Amateur lighting question

I have a Canon Powershot S1 and I am an amateur photographer. I would like to experiment with lighting (studio). I'm wanting to know whether it is worth it for me to invest in some lighting equipment to experiment with this camera. My camera does not have a hot shoe, but it does have the ability control (tone down) the power of the flash unit. I understand that I should be able to use that flash to trigger slave units attached to other lights. I am intrigued with some of the amateur lighting kits I find on ebay :

http://cgi.ebay.ca/PHOTOGRAPHY-STUDI...QQcmdZViewItem

Am I trying to do too much with this camera?

Its possible but you might run into a few problems. You will need to know how to put your camera fully in manual, and have the ability to turn off the preflash on your on board flash if you camera has one. In all reality you would be better off working with hot lights based on the camera you have mentioned. While their are many photographers that claim they do not need anything but a histogram on the camera to set up their lighting, I find the use of a hand held flash meter a much better and more consistent way to set up studio lights and the ratios I want to use.

Good luck,
Jason

I do have the ability to turn off the pre-flash. My brother does studio work with a top of the line Canon digital camera and proper studio lighting. Although he uses a sync chord to hook up to one of his lights, he uses slaves to fire all his other lighting. I was just thinking that I should be able to trigger much the same lighting scenarios without use of the sync chord (??). What does the sync chord do for you?

Why is it important to turn the camera fully to manual (I can do that, but don't understand). And about the flash meter. Any idea where I can learn about ratios? And what is the relative merit of using hot lights, as opposed to flash lighting? Why wouldn't you always choose hot lights? Lots of questions ....you can tell I am just learning.