= Lighting =

So I want some studio strobes.

Considered:
 * Elinchrom
 * Glanz (cheapies)
 * Paul C. Buff

Buff makes the Alienbees series, which might be a more familiar name to some. They look to be a little cheaper than Elinchrom, should be at least on par in terms of product quality, and sound like really smart, switched-on people.

There are some other big brands out there like Bowens, Profoto and Multiblitz. They're hella-expensive though.

The Buff gear looks like the way to go. They have a local distributor, and their markups are kinda... bad. The US store won't sell here though. Get the lights locally and procure the accessories some other way?

|| '''Item'''  || '''US''' || '''Local''' ||
|| lights      || 500      || 700         ||
|| stands      || 40       || 74          ||
|| brollys     || 30       || 66          ||
|| reflectors  || 15       || 38          ||
|| grid        || 25       || 57          ||
|| receivers   || 30       || 54          ||
|| commander   || 180      || 260         ||
|| carry bags? || 13       || ??          ||


Popped an order in, 2011-08-02. Website is... not impressive. Two timeout errors about being unable to contact the payment provider before finally succeeding, and a blank section where it's meant to say "A confirmation email was sent to the address:  <BLANK>"

 * 2x Einstein (E640), $699 each
 * 2x 7" reflector (7AB/R), $37.40 each
 * 1x 10-degree honeycomb grid (HG10), $57.20 each

|| Subtotal         || 1530    ||
|| Shipping (guess) || 172.63  ||
|| Package discount || 30.60   ||
|| Total            || 1672.03 ||