Anyone using Elinchron D-Lites or Interfit Stellar flashes?

[Juliesinar]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone has any experience with either the Elinchron D-Lite or Interfit Stellar studio flashes, and if so I'd like to know what you think of them.

I'm thinking of buying a 2 flash kit as I want to photograph some of the food that I prepare. They will be quite close up shots so I don't need anything too powerful so I'm looking at either the D-Lite 2's or the Stellar 150's, which cost around £400 for a kit, any other suggestions around that price range would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Julie

[Astaroth]

Not being any form of expert having only just got my own Bowen's lights but.... Elinchron is certainly a better name than Interfit but then arguably more of your money will be going on the name than the actual lights.

Look at the availability of the attachments.... stella probably have more options (particularly in the generic catagory) as they take the S bayonet fit that Bowens and a fair amount of generic brands use where as Elinchron have a unique fitting.

What sort of shots are you thinking of doing? 150w is fairly low power when you start using soft boxes and bounce flash if you want to maintain a high shutter speed with a reasonable aperture. I bought a second hand very large softbox today (very surprised how cheap I got it but it is significantly larger in the flesh than I thought it was going to be) for full length shots and with my 500w bowens I am needing it to be at 3/4 power and above if I need to place the box more than a foot or two away from the subject.

[Juliesinar]

I'm planning of doing close up shots, I'll need to illuminate no more than a couple of feet accross, and I'll generally be shooting fairly wide open for a shallow depth of field, so do you think 150W will be powerfull enough for that?

If I decide to get another flash later on I could always buy a more powerful one if I need it and use it as the primary light source.

Julie

[Peakoverload]

I have the Interfit Steller 300's which I bought as a Softbox and Umbrella kit. I chose these over the D-Lites for two reasons, they are fan cooled and more powerful which are both very useful things to have.

On the plus side:

• As a first set of lights they are pretty good in that they are dead simple to use and work straight out of the box without any fiddling about.
• They are fairly powerful which gives you more flexibility and are good for small to medium size studio spaces.
• The recycle times are fast, certainly fast enough for me doing portraits even of kids jumping around
• The variable controls on the lights give good control
• The modelling lights are pretty powerful (the 300's come with 150W I think the 150's come with 100W)
• There are a wide range of accessories in the Interfit range that fit the lights
• The S bayonet fitting means that accessories from other makes like Bowen's fit them as well.

On the negative side:

• The stands are a bit flimsy. Strong enough to hold the heads up without problems and they wont sink down during the day like other cheap stands but they are light and unless you have the legs at full splay feel a little unstable.
• They don't have the same build quality of makes like Bowens but then they cost a hell of a lot less. They aren't badly made or anything but I wouldn't think they would stand up to several years being chucked into the back of a car but if you treat them with a little bit of care they should last you as long as you need them.
• The umbrella in the kit is actually a softbox umbrella i.e. it's not a rear facing reflector. That in itself isn't the problem, if anything it's a good thing, it's just that it looks a little cheap.
• The softbox isn't huge. It's big enough for most situations in a small studio set-up but for a medium size studio you might perhaps want a bigger one

Am I happy with them? Yep. They do what I need and didn't cost the Earth and so far at least I've been happy with the results.

HTH

[Astaroth]

Originally Posted by Juliesinar

I'm planning of doing close up shots, I'll need to illuminate no more than a couple of feet accross, and I'll generally be shooting fairly wide open for a shallow depth of field, so do you think 150W will be powerfull enough for that?

There are certainly more qualified people on here to answer that question than me... my point would ultimately be however that you cannot have a set of lights that are too powerful as you can always step them down but you can certainly get some that are under powered.

With mine I am currently using them at about 2/5s power most the time... I do not know if they have a liner scale however to say if this actually equates to 200w or not.

[Juliesinar]

Thanks for all the input.

I'm going to research the cost and range of accessories available to each system today, I'm quite tempted by the Stellar 300 kit at warehouse express which is around £440

Julie