Another Lighting Kit Question here: Coolight Kit or Britek Kit?

K

Kholi

Section Moderator
Thanks for the thoughts in advance. These are within budget range, so pretty much all that can be thought about.

The question is: If you were building a kit out of Briteks or CooLights, what's an effective all-around kit?

Example: Britek Kit --

1 x 600/650 Focus
2 x 600/300 Switchers
1 x 1000k Focus
1 x 300 Focus


That sound about right for Tungsten?
 
what am I lighting with this kit?

eta - re-read and now i see. all around huh... thats tough.
 
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Music Video and Narrative. But, maybe, sometimes interviews. That's why it's tough for me, as well.

I want the power and temperature saving advantage sof having Fluor lights (Coollights) all around, but then what if I need more light on less lamps than Fluor can provide?

Tough choice.
 
would your budget allow for some CDM/HMI's? I just got my cdm150 from Richard and this thing is fantastic and eerily cool in heat output. His 575w HMI looks impressive too. If it was strictly interviews you could get away with just coollights... Perhaps get some large tungsten fresnels from Richard and get daylight and tungsten balanced flo bulbs so you can have tungsten if you need the power. The CDM's are available in tungsten balanced as well - or just gel em down.
 
Everyone complains about Britek equipment, including a friend of mine who goes through bulbs like crazy in his.

General lighting for a subject is Key, Back, Fill. Key and fill are soft while back is hard. If you get an Arri Softbank kit it will come with a 1000w softbox light, 2 650 Fresnels, and a 300w Fresnel. It will also come with stands, scrims, barndoors, carrycase, etc.

From Coollights, that would be their CL-SFT1 for the softbox, the 150w HMI Fresnels for the 650 Fresnels, and a 100W tungston to HMI conversion that Richard has detailed on his website (or just a third 150w). You will need a scrim kit for the 150w Fresnels and an air cushioned stands with wheels so you can move and adjust them without turning them off (5 minutes to restrike). This will probably come in under $2000. Its all slightly less output when compared to the Arri kit, but if you are balancing to daylight the blue gells will knock the Arri kit down quite a bit.

Depending on what you are planning on doing you can also buy a bunch of fluorescent bulbs from http://www.fullspectrumsolutions.com/. That way if you show up to a location you can replace all of the bulbs in the practicals with daylight balanced high CRI flos, and windows and sunlight will not be a problem.

If you start with HMI and FLO you will be ahead of the game. Go daylight balanced and you save yourself from a lot of sunlight induced headaches. Toughest part will be safely schlepping a bunch of flo bulbs around.

My friend has a bunch of tungsten equipment and the talent absolutely roasts under his lights. After I lend him my Coollights 150 HMI I'm sure he'll start to change over. He just spent $400 on a pair of lightly used Peppers, while I spent the same on a brand new HMI 150.

Bob
 
Thanks Bob!!!

Sucks about the Briteks. However, the same Tungsten kit versus CooLLights from Rostronics is less than half the price. And money is definitely an issue with me, sadly.

Perhaps maybe picking and choosing? Mixing a Britek kit with Richards cool running HMIs? Thoughts?
 
kholi look into a kit of bluline fresnels from imagewest they are not that much more than the briteks but work look and feel a thousand times better my britek kit is and will continue collecting dust also richard's 150cdm is downright the best light i have ever purchased and i look forward to having all my lights cdms
 
Bob Gruen said:
Everyone complains about Britek equipment, including a friend of mine who goes through bulbs like crazy in his.

General lighting for a subject is Key, Back, Fill. Key and fill are soft while back is hard. If you get an Arri Softbank kit it will come with a 1000w softbox light, 2 650 Fresnels, and a 300w Fresnel. It will also come with stands, scrims, barndoors, carrycase, etc.

From Coollights, that would be their CL-SFT1 for the softbox, the 150w HMI Fresnels for the 650 Fresnels, and a 100W tungston to HMI conversion that Richard has detailed on his website (or just a third 150w). You will need a scrim kit for the 150w Fresnels and an air cushioned stands with wheels so you can move and adjust them without turning them off (5 minutes to restrike). This will probably come in under $2000. Its all slightly less output when compared to the Arri kit, but if you are balancing to daylight the blue gells will knock the Arri kit down quite a bit.

Depending on what you are planning on doing you can also buy a bunch of fluorescent bulbs from http://www.fullspectrumsolutions.com/. That way if you show up to a location you can replace all of the bulbs in the practicals with daylight balanced high CRI flos, and windows and sunlight will not be a problem.

If you start with HMI and FLO you will be ahead of the game. Go daylight balanced and you save yourself from a lot of sunlight induced headaches. Toughest part will be safely schlepping a bunch of flo bulbs around.

My friend has a bunch of tungsten equipment and the talent absolutely roasts under his lights. After I lend him my Coollights 150 HMI I'm sure he'll start to change over. He just spent $400 on a pair of lightly used Peppers, while I spent the same on a brand new HMI 150.

