Monolight for studio kit?

Hello hello, and thanks in advance for any input! Right now I'm a student photographer on a moderate budget, and one of the things I've been shooting a lot of lately has been portraits. I have a 580 EX II on a canon rebel xsi, and I've been using my tamron 17-50 f2.8 as my primary portrait lens, although i sometimes go to my canon 55-250 IS if the working distance is longer. The problem is that at this point the 580 just doesn't always cut it in terms of creative lighting of the subject, and so I'm looking for a somewhat inexpensive monolight to go with my kit. I'd like ideally to pay <$300 if possible for a light with a stand and at least a basic umbrella. . .anyone have suggestions as to what might be a good choice? I've looked at Alien Bees and Flashpoints so far, but I'm still not completely sure what kind of power i need, etc. Any advice?

I don't know what Alien Bees means about the difference between true watt-seconds and effective watt-seconds, but figure a 580 flash is good for about 50 watt-seconds and you see that the AB400 is 3 or 8 times more powerful depending on the measurement. An AB800 is twice the power of a 400, and still under budget (but not enough to get a stand and umbrella).


Consider "hotlights" (250W or 500W incandescent bulbs on stands, etc.) if flash is too expensive. This can be good for a student, as WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get).

I can stretch the budget. . . an AB 800 kit is not out of the question at US 360 but I'm not sure if there might be a better deal out there on a similar light. Are the features on AB strobes better than average, or are they pretty common to most strobes? I'm referring to the price per output (Lumenseconds), recycle time, etc.