Arri Lighting Kits - ENG - News room setup

M

meester

New member
I am a new member of this board. I have been looking at it for a few years but have never posted. I would love some help in deciding which lighting kit would be best for me.

I have past post production experience and about 7 years of on and off shooting experience usually outside. I have little experience with artificial lighting. I would like a kit that will be powerfull enough for shooting interviews/ENG/ and inside a news room area ( 14' x 14' ) using a 10'x10' green screen. I only want to buy a kit once so I would rather spend the extra cash now and get the quality immediately. I am using an HVX200a w/ Sachtler DV6 (I still need a Lav Mic).


I have been looking at the following ARRI kits and would like to know if I need a kit with a 1000W Fresnel or if a 650W Fresnel would be sufficient? Do I need Tungston or are Fresnels enough. I am not even sure really what the difference between Fresnel and Tungston is without seeing it in front of me.

Out of these ARRI kits what would be the overall best setup for me without buying lights I am never going to use. Also do I need dimmers for these lights or is there dimmers built in. I live in Canada and there are basically no stores that I can check these out in and I currently do not work in the production industry.

Thanks for everyones opinion in advance.



ARRI Kits:


Softbank D1 Three-Light Kit
1100 Total Watts
Fresnel 150, 300 and 650 Fixtures
16x22" Softbox, Adapter
120V Bulbs
Compact Wheeled Kit Case


Softbank D2 Three Light Kit
1250 Total Watts
Two Fresnel 300s, 120V Bulbs
One Fresnel 650, 120V Bulb
16x22" Softbox, Adapter
Compact Carrying Case

Softbank D4 Four-Light Kit (120VAC)
1250 Total Watts
Two Fresnel 150s
Fresnel 300 and 650 Fixtures
16x22" Softbox, Adapter
120V Bulbs
Hard Wheeled Kit Case

Softbank D5 Tungsten Four Light Kit, Compact Case (120-240VAC)
1600 Total Watts
2- Fresnel 150s
2- Arrilite 650 Focus Floods
16x22" Softbox, Adapter
120V Bulbs, Barndoors, Scrims
Filter Frames, Super, Scissor Clamps
Stands, Compact Kit Case

Softbank I Tungsten 4 Light Kit (120VAC)
2600 Total Watts
1- Fresnel 300
2- Fresnel 650s
1- Arrilite 1000 Focusing Flood
Barndoors, Filter Frames
Scrims, Stands, Bulbs
Accessory Pack
24x32" Softbox, Heavy Duty Case

Softbank II Tungsten 4 Light Kit (120VAC)
2950 Total Watts
3- Fresnel 650s
1- Arrilite 1000 Focusing Flood
Barndoors, Filter Frames
Scrims, Stands, 120V Bulbs
Accessory Pack
24x32" Softbox, Heavy Duty Case
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Hi Meester,
I have been very happy with ARRI kits. Much higher quality and usability than Lowel kits. I use the softbank IV - 1k openface, (1) 650 fresnel, (1) 300 fresnel, (2) 150 fresnels. If you are simply using an HVX or other equivalent bare camera, a 650 in a chimera will be just fine for an interview keylight. If, however, you are going to use an adaptor or light hungry camera, you will definitely want 1000+ watts of key light. Also, think about what you might be using to light your background. If you have two 650s, you'll be in good shape. If you just have one and use it for the keylight, then you will be snookered. Another benefit of the I-IV series is that they have a larger soft box and larger, stronger light stands than the D kits. For green screen, you might be better with a few cheap fluorescents to augment your kit. Soft sources are great for green screen and even cheap low CRI CFLs can do the trick on a budget.

None of these kits come with electronic dimmers, just scrims for mechanically stopping down the luminance. Cheap dimmers can be ordered from harbor freight (look for 'router speed controller').

A fresnel is a type of lens used in front of the lamp. All the lights you listed are tungsten, but not all are fresnel (the arrilite is an open face lite). Basically on a fresnel - the light quality is nicer, especially the fall off between light and shadow and there virtually no 'hot spots' from the filament. Fresnel lenses are expensive to produce and therefor add significant cost to the lamp. Definitely worth it if you are planning on using the lamp without a chimera or diffusion.

The other thing to think about is color temperature. Will tungsten balanced lights suffice, or will you need something that is also day light balanced? I tend to rent daylight balanced, only when it is needed by the production. Florescent daylight sources, such as kinos are much cheaper than HMI daylight sources. Should you decide you need daylight balanced as opposed to tungsten, a kino or cool light might be a good option (for a soft source).

