Flo or Fresnel or Both?

mjmcneese

mjmcneese

Veteran
I've got a big client job coming up second week of Oct. I have around $2000 budgeted to light the shoots, and rather than renting, I figure I'd rather spend the money and buy my own. I've rented Arris most of my life, and I'd be comfortable using an Arri kit, but Florescents intrigue me.

I like the idea of cool, low-volt lighting. From what I've seen from flos, the look is very impressive.

I'm ready to throw $2000 at a lighting set up, but I'll consider spending more if it's worth it. I'll be using the lights mostly for interviews, product demos, etc. Would it make sense to invest in a couple FloLight.com 4-banks (for keys and fill), and a couple mid-wattage Arris (for backlight and background)?

I'm gonna make the order probably tomorrow (9/21), so any advice is greatly appreciated!
 
Don't forget about all the extra accessories that you're going to need - grip, distribution, expendables, etc which all add up. Your $2000 is going to get eaten up really quickly and you might be left short if you purely buy. It might make more sense to rent and maybe buy a couple of items if you're really intent on purchasing.
 
I want the largest fixture Flolight has to offer. I just got off a big industrial, and we rented Image 85's (very large kino's) Each bulb on the Image 80 can be turned on or off indivdually.On the cheap, we also added a couple of 4' shop lights with full spectrum bulbs. We attached baby pins to them to work off of C-stands. We also used two 1200 watt HMI's, a 400 joker Bug HMI, and we had an Arri Kit, which we used for edge, and detail, and sometimes an eye light. 4 extra 2'ks and 2 extra 1k's(all moles) to light up walls, deep in the background.
Don't forget, with all those lights, your going to have to invest in high grade stingers(ext. cords).. Good Luck
 
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Well, even if I went with an all-tungsten kit, I don't think I'd get anything bigger than a 1000 watt fixture. So you were mixing flo and HMIs...and tungsten?

FYI, I'm accumulated a lot of grip odds and ends over the years, so I think I'm pretty prepped for actually buying lights...just seems like such a waste to blow $2000 on renting, when I can spend a little more and keep 'em. There's probably enough money that I could buy some and rent some for this job, too.
 
If you can get away with it and keep the client happy, by all means buy. I hate the idea of renting unless, 1. it's fairly cheap (and $2000 isn't cheap in my budgets) or 2. it's impractical to own because of size or infrequency of use. Either way, good luck!
 
Would it make sense to go with something like an Arri D1 Soft kit (1-150, 1-300-, 1-650), and then get something like a FloLight 1400, too? Then I'd have the flo as a key, then the 650 soft box as a fill (or vice versa), 300 for background, and 150 for OTS backlight...

Right now, it's either the above set up, or something like the Arri Softbank IV (2-150, 1-300, 1-650, 1-1000 w/ softbox).
 
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Those flo-lights are a bit too big for interviews imo. I'd go with the fresnels, arri's or peppers would be the best. I'd think you could get a nice 3 or 4 piece kit with a softbox that would serve you well for what you're doing. Also, if you wanted to go with smaller flo's, there's a guy on here (MattInSTL) who used to make really nice lights that use kino bulbs in them. I have a couple and they're great, but I'm not sure if he still makes em. Good luck.
-Ryan

EDIT: When I used to shoot a lot of interviews for the Discovery Channel and others, we never used a fill light. We'd use a 650 with a small Chimera as the key and put a reflector on the opposite side to act as fill. 150 Pepper as a backlight and an Omni or Prolight for the background,sometimes with a cookie in front. Kinda nice to free up another light.
 
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Thanks, Hybrid...good input. I've not use Flos before so that's valuable advice. Perhaps I should stick with an Arri Kit and explore with Flos later?
 
That sounds like a good idea. Personally I'd get the Softbank IV. Probably even a little more power than you need but you'll get a lotta mileage out of that kit.
 
5 ton lighting truck $500 per day...grip/gaffer $600 per day= happy client, and $900 toward the purchase of your own lighting equipment down the road. The 4 or 5 lights you're going to get with 2k are not enough to do a good job. What if you need apple boxes, c-stands, flags, gels for windows, etc. etc.?

