Then there are Lumedyne. I bought a bunch second hand and really like them, though they have drawbacks in what kinds of light modifiers fit on the very small heads. So I've decided to use Profoto 7b where I need more power and full light modification.
One pack per head really seems the way to go. I do this with my Lumedynes.
I have it on very good authority that if you want fill light, via a softbox in bright sunlight then the 600 from the Acute B's is not quite enough... you need 800-1200w/s.
People have said nice things about the Elinchrom Rangers.
It seems that ex-rental Profoto 7b's can be obtained fairly easily for about $2500 including pack, head and battery. Battery replacements are around $100. This seems very good value. At this level I decided I would buy a couple and retire half my Bowens monoblocs.
Only problem with the 7b's is that these are really heavy.
The lumedynes are incredibly light and convenient. I've now got three packs and four heads, a booster, four batteries, a lightware case, three chargers, some radio triggers and paid $2000 all in on Ebay. Thats a lot of toys for the money.
The main problem with them is that you can't fit a decent size (1m square) softbox on them. I think the answer could be brolly boxes like the Photek Softlighter, or Lastolites Umbrella box. I believe these have more spill than softboxes, but they have the octa profile, so that could be an advantage. I'm getting one to try next week. For sheer speed of set up and lightness I think these would be pretty hard to beat.
Lumedyne makes booster packs which can up the output of the lights to 2400 w/s, (at the expense of recycle time). Though I'm tending to use them around 100w/s power and havent seen a need for this. Often I'm setting them at 50 w/s and ND' down 1-2 stops for what I'm using them for.
With 400 w/s I get about a 3sec recycle. For something I can carry in a rucksack, with a stand, a brolly and the camera and a lastolite reflector... quite handy with a better, more even, light than using speedlites.
Many ways to depilate the feline as they say...
I also wonder if its not possible to rig a mount which attaches to a softbox speedring allowing the softbox to be mounted on a stand without the light. Then you could place a lumedyne head in this, not bearing the weight of the softbox.
