovered used Speedotron gear on e-bay. It's always there and the price is great. I ended up with 5 202VF heads and a 400 w/s pack for $1200 shipped to my door. I've recently bought a Tronix Explorer XT for on location shooting and a 1200w/s pack. I may add another 2400w/s pack too since they're so cheap. So much power.

gtucker

I have a set of ex150 heads and have never had an issue besides one of my modeling lamps being broken when my dog knocked the light over but the strobe is perfectly fine. I have done over 10k shots with it, im super happy with the set especially since they were only $300 and came with a softbox and umbrella, I also purchased a beauty dish for $50 from interfit that works great and their ir transmitter to use the set wireless... so overall...

get them, they are a great bargain.