High Quality moonlights $250 or less.....your suggestions?

Hello Team,

After many stubborn years of praising the big power packs and lamp heads, I now see the merits of monolights so many to choose from...any opinions on the following would be appreciated....

Calumet Travel light 750
Digit Bees 400/800
Photogenic 1250
Profoto compact 300 used
Hensel 500 used
Speedotron force 10 used
Broncolor Impact used
Strobolite wescott

Looking more for quality of light than raw quantity used with umbrella or med speedring soft box.
Don’t need crazy fast recycle time but easy to use and durability.

Thank you for your feedback/comments likes/dislikes or any other suggestions you may have.

Vincent/Harlequin

I get my Moonlight for free...


But I paid still some for a 4p Broncolor Impact kit...
The lights are really heavy due to the transfomer. Still not much output of the pilot light. On the other hand the halogen bulbs are very small, which could be a benefit. But I have not yet tested this against a light with larger bulbs.
The friction pads at the swiveling hinges are deteriorated, but it works without them.

If you go for light-weight, either go for high-voltage pilot lamps or low-voltage ones electronically fed.

I have a set of the Calumet Travel Lights, they work well, have plenty of power and have been easy to work with. OTH, they are made by Bowens who no longer exist, so I’m not sure about future parts availability might be. Also, they are made for using battery or mains power, but if you don’t have the battery packs, then it’s functionality you can’t use.
If I were buying today, I’d probably avoid due to Bowens being out of business.

A lot of this comes down to gear you already own, like modifiers and speed rings - I've used Speedo forever and almost grabbed a Force ten or 5 several times, but then I worry why they were canned. They seem like a great idea, and the very fast flash duration could be cool to have.

Beyond that, do you want HSS for when you shoot a more modern camera? Do you want battery power? If you go battery, do you want an LED modeling lamp to save juice and still have good brightness? There are a lot of well-regarded monolights out there new, Bowens mount, HSS, battery or not, and so on. Dig through Amazon, Adorama and B&H and check reviews. You may find something new with the power and features and accessory mount that works for you.

Is moonlight a spelling mistake and it should be monolight? Recently the best quality moonlight was in a sale and the cost was about $700,000 or was that Moonrise and confined to Hernandez in New Mexico?

pentaxuser

I have photogenic monolights. Simple, work fine, lamp and flash tube are readily available.

I have a pair of Hensel Integra 500's which have worked flawlessly for me, but I can't say how well they'd hold up to day-in-day-out use.