EDIT

Oops...just read your second post....nevermind. It sounds like you have a good plan. Flo's are grreat for keys and fills, and tungsten fresnels better for backlights and background lights.
 
Yeah, if I had $2k to spend on ONE day, I'd get the best gaffer money can buy. I have a lot of other uses for a light kit, too. Another job the weekend after this one, several indie movies planned, etc.
 
Another fluorescent light alternative...

Another fluorescent light alternative...

I would check out http://www.savagepaper.com/lights.htm. Believe it or not, they actually have a bunch of fluorescent light banks to choose from and are not that expensive. Adorama.com is a reseller for them. I have a 6 bank, 2 foot source that is a monster, but pumps out nearly 1300 watts of daylight. I am so satisfied with the quality of the lights, that I am going to buy their 4 bank and 2 bank source as well. They use the 55w tubes which are selectable by banks from a rear switch controller, has built in barndoors with removable silver surfaces, and comes with a silk to place over the light. Hope this helps you out.

Keith
 
Keith,
Are you happy with the build quality of those lights? The price is definitely right - sounds almost too good to be true. Thanks!
 
Hi Moe:

Great find! I recently purchased a couple of 2 x 55 watt kits from www.ahsupply.com but with these, I had to purchase a housing separately plus i have to assemble them and wire them up plus pay about $80.00 for an appropriate mounting option.

The fotodiox lights seem to be about the same as I paid for the ah supply lights but are fully assembled and ready to go with even a vertical and horizontal mounting system. As long as they are not complete pieces of junk and will function reliably, $209.00 for a four bank 55 watt biax light is an amazingly low price. I would equip it with Kino biax tubes and it would then be ready to conquer the world.

Will post some pictures and screen caps of scenes I shoot with my ahsupply flos. Seems like a good setup but requires a lot of DIY. The fotodiox lights seem to be an amazing deal. The lights that use the spiral CFLs so not seem to be as good of a deal, those little spiral CFLs in a pro version that is color balanced with a good CFI seem to cost $13.00 ea. Yes, the lights are cheap, but you have to factor in the cost of 9 or 16 of those bulbs on top of the light cost itself.

I think that www.filmtools.com had a version of the spiral CFL lights on display. I checked it out a few weeks ago, interesting concept, seemed to be built okay but a bit flimsy.

Best,

Dan
 
puredrifting said:
Hi Moe:

Great find! I recently purchased a couple of 2 x 55 watt kits from www.ahsupply.com but with these, I had to purchase a housing separately plus i have to assemble them and wire them up plus pay about $80.00 for an appropriate mounting option.

The fotodiox lights seem to be about the same as I paid for the ah supply lights but are fully assembled and ready to go with even a vertical and horizontal mounting system. As long as they are not complete pieces of junk and will function reliably, $209.00 for a four bank 55 watt biax light is an amazingly low price. I would equip it with Kino biax tubes and it would then be ready to conquer the world.

Will post some pictures and screen caps of scenes I shoot with my ahsupply flos. Seems like a good setup but requires a lot of DIY. The fotodiox lights seem to be an amazing deal. The lights that use the spiral CFLs so not seem to be as good of a deal, those little spiral CFLs in a pro version that is color balanced with a good CFI seem to cost $13.00 ea. Yes, the lights are cheap, but you have to factor in the cost of 9 or 16 of those bulbs on top of the light cost itself.

I think that www.filmtools.com had a version of the spiral CFL lights on display. I checked it out a few weeks ago, interesting concept, seemed to be built okay but a bit flimsy.
Click to expand...

Did you get the Fotodiox lights? How did they do?
 
NewYorkLion said:
I'm really likeing the look of that fotodiax C-900(http://www.fotodiox.com/shop/product_info.php?cPath=71&products_id=4122). I think i could stop lugging the 200w hmi around for short interviews and use this thing instead with lite panels for fill. I gave them a call and they said that the light would work with a chimera, so thats good. I'm just wondering the best place to get pro bulbs for it would be.
Click to expand...

Yes, the C-900 looks like a very promising design. The price is great too, even if those lamps I don't know how much they cost. A 24 x 24 softbox should be a must too, but if you think your Chimera would work.

Someone on other forum commented on some delivering delays from Fotodiox, but maybe that's solved by now.

Keep us informed on your results.


Carlos
 
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