Bob
Click to expand...

So that I have this right, an order from Coollights should be:

2 x CL-SFT1
2 x 150 CDM HMI

And which other?

What's the wattage equivalent of the CL-SFT1? And which light is equivalent to 1000W? Sorry for the ignorant questions.
 
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A really good Coollights starting kit would be:

1 x CL-SFT1 kit
3 x 150 CDM HMI

And a 2nd softbox to mount on one of the 150s. Although coollights does not sell one of these there are softboxes that you can mount on the front of a fresnel. The CL 150s have a 6.5" front mount, and they look sturdy enough to support a softbox.

Richard states that the bulb for the CL-SFT1 is around an 800w equivilant. The 150s throw almost 500w worth of tungston light, so you will need scrims. The setup above would give you the flexibility of 2 soft and 2 hard or 1 soft and 3 hard without dragging around a lot of equipment.

You still need to figure in the cost of stands...

Bob
 
I think Bob's got you on the right track here.

I tell you, I would love to get my hands on an inexpensive speedring to use with our fresnels. Its tough to find those kind of "adjustable" ones like the chimera type.
 
Thanks!

By the way, Richard, thanks for your email responses as well.

You should look into getting a durable, inexpensive rolling case (like the Arri kit) made for your products as well.
 
Cool Lights said:
I think Bob's got you on the right track here.

I tell you, I would love to get my hands on an inexpensive speedring to use with our fresnels. Its tough to find those kind of "adjustable" ones like the chimera type.
Click to expand...

Hi Richard:

What is the diameter on the CDM-150? What sized scrims? I assume that the light features standard barn door holding clips and bracket? Chimera makes a lot of different sized speed rings, doesn't something fit your lights?

Dan
 
Hi Dan,

In fact, the Arri fresnels and ours are not all the same exact dimensions but on the accessory holder where it counts, they are. That size is 168mm or 6.6". The lens size is 112mm or 4.4". Yes it has the same type accessory holder clips and lock for the barndoors or whatever you want to put in there. I believe the main difference or dimension difference between ours or there's is the height of the fresnel. Ours is just a bit higher to accomodate either a normal 650w tungsten bulb or our CDM which requires a bit more room.

The CDM 150 and our tungsten 650 should take all the same accessories. The Chimera fits too.

I was mainly interested in providing a lower cost alternative to all that stuff.
 
Kholi said:
Thanks!

By the way, Richard, thanks for your email responses as well.

You should look into getting a durable, inexpensive rolling case (like the Arri kit) made for your products as well.
Click to expand...

We do in fact have some rolling cases right now and more custom ones coming in April or so. I posted some information on these recently here:

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=122358&highlight=cl-ccl1

Until then we have the CL-CCL4 and CL-CCL5 cases which I bought a few of to tide us over until the other cases arrive:

CL-CCL4 is 43" long x 16" wide x 12" deep (110cm long x 40cm wide x 30cm deep). Can hold 1 CL-455P, bulb case, eggcrate, 2 stands and 1 fresnel. Have only one of these left. I consider it an "around town" bag and not for extensive travel on an airplane. Good for putting in your truck or car to go across town to a gig.

CL-CCL5 is 51" long x 12" wide x 12" deep (130cm long x 30cm wide x 30cm deep). Can hold 3 fresnels and 3 stands or 1 CL-255P, bulb case, eggcrates, 2 stands and 1 fresnel. Very much like our forthcoming CL-CCL2.
 
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briteks are not worth it. trust me, causes more headaches than good.

where as with cool light, you get best customer service, and excellent equipment.
 
PaPa said:
briteks are not worth it. trust me, causes more headaches than good.

where as with cool light, you get best customer service, and excellent equipment.
Click to expand...

I second that. I just got my Cool Lights from richard on Monday. VERY happy boy right now - they look so professional and Richard kept me updated and quickly responded to all of my questions.

I looked into the Britek stuff, and although cheap, they're cheap (if you know what I'm sayin'). Crapola.

Cool Lights are definitely cool looking and much brighter than I ever thought they could be. And they are inexpensive, not cheap. They feel very durable and the light output from the 200 watt softbox fixtures are absolutely amazing.

Buy from Richard, he'll take care of you. You'll love the fixtures.


Kit - the new "Cool Lights Advocate"
 
Don't forget that Richard made up a batch of "Blackline" tungsten fresnels: 150w, 300w and 650w, I believe. Maybe a 1k fresnel also? I don't remember. Part of his deal with the factories that produce his 150w CDM and forthcoming CDM models, to meet minimum production requirements.

Anyway, I bought a 300w tungsten fresnel along with my 150w CDM and my 255P, 455P and STF1. I like it a lot. If you want to go with an all-tungsten kit, Richard's are great, and I think are equal or better in price than Bluelines.
 
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