basic lighting kit for my 7D. Is this any good?

I have never tried them, but those lights are inexpensive enough to just try out. It looks like those bulbs, rated at 6400 K, would be a little bit bluer than other daylight rated bulbs, at 5500K. However, if the lights have medium or moqul bases in them, there are plenty of bulbs around to put in there.
 
Be careful. I bought one that looked like this (but not the same) and found out that the lamps had fans to keep them cool. So I cant really use them unless doing mos (no sound), due to the very slight fan noise. These were very nice 1K softboxes and a very good price, with a variable dial. Very nice....but.
 
RichW said:
Be careful. I bought one that looked like this (but not the same) and found out that the lamps had fans to keep them cool. So I cant really use them unless doing mos (no sound), due to the very slight fan noise. These were very nice 1K softboxes and a very good price, with a variable dial. Very nice....but.
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What I like about these lights is the, what appears to be, a medium base fixture, which makes them very versatile. There are whole bunch of medium base CFLs, and other bulbs out out there to make something like this very handy. I actually make get a set. They do look pretty cheap, and may not last forever, but at that price, it would not be that big of a deal.
 
My biggest suggestion would be to go into the lighting forum. Lights that work well with a 7D will work well with a 5D, HVX, DVX, EX1, etc. Just b/c it is a new camera, doesn't mean it is a brave new world.

If you need daylight fixtures look at cool lights. Still expensive if you have never bought real lights before, but they are cheap in the realm of professional lights.

Otherwise I would stick with Lowel. You can easily find lots of used Lowel fixtures, they're owned by Tiffen so customer support is great, you can order just about any replacement part and they have tons of accessories.

You can go w/ these lights, but I would suggest you keep in mind that you get what you pay for. If you have $100 to throw away, then you won't be upset if they end up in the trash before 2010. But many people will tell you that $1,000 into some Arris can give you lights to last you until 2030.
 
I have tried 6+ different CFL Lighting so now. Ebay has a very similar one, but to me superior, It's a 2x 800W softbox kit that uses 5x45w 5500k daylight CFLs. They put out GREAT soft light that is 95% as good quality wise as the 94 CRI Osram Deluxe Kinoflow 6x35w bulbs I have in my Kinoflow Replica. For $200 for two including bulbs and stands you CAN't go wrong. What makes it better is that you can dim it to 5 different light levels. WAY better that just one bulb.

Here is the kit I have an really like. It's 5500k bulbs, which match up better with daylight. 6400k will match up with flash photography, and prob look good too.
http://cgi.ebay.com/2000w-PHOTO-STU...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item4a9c2bd1c6

I have 4 of these 800w softboxs CFLs. Just two of them at full blast give ~1000W continuous equivilant SOFT gorgeous daylight light easilly dimmable to get dimensional modeling. without making everyone sweat their ass off. I can shoot 2.8 apeture 12 feet in front of them. AND they weigh like 4 pounds max so you can whip them around real fast and easy, and overall treat them like the cheap ass $100 lights they are and they can handle it.

If you want to step up you can get an ebay 330w 6 bank kinoflow copy ( I can't find it anymore though coolights may have something like it) that has slightly better bulbs and overall light quality. It's $300+ or so with shipping. And no stand. It's pretty heavy so you wanna keep it on a c-stand or heavy duty stand for sure. It has barn doors so it is more directional, but doesn't come with the diffusion cloth so you gotta put some diffusion gel on it if you use it for anything but a key. (prob even then too)

I got this one. I love the light it puts out but Not the best quality overall. t hasn't broken yet but I worry about it cause it rattles a lot when I transport it.
http://cgi.ebay.com/FB-16B-6bank-33...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item335759fc70

Coollites.biz has one that looks exactly the same to me for $529 but it is out of stock.
 
vnguyen972 said:
What about this one? Pretty cheap so maybe it'd be a useful small set of light to use extra? Not sure if it has a noisy cooling fan though.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Continuous-Ligh...ltDomain_0?hash=item3a51aa3dc1#ht_2841wt_1072
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At the end of the day light is light (in the sense hat is light a scene / subject).
So in the right hands a few lamps can work wonders, but a 2500 lighting kit in the wrong hands can do nothing but overexpose and spoil the footage.

You have to learn what you can about lighting, and then make a choice which lighting
works best for you.
 
If you're on a budget, go with CFLs. hot lights are such a pain, just because of the power draw.

If I had a nickel for ever fue I've blown shooting on location...
 
A redhead kit is a good start. I like softer lights better thou but redheads are rather inexpensive and the basic 3 head kits is what you need for key, fill and back light.
They are in the 3200k range and if you put blue gel you have around 5600k.

This Axe/Pokerstars commercial we did used a 7D, one red head as main light and dedo-light for the background light and some fill light. We had a dimmer to control the red head.

 
editman said:
A redhead kit is a good start. I like softer lights better thou but redheads are rather inexpensive and the basic 3 head kits is what you need for key, fill and back light.
They are in the 3200k range and if you put blue gel you have around 5600k.

This Axe/Pokerstars commercial we did used a 7D, one red head as main light and dedo-light for the background light and some fill light. We had a dimmer to control the red head.

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Did you add grain in post, or was the 7D just that grainy?
 
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