Assembling a lighting kit for 2000$

J

JensK

Active member
Hey guys! First off, sorry for starting yet another thread about this. I know there are quit a few, but I'd rather not hijack anyones. So here goes.

I'm looking to build my first lighting kit. I have roughly 2000$ to do so, although I could be persuade to spent a bit more of needed be. The thing is, while I've read as much as I possible could about Fresnels, LEDs and whatnot, its still quite a jungle. The few times I've had to operate light myself (I've mainly directed), its been redheads which I've learned to hate. As such, I thought it wise to ask.

Firstly, we'll be doing a bunch of different things. We'll likely be doing a bunch of commercial stuff, alongside with some short-movie'ish things. We might also be doing music videos. In short, we'll be taking in as much work as we can, and are as such looking for a versatile kit. I reckon we'll do some greenscreen, but we havn't got a dedicated studio for this yet.

Secondly, I want to get a good kit which we can use for multiple situations. That does not mean that we won't be renting more light if we need. I just don't want to be depended on renting, as we want to have some light to learn and become better with. Its much easier to have at least some of your own, instead of renting every single time we feel like shooting something which is not planned ahead.

My own thoughts:

As I said, I've been conducting some research, yet its still quite the jungle to navigate in. I've thought of a couple of different kits:

3x Fresnels with softboxes and whatnot - I've considered the As Arri fresnels for starters... While I don't necessarily like the idea about not getting the real deal, I've also come to accept that getting a proper 3 light Arri setup is beyond our means.

2x LED panels of some sort - They just seem to be good to have; they are versatile and seems to be good for a long variety of things

1x dedo - I have a friend who is rather obsessive about these... I'm not sure we can afford one, but it seems like a great idea to have one to various jobs.


--------

I've also thought about just getting LEDs. The pro of this is that its more portable and easier to handle from what I can gather. The cons, I guess, is that if you only have LEDs, you won't have the same arsenal of different lights, like the example of my first example.


Again, I'm not sure either of these are good ideas, nor achiveable. I'm pretty much open for all suggestions. One important thing though is I need to be able to purchase is from within Europe, aside from knock-off stuff from China (if needed be). Thing is, the import taxes from the US are outrageous in my country, and I would much like to avoid that if at all possible :)

Also, I should say that I expect getting some reflectors and whatnot to assist the kit, so this is primarily regarding getting some good advice regarding which brands to get, which setup might be good, affordable and recommendable etc.

Cheers! :)
[h=3][/h]
 
I would suggest against the cheap "as ARRI" knock offs. Get used ARRI or even used mole before you get the knock offs. I was on a ultra low budget job and the gaffer brought a 1 ton "as ARRI" package and they were falling apart by the end of the week. The whole time I was shaking my head cause my 1 ton G&E truck has more lights and is all ARRI but more expensive kit fee to the producer. Lights are a solid investment, they will last forever if you buy right, and you will not have to worry about the next big thing for lights every year. Tungsten and kinos are a good start for most jobs. I personally only own ARRI, kino, and k5600 lights in my inventory. As for LEDs, if your not buying ARRI or lite panels. Don't buy em. I seen way too many off brands that started out clean, then started to tint shift the more you used them. Save up and buy once with lights. It will be so much more worth it in the end, for color shift, ease of use, routine mantaince, and warranties.
 
I agree that if you can find some good used ARRI or Mole lights, that would be a good way to go, but if you're not renting them out and you're careful, you can get away with the knock offs until you can afford a better kit.
 
Arri makes a nice 750 open face with a chimera speed ring build in. Go for one of these with a Chimera light bank & louvers. This will make a nice big white source that doesn't draw too much power. Then see if you can get a couple Arri 650 Plus fresnels used with stands. I think Arri makes a kit like this.
 
Arri, Chimera, Kino-Flo, K5600, Mole for your first kit (LP if you want LEDs but I consider them a secondary source). Those you will have in 15 years and they will still work and look good. Anything else is cutting corners.

I agree with Carr on all points. Listen, the man knows what he is talking about.

