Smith Victor vs. Britek

salils

salils

Well-known member
Not sure which to go with..for my budget, both of these look promising
I found this 3 light Smith Victor kit at B&H:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=cart&A=details&Q=&sku=48830&is=REG
smith_cart.jpg

On the other hand...I could get various Britek lights for about $50 less (but I would need to get a case):
britek_cart.jpg


Not sure if both of them let me mount gels?? Any ideas?
I'm leaning toward the Britek unless it's too difficult to find a case..is there any kind of case I could use that would fit these lights and a few gels? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated
 
Last edited:
Britek... pretty harshly mixed reviews around here... I'd steer clear.

As for the gels, do it like the pros: with wooden clothespins. Anything with barndoors will "take" gels.
 
hemophilia said:
Britek... pretty harshly mixed reviews around here... I'd steer clear.

As for the gels, do it like the pros: with wooden clothespins. Anything with barndoors will "take" gels.
Click to expand...

Any thoughts on focusing controls? Apparently the Smith Victor lights that I have there aren't focusable. Would it be worth the extra cash? I plan to shoot a variety of things from interviews to short films and eventually a feature film.
 
Sure it's nice to have focusable lights like fresnels vs. the un-focusable variety like those smith victors. But, it's not as important as reliability (which is the beef with the Briteks) and other light control.... like barndoors, gels, diffusion, scrims or ND gels, etc.

I think the most frustrating this with that SV kit, if I were trying to light with it, would be that all the lights are the same wattage. So I'd be constantly using scrims (if available) or ND gel or a dimmer (treacherous territory both color and sound interferenc-wise) to vary the light output. If the fixtures take different wattage bulbs, that's an easy fix... just keep a lower wattage bulb in one... or keep a variety on hand.

But ideally I'd shoot for a kit with more variety, instead of 3 of the same heads. Maybe swap one for a Lowel Pro-light if you're trying to stay cheap... or look for an LTM Pepper 100 or 200 (or comparable small fresnel) on ebay.

And remember to budget for knick-knacks... gels, clothespins, extension cords, extra bulbs, extra gaffer bits like a scissor clamp, etc.
 
hemophilia said:
Sure it's nice to have focusable lights like fresnels vs. the un-focusable variety like those smith victors. But, it's not as important as reliability (which is the beef with the Briteks) and other light control.... like barndoors, gels, diffusion, scrims or ND gels, etc.

I think the most frustrating this with that SV kit, if I were trying to light with it, would be that all the lights are the same wattage. So I'd be constantly using scrims (if available) or ND gel or a dimmer (treacherous territory both color and sound interferenc-wise) to vary the light output. If the fixtures take different wattage bulbs, that's an easy fix... just keep a lower wattage bulb in one... or keep a variety on hand.

But ideally I'd shoot for a kit with more variety, instead of 3 of the same heads. Maybe swap one for a Lowel Pro-light if you're trying to stay cheap... or look for an LTM Pepper 100 or 200 (or comparable small fresnel) on ebay.

And remember to budget for knick-knacks... gels, clothespins, extension cords, extra bulbs, extra gaffer bits like a scissor clamp, etc.
Click to expand...
hmm...good point. Any suggestions on kits? Looking for 3-5 lights - key, fill, back, and maybe a background light or two. I'm hoping to keep this pretty low budget, but can go up to $700.
 
Any suggestions on kits? Looking for 3-5 lights - key, fill, back, and maybe a background light or two. I'm hoping to keep this pretty low budget, but can go up to $700.
Click to expand...

Hey Salils,

I'd go with some B and M lights(bardwell and mcalister). I've recently purchased some 2k's(fresnel) and stands for $500 and 2nd AC'd for the stage pin to edison adapters. Anyways, you can find some good deals on ebay or go shop on their website or just ask around, surf craigslist. They are some pretty good lights, and cheaper than Arri but def. better than Britek or Lowel. Most are fresnels. Check it'
 
salils said:
hmm...good point. Any suggestions on kits? Looking for 3-5 lights - key, fill, back, and maybe a background light or two. I'm hoping to keep this pretty low budget, but can go up to $700.
Click to expand...

Things to check out:

http://www.fotodiox.com/shop/product_info.php?cPath=71&products_id=4124

That's a wicked cheap price for a fluoro softbox like that, although it still might eat up too much of your budget. The bulbs that come with it are kinda bunk, so you'd want to swap them out with some Kino bulbs, but it's a solid fixture, a friend got one and I just checked it out.

http://www.imagewest.tv/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=65

Their bluline is an obvious Arri rip-off. Now the question is how good is it? There's another thread going on here about it... another dvxuser has a couple on order and is going to report on their quality. So that's a wait-and-see one.

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQcatrefZ...sofocusZbsQQsspagenameZhQ3ahQ3aadvsearchQ3aUS

amvona.com, which sells stuff through ebay at greatly reduced prices from their own website (generally... sometimes it'll take patience). They have really solid cases, and some of their stands are good. Their softboxes are wicked cheap, although the fixtures are awkward and non-standard. Still, you can't beat them for the money.

Other than that... the stuff you're looking at is good (the SV, not the Britek)... also look at Lowel stuff like their Omni lights, or Pro-lights... both very cheap and pretty handy. It's nice to have fancy lights, but at the same time often just the simplest and cheapest will do the trick. I was at a trade show recently, and Kinoflo's booth was using a measly Lowel Omni light as the kicker for their faux-set-up. They themselves are a pricey professional lighting company, and they choose that just b/c it's handy and small and cheap and gets the job done.

I've talked too much. :)

-Kevin
 
Smith Victor makes cheap lights, but the company has been making photo lights since at least the 50s.

I've got a couple of open face "nook" lights that are small, strong and robust.

Don't know about amnova though.

-J
 
hmmm....Britek lights. Okay, so I bit on the lights. I bought a 5 piece "big Daddy" set. My biggest gripe would have to be the stands. They don't hold up at all. But what did I expect for a $1500.00 light set? One that would get me through what I needed to get through, which they did.

The lights themselves use fuses that are difficult to find, so I opened up the lights and replaced the fuse holders with some at the same amperag, but a more common sixe from Radioshack. It cost me about $16.00 to do and I can get a four pack of fuses for about a buck. The soft boxes and barn doors work fine, no complaints there. The lights tend to arc a bit, but I get some silicon lubricant from a auto store before I put in new bulbs and it works alright. There is a great lightbulb store here in the city that I can get all the bulbs through, so no problem there.

I knew when I bought the set that it wasn't a BMW, it was more of Geo Metro. That has proved to be trough, but I have had the set for about 18 mos, used it on multiple commercials, a 8 week discipleship series shoot, and an award winning documentary.

I'll run this set down until there is nothing left, absolutely nothing. Then, I'll buy a waaaayyy better set. But I'll keep the barn doors and softboxes.

Bryon <><
 
the only gripe i have about the briteks soo far is the space between the doors/softbox and the glass of the light, because light spills out the side and unless you have some black wrap, its difficult to avoid it in certain shots.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top