Well, I am definitely looking for something smaller and cheaper right now while I learn and decide if I wanna continue this route.
I do have a speedlight for the camera, although it is pretty old...it is one I picked up ebay for 30 or so bucks, but almost everyone I talk to says it was the standard at the time and will never be outdated...it is this one:
I was actually looking into hot lights, just because I have seen what is done with hot lights and with strobes, and the hot lights always seem to look better to me, more natural....but that also has to do with the photographer also, I understand that part
As for the shutter noise, I am the only one taking pics and video, so I actually have to stop shooting vid to take pics...so that isn't an issue.
Our studio is actually the second half of the bottom floor of our house which has our home theatre, but we roll the screen up for the projector and we have about 800 sq feet and tons of props/furniture to shoot with
I am pretty sure most of the shooting my wife wants to do is outdoors, which is nice because our backyard is huge and has trees everywhere, so there is never any direct sunlight, but is always bright as hell back there.
My friend Tony here in Atlanta said he has a hot light he is going to give me one of these days, we just have to dig it out of his storge unit
My price range right now is anywhere from $400-800 for whatever is needed right now, and as our site gains momentum and money starts flowing more I will be investing a lot back into production