If I round up all the money I spent in my early years on crap lighting fixtures I would be a rich man by now, or at least have a couple 5k HMIs to show for it.
 
I think there's a disconnect that happens once somebody is able to put some serious money into lighting kit... they forget what one can actually afford to accomplish a wide variety of jobs with only $2000. K5600? You can't even buy a single 200W Joker in that budget. A single Kino Diva or Litepanel 1x1 will eat over half your budget. These are indeed attractive, useful, durable lights, but they're completely financially unfeasible for someone just starting out.

Arri makes a couple of good 3-light kits for right around that budget. Yes, they're heavy, hot tungsten, but they'll last. Mole, LTM Peppers, and similar fresnels have worked so well for decades because... well, they work so well. Add a soft box, gels, reflectors and bounce, and you have a very flexible light kit with a useable number of fixtures.

Working in doc, corporate, and small commercial, I've gotten a heck of a lot of mileage out of a number of Lowel fixtures - RIFAs, Pro-lights, and V-lights in particular. They're hot tungsten, not as durable, and the V-lights especially are hard to control, but are sometimes the perfect tool (lighting green screens, for instance). They're delightfully compact and offer a lot of punch for the dollar. Bolts need occasional tightening and you can't toss them around on a set as confidently, but if you treat them with anything resembling care, they'll last at least long enough for you to build up a reel, earn a better rate, and afford better lights. For whatever it's worth, my rates have gone up in the last 6 years, but I'm still using Lowels.

Your only affordable option in LED is the various Chinese brands... and of course these come with compromises such as plastic housings and related durability issues. You could outfit yourself with a good kit of, say, F&V K4000 1x1's, Z180's, and Z96's within your budget. They output light well enough and work better than more expensive Litepanels small LED's I've tried, but lighting with only LED panels can be extremely limiting.

Of course if you're hardware inclined and electrically savvy, you can go the Shane Hurlbut route and assemble some of your kit from your local hardware store... you can get a lot of unique and perfectly-suited light for your money this way, but the investment in time and fuss to build it all can be its own special problem.

So short notes - your budget is firmly in the tungsten range, with maybe a few inexpensive LED panels for certain applications. Fluoro, LED fresnel, and HMI will have to wait.
 
I agree wit mcbob. Excellent tools cost excellent money and $2k goes quickly. Priced a Celeb lately? Lowel fixtures work well, can be bought used for good prices and you can order parts if they break and are easy to repair. AA big plus too is they travel well. So a Lowel tota with a speed ring and medium Chimera takes very little space. A Rifa a bit more but still a nice soft. A couple of Lowel Pros with a 125 and a 250 and a Lowell DP with a another ring and Chimera some flags a dimmer and you probably still have a grand left over for rentals. I say this because some many of us are buying LED fixtures and selling the old school. Renting quality sp[ecial or larger instruments for a project is the way to go and should be an added cost to your client. If you come with a basic good kit in your day rate you should not be shy to add the cost of other lighting if you need it. There are also some pretty good lights made by CoolLights who sponsor this group. They are quite reasonable and have gotten good reviews here and elsewhere.
 
Lowel Totas, Chimera speed rings and Chimeras for Tungsten soft light is the best bang for the buck. Totas "fill the bags" much better than any open face or fresnel for even light. Get some dimmers and some Mole Richardson fresnels used, Inkies (Mini Mole) & Tweenies. Moles are much more reliable than Arris and can be repaired cheaper by the owner. Probably easier to find used at a lower price than Arri. Add some blue gel and you can get a little closer to daylight when needed. If you need "full" daylight go with Cool Light flos and put Kino Flo tubes in them. I use all the above on a weekly basis.
 
If you buy equipment for your own use, rather than to hire out - then lifespan can be as long as you're careful. It's always good to buy expensive and reliable for hire stock because people throw them around, and take very little care of them. When you invest your own money, you treat them well (or at least better). I've been looking at the light panels Solar 6 LED, but frankly I'd not want to knock them about much - far too much plastic. They are of course, much more expensive. I've been buying lights for a very long time - my first Fresnel was bought for about sixteen pounds back in 1975(isn) which at that time would have been about $60 - not the same now! What everyone says about quality brands is absolutely right - the Mole 1K I still have was made in the early 80s, and going strong - BUT - with big name kit, you don't get much for 2K.

