I wouldn't rely on ebay for the bulk of your equipment purchases. However, ebay is a great place to get wireless flash triggers. My current favorite is the CTR-301. They're fairly well built (better than the Cactus V2s), and ingeniously designed. With them, you don't need any cables to connect your flashes to the receiver. You simply slide the flash into the receiver's hot shoe, then mount the receiver to your umbrella swivel. My previous recommendation was to buy the new Cactus V4, however, the first reports I've seen on them aren't terribly comforting. The reliability of the triggering doesn't seem to be nearly as good I would like. So for the money, the CTR-301 set is my current affordable choice.


Now, as far as flashes go, there are tons to choose from. I personally use 2 pre-owned Vivitar 285HVs that I bought off of ebay, and I bought one 285HV new. The only one I had malfunction was the 285HV I bought new (there was a rash of bad units before the Vivitar flash division was sold/went under). That's why I suggest either buying used ones on ebay or buying new units from MPEX because they usually test the flashes before sending them out. That said, there are plenty of other flashes that are relatively cheap and have manual controls:


2) <span class="bodyTextBold"]<a target="_blank" href="http://www.mpex.com/browse.cfm/4,4721.html"]

LumoPro LP632 Umbrella Swivels x $17


(2) <a target="_blank" href="http://www.mpex.com/browse.cfm/4,4643.html"]

Westcott 43" Collapsible Umbrella White Satin x $20



<span style="text-decoration: line-through;"](1) [url="http://www.gadgetinfinity.com/product.php?productid=17204&amp;cat=0&amp;page=1]Cactus Wireless Flash Trigger Set V4[/url] x $40


<span style="text-decoration: line-through;"](1) [url="http://www.gadgetinfinity.com/product.php?productid=17205&amp;cat=0&amp;page=1]Cactus Wireless Flash Receiver V4[/url] x $24


(1) <span class="ebay"] Wireless Flash Trigger 3 Receiver CTR-301 P w/ PC Cable x $60


All that together comes out to about $400. That would give you two
light sources, one for the mainlight and then another for fill (or else
a background light). I listed the wireless trigger set with three receivers instead of two so that you'd have a backup should something happen. Depending on how much you'll be shooting, I'd
recommend a couple of sets of backup batteries per flash. Other than
that, I think you'd do fine with this. You might want to pick up a couple of sets of gels (colored plastic to change the color of your flash).