Lastly, a cheap wired lav mic, such as the Shure SM93 will sound worlds better than a mid level wireless. If you absolutely need wireless lav technology, then the sennheiser G3 series is the lowest I could suggest. Lectrosonics is better quality. My personal preference is to use a wired lav on every interview, unless I absolutely have to use a wireless lectro (the lav mic alone on the lectro is 3 times the price of the SM93 wired, and yet does not sound nearly as good).


Jason
 
Thanks Jason lots of information it's greatly appreciated. I think I can totally live with a wired mic. I'd rather spend more money on the lights at the moment.
 
would go with kit 5. It seems to be the most usable, for you. The 1K will come in handy when needy that extra punch or when using the soft box.
 
It's funny, I agree with the advice above, but for the fun of it I'll be a little contrarian. There are always many good ways to accomplish the same thing in lighting.

Though I use a lot of tungsten heads I'm a real fan of daylight balanced lighting. It's more versatile because for me at least, I'm frequently in a mixed source situation where the sun wants to supply part of the lighting.

If you get three 2' four bank fluorescent fixtures, say from Cool Lights, plus one small fresnel, say 300W, you could do great interviews with or without green screen. One fixture makes a really beautiful key and positioned properly will wrap onto the fill side of the face, which you see the most of in interview shooting, and with green screen the other two will light that smoothly while the tungsten head, gelled half CTB will make a nice edge light for hair, shoulder and cheek, depending on how you place it.

Plus, those lights are very versatile in the field. You can shoot msot any scene in a house interior with them in narrative fiction.

Finally, while they are great daylight sources you can just exchange the tubes and get 3200K tungsten balanced light.

Double finally, this setup is a lot cooler to work with in a small room both for you and the talent.

Food for thought.
 
I think I am going to buy the Arri Softbank IV Tungsten 5 Light Kit. I was looking on B&H Photo. It looks to to be the best all in one kit for me.

I was also looking for replacement bulbs and noticed that they only sell 300W\220v, 650W\220v, 1000W\220v arrilite bulbs on their website that I can see. They are not open at the moment to ask them about this, am I missing something. These replacement bulbs will not work in Canada on a 120v power input will they (Is there and power converter built in?). As well would you buy spare bulbs from B & H photo at the prices they are asking or can I buy them somewhere else much cheaper and if so how much?

I will not be making any purchases until I speak with someone over the phone tomorrow.

Thanks
Mark
 
What camera are you shooting with? What would be your typical shooting gig? Docs, Corporate, Miusic Video? Where are you in Canada ? Many of us here are from Canada and I suggest you drop me a pm before you drop a bundle. Ordering and shipping and brokerage from the USA can be steep if you aren't careful. Happy to help if I can. And I totally agree with slondon! I just sold off most of my tungsten kits and have gone FLO as much as possible. My cool-lux kit and lowel pros and a couple of lowel totas still in the game but only when I really have to use them. One 575 HMI for the big fill and several cool lights and a kino kamio with both colour temp bulb kits is where I am at. Less weight and more control and go DAYLIGHT it is easier.
Cheers
Brian in Montreal this month.
 
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Camera: HVX200A 32GB
Trippod: Sachtler DV6
Types of shooting: Typically I would say 10'x10', Green Screening, Corporate, Interviews and News room.

I have researched the Bokerage fees and they will be exempt via UPS expidited & world saver as well as Fedex Priorty. Fedex will charge a $10 set fee.

This will be my 1st lighting kit and I don't want to buy another anytime soon. As well I don't want to think about what I should have or could buy in 5 months. I want to focus on shooting and use the equipment I have after this purchase. Buying and selling stuff waste time and is not fun.

If I could see a demo setup it would be so much easier to figure out what kit would be best. But that is not possible and the reason I have posted. Wasting a little extra money this round will prevent me from wanting to sell what could be cheaper but a mistake if I don't get enough light the first time. I'm way too busy to do that. I'm not busy to look at a demo setup in Toronto if there was one.
 
After you buy the Arri Sotbank IV kit ( a great choice- I have two) Buy a Diva 400 kit.
I agree w/slondon for the most part, it pays to be versatile.
Don't forget a couple of cheap dimmers(look them up on the this forum "cheap dimmers") and a party pack of color correcting gels, and diffusion gels. A couple of C- Stands would also go a long way.
Good luck.
 
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