Once in a while i do offer buying advices for the lost souls of photography. Wait.. make that all the time. So now, i have decided to publish some questions once in a while and hopefully i can be of your help. (It also helps that i can refer future souls here instead of typing the same replies :P  )

Q:

Hi Wei Li
Need you advise.
Myself and XXX are thinking of buying cheap outdoor battery strobeWhat do you think abt JinBei Strobe….do u have any experience wtih it ( weight,recharging time, reliability)

A:

I bought one set last April.. Super unreliable… Like.. Super. Ended up selling it after some 3-4 months.

Recycling time was 3-4 seconds on normal power and 6 seconds on full power. Weight is somewhat ok for guys like us.

Pros:
Awfully cheap
Large selection of light modifiers (also cheap)
Now offers repairs in Sg I think.

Cons:
Inconsistent light output (1/1 power, for example, is not 1/1 power every time.)
Failure to respond to trigger
Batt will go haywire, (electricuted me once)
Batt life is not as reliable

But that was in April 08 and I’m told by Kenneth (guy who sells in SG) that he has since brought in newer, better and more reliable models. One such item I am considering myself is this.

Then again, if it is not for commercial purposes but just leisure, I suppose you can give and take the somewhat sub-standard jinbei batt packs. I end up using Nikon/Canon speedlites more than relying on Jinbei Batt packs though.

Alternative (within the $ range) is highly popular-in-usa Alienbees but not very common in Singapore, thus you might have problems when it goes faulty. Secondly you have to ship from Australia.

More info on Alienbees and Some locals using it in SG:

A THIRD alternative is to buy reliable monoblocs (like bowens/elinchrome) and buy the innovatronix battery generator from Cathay photo. One full charge of the innovatronix can provide up to 100 bursts of full power flashes (but don’t quote me on that). Ideally if you use the flash prudently, one block of the innovatronix should suffice. I used two innovatronix and it was enough to last a 4hour fashion shoot outdoors, but it was on prudent usage.