I'm not sure about everyone else, but every time I buy lighting kit, it never seems to be truly universal in that I use it all the time. Loads I have gets used for the specific job it was bought for, and then sits there on the shelf. With a tight budget, do you have the funds to waste?

You've done the reading, you know what kit does what - so why not put off your buying spree until the first job comes in, and then pick kit for that job. My own experience says that very often that job is a strange one and buying the kit for that one could be wrong, so you have a choice to hire in for that one, then do the entire process again for the next job. I have red head kits and soft box kits, plus lots of Fresnels and profiles - and then some LED fixed and moving head kit for the music projects. I really can't suggest a kit for you because your work is probably totally different from mine!
 
I agree. I think it depends on the work your getting, or what types of projects you're looking to do. I do pretty much everything on locations. So I have to think about mixing daylight.

The expensive light is hard day light. One thing about flourescents, whether kinos or some other brand, you can swap out the bulbs for daylight or tungsten. That makes a big difference for my shooting because if I have a room with a window, all I have to do is change out the bulbs to daylight and I'm good to use that light. Tungsten light works great if their is no daylight in the room. Othewise you have to CTB it and you lose a lot of punch.

If you're shooting in a studio then you can balance to whatever you like and tungsten is preferable but if you're mixing with daylight, go with the flos.
 
I have been using the same set of 3 Lowell Omni lights for almost everything since 2009. If you want to spend a little extra for more punch and better focusability, you can get DPs instead of Omnis.
I recently got a Rifa softbox and a big reflector to round out my kit. The only thing I'm really missing is something even more focusable for special little things.

Lowell is extremely reliable with great non-outsourced customer service, and you can piece out all the lights and fix them yourself if you break them.

I highly recommend them for reliable, portable, affordable kits.
 
Echoing what others have said, get quality gear and you'll only have to buy it once. You'd rather buy high-end used gear than new cheap(quality & price) stuff. Like most people, I have an assortment of brands and types: Tungsten, Flo's, HMI's and LED's from Arri, Lowel, Kino, Light Panel and Bron Kobold. If you're using Chimera's and soft boxes a lot, go the Lowel route. My first light kit 17 years ago was a three light Lowel kit. And I still incorporate Lowel's into my gear today. They aren't expensive and are perfect for softbox use. As a matter of fact, that's why I still have Lowel's today, specifically to be used in Chimera's. I have the Arri's for "painting" and when I need control. Flo's are great and LED's are the "in" thing and do have lot's of benefits and uses, but over the last 8-12 months, I've been going back to shooting most of my feature sit-downs that are 24P with tungsten. There's just something about the way tungsten renders skin-tones. I love my Kino's, but if it's something like an interview where you have a fairly close shot of a person and they're on screen for extended periods of time, you can really notice the kind of plastic, "video-y" look that the person takes on and it pulls you out of the 24P, "filmic" look/feeling. Even the way motion is rendered under Flo's appears different to me. It's fine when I'm shooting 60P "video", but I don't like it with 24P nearly as much.

So to recap, look into the used market for for higher-end quality gear and you're money will be better spent. My family owns a retail business and my Mom used to have a sign up on the wall that read something to the effect of, "The bitterness of low quality remains long after the sweetness of low price".
 
dp90068 said:
Arri makes a nice 750 open face with a chimera speed ring build in. Go for one of these with a Chimera light bank & louvers. This will make a nice big white source that doesn't draw too much power. Then see if you can get a couple Arri 650 Plus fresnels used with stands. I think Arri makes a kit like this.
Click to expand...

