Hot lights can be a pain. You're looking at a lot of light to get a reasonable shutter speed, good airflow is necessary unless you like it toasty, and dealing with the white balance isn't too bad but still more of an issue than with strobes.
Check out adorama or b&h for 2 light deals. If your looking to invest into a professional studio (4-6 lights, booms, softboxes, octabanks, blinds, baffles, filters, muslins), then I would just go ahead and get the more expensive solutions if you feel you want that. Examples would be Profoto, Broncolor, even Elinchrom (though it's more for sports).
If you just want some studio practice, and your work is not super critical product or commercial photography, then I would say look at the reasonably good stuff. Alien Bees are pretty well regarded, especially with customer service. White Lightning is also a Paul C Buff company, and offers more rugged construction and higher outputs.
Photoflex offers a lot of softboxes and octabanks cheaper than high end competitors, and is a good bang for the buck. I'm looking to get their largest octabox (think of a med pup tent).
Anyhow, hope I've helped.
Max |