Is it OK to use different kinds of strobes together?

Question

I currently have 2 Vivitar 285 strobes.
These are working very nicely for me.

I would like to buy 2 more strobes, and I would be quite happy with the Vivitars, but I would also like to consider either the LumoPro LP160 or something similar.

I typically shoot with the flashes off-camera in manual mode.
I use a cheap radio trigger.

My question is: will I have problems if I start mixing different makes of strobe?

Thank you for any advice.

Answer 1

In day to day use, you should not have any problems mixing manually controlled strobes, as long as the color of light from both is the same. I think you'd be fine.

Answer 2

No. You shouldn't have any problems, because color temperature of flash units is equal to the daylight color temperature (or you are using low-quality flash unit).

What you should avoid is mixing daylight (or flash light) and tungsten light sources. They have different color temperature. Balancing white for daylight (flash light) will make tungsten light yellow. Balancing white for tungsten will make daylight (flash light) blue. It's possible to correct the strobes color with gels to match the color temperature but it's a different question. :)

Also make sure your cheap trigger is able to trigger the strobes you are considering to buy.