I've been trying to find some used Arri kits, which has proven difficult. I the fact that they'll last for so long also makes the used market relatively small. In any case, it seems that if you want something Arri, getting some used is a better advice than getting the cheap knock-offs. At least, that seems to be more or less the general concencus on the subject from what I can gather from this thread, which is what I expected.

mcbob said:
I think there's a disconnect that happens once somebody is able to put some serious money into lighting kit... they forget what one can actually afford to accomplish a wide variety of jobs with only $2000. K5600? You can't even buy a single 200W Joker in that budget. A single Kino Diva or Litepanel 1x1 will eat over half your budget. These are indeed attractive, useful, durable lights, but they're completely financially unfeasible for someone just starting out.

Arri makes a couple of good 3-light kits for right around that budget. Yes, they're heavy, hot tungsten, but they'll last. Mole, LTM Peppers, and similar fresnels have worked so well for decades because... well, they work so well. Add a soft box, gels, reflectors and bounce, and you have a very flexible light kit with a useable number of fixtures.

Working in doc, corporate, and small commercial, I've gotten a heck of a lot of mileage out of a number of Lowel fixtures - RIFAs, Pro-lights, and V-lights in particular. They're hot tungsten, not as durable, and the V-lights especially are hard to control, but are sometimes the perfect tool (lighting green screens, for instance). They're delightfully compact and offer a lot of punch for the dollar. Bolts need occasional tightening and you can't toss them around on a set as confidently, but if you treat them with anything resembling care, they'll last at least long enough for you to build up a reel, earn a better rate, and afford better lights. For whatever it's worth, my rates have gone up in the last 6 years, but I'm still using Lowels.

Your only affordable option in LED is the various Chinese brands... and of course these come with compromises such as plastic housings and related durability issues. You could outfit yourself with a good kit of, say, F&V K4000 1x1's, Z180's, and Z96's within your budget. They output light well enough and work better than more expensive Litepanels small LED's I've tried, but lighting with only LED panels can be extremely limiting.

Of course if you're hardware inclined and electrically savvy, you can go the Shane Hurlbut route and assemble some of your kit from your local hardware store... you can get a lot of unique and perfectly-suited light for your money this way, but the investment in time and fuss to build it all can be its own special problem.

So short notes - your budget is firmly in the tungsten range, with maybe a few inexpensive LED panels for certain applications. Fluoro, LED fresnel, and HMI will have to wait.
Click to expand...

This is good to know. I've been looking at lowel, but I was rather unsure how they compared to Arri and the like.
As for LED panels, I found a couple at 2-400£ for the panel, which I thought was pretty reasonable, so I might pick up one or two to go with the Tungsten route, which this thread has firmly convinced me is the way to go.

paulears said:
If you buy equipment for your own use, rather than to hire out - then lifespan can be as long as you're careful. It's always good to buy expensive and reliable for hire stock because people throw them around, and take very little care of them. When you invest your own money, you treat them well (or at least better). I've been looking at the light panels Solar 6 LED, but frankly I'd not want to knock them about much - far too much plastic. They are of course, much more expensive. I've been buying lights for a very long time - my first Fresnel was bought for about sixteen pounds back in 1975(isn) which at that time would have been about $60 - not the same now! What everyone says about quality brands is absolutely right - the Mole 1K I still have was made in the early 80s, and going strong - BUT - with big name kit, you don't get much for 2K.

I'm not sure about everyone else, but every time I buy lighting kit, it never seems to be truly universal in that I use it all the time. Loads I have gets used for the specific job it was bought for, and then sits there on the shelf. With a tight budget, do you have the funds to waste?

You've done the reading, you know what kit does what - so why not put off your buying spree until the first job comes in, and then pick kit for that job. My own experience says that very often that job is a strange one and buying the kit for that one could be wrong, so you have a choice to hire in for that one, then do the entire process again for the next job. I have red head kits and soft box kits, plus lots of Fresnels and profiles - and then some LED fixed and moving head kit for the music projects. I really can't suggest a kit for you because your work is probably totally different from mine!
Click to expand...

