LIGHTING AND FLASH KITS

AlienBees DigiBee Lighting Kit

Every serious photographer needs a lighting kit whether you're shooting portraits or eBay product shots. The key is to get a lighting kit that combines versatility, portability, and adequate lighting power without breaking the bank.

Those parameters describe exactly what you get in AlienBees' DigiBee lighting kit. This is a lighting kit designed with the digital photographer in mind, and it gives you just what you need at an affordable price. The DigiBee is a two-light setup that's ideal for both home studio and location photography.

What you get are two B400 flash units, two 10-foot stands, one reflector umbrella and one shoot-through umbrella, and two carrying bags, all for under $600. It's a lot of lighting for the money, providing the option of high-contrast silver bounce lighting, a softer white bounce, or a really soft diffused glow.

At the heart of the DigiBee kit is AlienBees' B400 flash unit. This is a self-contained studio flash that produces 400 effective wattseconds of power, with 7,000 lumenseconds of output. You can adjust the lighting power over a stepless five f-stop range, from full all the way down to 1/32nd total power. You control the flash level with a slide fader on the back of each unit.

The two 48'' umbrellas help make this kit unique. One umbrella is a combination silver and white reflector; use the silver side for a high-contrast bounce and the white side for a software white bounce. The other umbrella offers shoot-through diffusion for the softest light possible. Use them separately or in combination with each other.

And when you want to take your show on the road, pack everything up into the two carrying bags. The stands telescope down, the umbrellas fold up, and the lights and everything else (including power cords) pack right into the compact bags. Each bag measures 13.5'' tall x 9'' diameter.

Model: DigiBee Manufacturer: AlienBees (www.alienbees.com) Components: B400 flash units (2), LS 3050 light stands (2), U48TWB translucent umbrella (1), U48SW silver/white umbrella (1), CB1 carrying bag (2) Price: $599

Smith-Victor KT500 Lighting Kit

If you don't want to fork over six bills for the AlienBees kit, consider the much lower-priced (but still quite effective) Smith-Victor KT500 kit. This is a two-light photoflood kit that delivers a total of 500 watts of lighting. The kit includes two 10'' reflectors, two sockets and cords, two 6-foot telescoping stands, and two 250-watt photoflood bulbs. Just set them up and turn them on, and see for yourself how much better your photos look.

Model: KT500 Manufacturer: Smith-Victor Corporation (www.smithvictor.com) Price: $135

Photoflex Basic Starlite Lighting Kit

Here's another way to go, a single-light photoflood kit with softbox that's great for shooting small products like ceramics, jewelry, crystal, and arts and crafts items. The Basic Starlite kit comes with a 500-watt Starlite lamp, stand, and SilverDome Softbox; if one isn't enough, buy two.

Model: Basic Starlite Manufacturer: Photoflex (www.photoflex.com) Price: $399.95

Metz Mecablitz Digital Flash Kits

Using an external flash produces much better results than most cameras' built-in flash units, because the light is generally more powerful and offset slightly to the side of the camera, which reduces both glare and red eye. Metz produces dozens of different flash models for different uses. Most flashes attach to your camera's hot shoe; if your digital camera doesn't have a hot shoe, try Metz's 34-CS-2 Digital model, which incorporates a slave trigger unit and auto-matic flash mode.

Model: Various Manufacturer: Metz (www.metz.de) Price: $50 $400

Sunpak Digital Camera Flash Enhancement Kit

Here's another flash unit designed for digital camera use. Sunpak's Digital Camera Flash Enhancement Kit works with any digital camera that has a built-in flash or hot shoe, and works to supplement the built-in flash. It sits on its own tripod stand and has a 200 millisecond delay for optimum flash synch. It's also quite affordable, at around $30.

Model: 018ST Manufacturer: Sunpak (www.sunpak.com) Dimensions: 2.5'' x 2'' x 3.75'' Weight: 3.4 oz. Price: $30