Black Friday Specials

When I looked closer at the specs of that monitor I noticed the response time was very high (20ms). Normal response time is 10ms and under. Strikes me as a bit of an old tech so I let that deal go. Had to fight the urge of the pressure of a sale.

About Impact. I actually had a very good experience with their c-stands. I was worried at the time not going with Matthews (they're a great high quality brand btw), but as it turned out just having any brand of c-stand was such a huge step up from not having one, its a little funny getting carried away with what brand to buy.

About the lighting. I might end up getting one of those vl300. But to your point, depends on the situation. If you have a large space to light and it's really dark any light even home depot is better than nothing. I really do like those Godox VL series. Once you use something nice it's hard to go back.
 
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ahalpert said:
oh btw hulu w/ads is on sale for $2/month for a year right now. (i guess they do that every year?) i snagged it because it's a churn-proof price, much as i hate ads.

the only problem is that now the marginal cost of disney+ for me is $10/month so I may never see the mandalorian...tho i guess we could binge it in a single month. i hear that spca types were pissed that baby yoda ate someone's eggs. but i haven't even seen season 1
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If you have cell service with Verizon, they added some nice perks to their top-tier unlimited plan several months ago. I was already on their top-tier plan, but still had to “switch” to the new perks. It’s the exact same price I’ve been paying monthly, but now they have added Disney+, ESPN+, Hulu(with ads), Apple Music, increased tethering and added a cloud storage account(50GB?), on top of the regular cell/data service(unlimited calls, text, data, etc.). And of course, the more lines of service on the plan, the cheaper it is per month, per line.

I watched a movie on Hulu last night and they ran an ad or two before it started and then the movie played straight through with no additional ads.
 
James0b57 said:
Part of me thinks buying new clothes and watches are the thing to get during these fall sales, come out of lockdown with some fresh threads.
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ahalpert said:
Oh, fashions come and go. But lenses are forever. Lenses are a girl's best friend. A lens in time saves nine. A lens in the hand is worth 2 in the Bush.

Plus, with a beautiful lens hanging around your neck, who will even notice what else you're wearing?
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A good watch is timeless... ; )
 
James0b57 said:
Copy that!

I like the Forza 60 lites, but they are $300 a piece and require a $40 adapter for a full size Bowens mount, so, seeing these GVM's for $80 a piece and $10 off first order... That's less than a dollar per watt! tempting. But they'll likely have the sale again in the future, and I am pretty much all set.

But I am with you. I try to be more of a buy once cry once type. And go for minimal setups. I like having a 500W COB and a 60w COB, and a quasar bicolor tube. Everything else is practical and Home Depot, if I can help it. I'm still not commanding 18K HMI budgets.

I like using quasar cross fades as ambient room lights, and thinking about grabbing some old jo lekos, but those GVM's offer some compelling dollar to watt ratios for ambient fill.

Not hearing any fan noise, and it has good looking colour and has 0-99% dimming
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slIeymLDS2I&feature=emb_title
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I have eight of the 4’ cross fades and I thought I would use them way more than I have. I wish I would have never bought them and waited on the Astera Titan Tubes, instead. I think the big thing about the Quasars is they’re just a pita to rig for power. It gets messy and “inelegant” REAL fast. But they do look nice.
 
Run&Gun said:
I have eight of the 4’ cross fades and I thought I would use them way more than I have. I wish I would have never bought them and waited on the Astera Titan Tubes, instead. I think the big thing about the Quasars is they’re just a pita to rig for power. It gets messy and “inelegant” REAL fast. But they do look nice.
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Agreed.


Rigging them with a dimmer just adds to the issues.

But they give a nice even spread and the tunable colour temp and ability to look like a practical make them versatile for me. A few 2ft'ers can lift the ambience of the room. With all the battery powered options these days, perhaps that is the better way to go.

2ft are $70 a tube on amazon. A few of those and you get a lot of bicolour light per dollar.
 
James0b57 said:
Agreed.


Rigging them with a dimmer just adds to the issues.

But they give a nice even spread and the tunable colour temp and ability to look like a practical make them versatile for me. A few 2ft'ers can lift the ambience of the room. With all the battery powered options these days, perhaps that is the better way to go.

2ft are $70 a tube on amazon. A few of those and you get a lot of bicolour light per dollar.
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Yeah, I think the dimmer thing is the biggest PITA of the power PITA. You have to have the light pigtail, a dimmer and a regular extension/power cord for each light. If each tube had a built-in dimmer and you then only had to plug it in to a power cord, it would be so much better.
 