This is solid advice! I've though about delaying the purchase and see what type of jobs we'll land. Yet, I still feel like we should pick something up for starters. We're also picking up a new camera (the FS700), and I'd like to learn to know the camera with some lighting before we take in too many jobs. In any case, you are obviously right that so much depends on the jobs we'll end up landing. The great thing about our situation is that we're still able to move in so many directions, depending on what we learn to enjoy more. That is obviously also the curse of buying lighting. In any case, I'll consider this in any case, so thanks much for the answer! :)

hscully said:
I agree. I think it depends on the work your getting, or what types of projects you're looking to do. I do pretty much everything on locations. So I have to think about mixing daylight.

The expensive light is hard day light. One thing about flourescents, whether kinos or some other brand, you can swap out the bulbs for daylight or tungsten. That makes a big difference for my shooting because if I have a room with a window, all I have to do is change out the bulbs to daylight and I'm good to use that light. Tungsten light works great if their is no daylight in the room. Othewise you have to CTB it and you lose a lot of punch.

If you're shooting in a studio then you can balance to whatever you like and tungsten is preferable but if you're mixing with daylight, go with the flos.
Click to expand...

I think this is why some of LED panels are pretty attractive; as they kan shoot both 3200 and 5600 right? At least, to me it appears like that is one of the great things about them compared to Tungsten. In any case, changing bulbs could be an option too I suppose, which for some reason was something which I never really considered. I reckon some of the reason is that the few redheads I've had the doubtful pleasure of dealing with got so hot that changing bulbs seemed like a suicide mission. I reckon Tungstens like Arri does not run AS hot as some of the "cheaper" redheads etc?

I guess what I'll be doing from here is to check on the Lowels, as they've gotten a lot of recommendations! I'll still be on the lookout for a used Arri set, and depending on the Tungstens I can land, I'll look to use the rest of my fonds, I'll look to pick up a couple of LED panels. If we need more specific lighting, I guess we'll have to look to renting houses, but from what I can gather, 3-5 good lights with some proper quality tungsten can get us a long way for the smaller commercial stuff I think we'll be doing for starters.

I'm quite excited! :) Its really interesting learning all this, and I can't wait to put all this information into practise.
 
Run&Gun said:
Echoing what others have said, get quality gear and you'll only have to buy it once. You'd rather buy high-end used gear than new cheap(quality & price) stuff. Like most people, I have an assortment of brands and types: Tungsten, Flo's, HMI's and LED's from Arri, Lowel, Kino, Light Panel and Bron Kobold. If you're using Chimera's and soft boxes a lot, go the Lowel route. My first light kit 17 years ago was a three light Lowel kit. And I still incorporate Lowel's into my gear today. They aren't expensive and are perfect for softbox use. As a matter of fact, that's why I still have Lowel's today, specifically to be used in Chimera's. I have the Arri's for "painting" and when I need control. Flo's are great and LED's are the "in" thing and do have lot's of benefits and uses, but over the last 8-12 months, I've been going back to shooting most of my feature sit-downs that are 24P with tungsten. There's just something about the way tungsten renders skin-tones. I love my Kino's, but if it's something like an interview where you have a fairly close shot of a person and they're on screen for extended periods of time, you can really notice the kind of plastic, "video-y" look that the person takes on and it pulls you out of the 24P, "filmic" look/feeling. Even the way motion is rendered under Flo's appears different to me. It's fine when I'm shooting 60P "video", but I don't like it with 24P nearly as much.

So to recap, look into the used market for for higher-end quality gear and you're money will be better spent. My family owns a retail business and my Mom used to have a sign up on the wall that read something to the effect of, "The bitterness of low quality remains long after the sweetness of low price".
Click to expand...

We wrote our posts pretty much at the same time, but I think this more or less sums up what I concluded from all the other posts regarding what route I'll look to take :) I reckon, if I can pick up some Lowels at a good price, I could just add maybe one Arri for starters. Its obviously difficult to say the specific situation where I'd need that, but from all the different answers I'm getting it seems like there'll be so many different situations, so a good variety of options is more desireable than a large quantity of kits.
 
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