What do you think is better

Buying a cheap lighting kit, or using my 580II with an umbrella or soft box?

Depends. Way too many variables in your question. My suggestion is to experiment with what you have and if it doesn't meet expectations then change up your kit.

Jim

well what it comes down to, is pretty much what I should buy next. Hah.

I have an old 430, and a 580II and I ordered my Canon wireless transmitter a couple days ago so I should get it come monday.

a lot of my stuff that I would probably use it for, is shooting bands on spot. So do you think maybe I should buy another 580II, and some umbrellas? or soft boxes...? I'm not really sure how different they come out.


One of the main reasons why I even thought about doing it from my mounted flashes, was because I could take and do it ANYWHERE, I wouldn't need to plug it in to a wall or something. Ya know?

Ahhh, your traveling so light lights is good. Compact is good. So umbrellas would be good. Soft boxes are more for big set ups. Bands have short attention spans so easy set up is important.

eh, not SO much traveling. Most of it will probably be either in my backyard or something(backdrop) or just around the city here. So I'm not TOO scared of having a somewhat large pack.

At first, I thought about getting 2.5 gallon buckets, filling them with concrete, and posting a poll in it for a back drop. Hahaha. So I think I'll probably be fine...