Run&Gun said:
If you have cell service with Verizon, they added some nice perks to their top-tier unlimited plan several months ago. I was already on their top-tier plan, but still had to “switch” to the new perks. It’s the exact same price I’ve been paying monthly, but now they have added Disney+, ESPN+, Hulu(with ads), Apple Music, increased tethering and added a cloud storage account(50GB?), on top of the regular cell/data service(unlimited calls, text, data, etc.). And of course, the more lines of service on the plan, the cheaper it is per month, per line.

I watched a movie on Hulu last night and they ran an ad or two before it started and then the movie played straight through with no additional ads.
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I pay $11.99 per month for Hulu without commercials, I would pay double that for no commercials if I had to.
 
Eric Coughlin said:
Dyson V8 Animal on sale with $100 off for a price of $299. The only Black Friday item I've bought.

https://www.dyson.com/vacuum-cleaners/sticks/dyson-v8-stick/dyson-v8-absolute-yellow
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Yeah I bought a battery-powered Tineco a10 Dash on sale for $100 - total game-changer. Looks like the exact same design as the Dyson. Yesterday I put on the tube extension and went hunting for cobwebs. Now it's not a gun, it's a lightsaber!

I'm sure the Dyson is better and will last longer, but it's also 5.75 lbs vs 2.87 for the cheapo Tineco. In part because the Dyson gives 40 min runtime on a full charge whereas the Tineco only gives 25
 
ahalpert said:
Oh man, reading some reviews and info on that $700 500W adorama cob - https://www.adorama.com/clilmax500s...ugwgCEAEYASABEgLCGfD_BwE&utm_source=adl-gbase

It seems like it's actually really well-designed and built!

I want one so bad...just not sure I really NEED it as I'm basically keying interviews fine with my 330w..... maybe next year?
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....But don't you want that Aputure full rotation feature? Looks like the light can't tilt in any direction without putting it on an articulating baby pin or arm. (I'M KIDDING, but also it I true)


EDIT, ok, all these comments have me looking too. So I just red the reviews again, but more thoroughly.

- One reviewer of the 300w says the brightness is closer to the Aputre 120D ( I assume the mk2, though they didn't list)
- some fan noise from the ballast. though, they advertise it as "silence is the goal" so I cannot imagine the noise to be excessive, but could be annoying to some
- there are no 500w reviews, although after this weekend I am sure we'll see those flood in.
- no smart phone app - but does come with a wireless remote.
- not as many tilt angle options (as I initially mentioned as a joke above)
- no 500 reviews about fan noise. The 500 looks to be in the same housing and using the same cooling system as the 120 and 300 versions, does that effect the fan noise on the head?

But at 30% off already good prices, that is the dollar per watt value I am looking at for additional lighting. Something I won't use all the time, but is there to do some utilitarian lifting to supplement the main lighting setup.
 
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James0b57 said:
....But don't you want that Aputure full rotation feature? Looks like the light can't tilt in any direction without putting it on an articulating baby pin or arm. (I'M KIDDING, but also it I true)
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like you said - workarounds

I'm in a similar position to puredrifting re: G&L kit fees. usually a flat rate, so buying this light would probably not add to my kit fee. so it's a question of if it improves the product enough to merit it. and 95% of the time, the available angle rotation it offers will be fine for what I'm lighting (mostly interviews)
 
Run&Gun said:
Yeah, I think the dimmer thing is the biggest PITA of the power PITA. You have to have the light pigtail, a dimmer and a regular extension/power cord for each light. If each tube had a built-in dimmer and you then only had to plug it in to a power cord, it would be so much better.
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Plus to add insult to injury, Quasars don't always play nice with dimmers, even dimmers designed for LED. They can flicker and make noise, and the fade is not always smooth, finding the right level can be finicky. But they pack small, are cheap, good CRI, and bi-color, so they stick around.

This isn't my work, but I know that the top light is a quasar cross fade. (lights on the floor were kino, and the lamps had standard LED practicals, so colors were all over)

View attachment 141496
 
ahalpert said:
like you said - workarounds

I'm in a similar position to puredrifting re: G&L kit fees. usually a flat rate, so buying this light would probably not add to my kit fee. so it's a question of if it improves the product enough to merit it. and 95% of the time, the available angle rotation it offers will be fine for what I'm lighting (mostly interviews)
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That's right! Making "DP" stand for defeating problems!
 
puredrifting said:
I pay $11.99 per month for Hulu without commercials, I would pay double that for no commercials if I had to.
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I hear that. My wife and I pay for YouTube Premium to avoid commercials, but we use YouTube so much that the payoff is enormous. In this case, I'm going from life without Hulu to meh, why not, it's $2
 
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