Budget Entry Lighting Kit

Lots of people are playing LED's increased portability card. This is fine but just remember to budget for enough V-Lock batteries to stay off the grid.

Also, I think the term portability is slightly misleading. If something is portable, it's easy to move/carry. While LEDs can be powered and used in the field, I think many people will agree that actually moving them can suck. An awkward (soft cube) LED case with a box of V-locks can have a larger footprint than tungsten/HMI lights of similar output. Of course, it depends how you move equipment too.

I don't see any point in option 3, particularly if you don't own any lights yet - it'll give you three weak lights and you'll be stuck in low end corporate video land forever. Where are you based? Why not try to buy a used 575w HMI? I'd take this single light over options 1, 2 and 3 combined. Once you soften the light with diffusion, it'll look fantastic and will cover two people as well.
 
maybe another approach is to buy a kit that will allow you to do your one-man-band interviews but then rent/hire a gaffer to do higher end work and "not get stuck in low end corporate video land forever"?
 
Duncan Craig said:
I'd suggest a couple of 3060A panels and a couple of Aputure 198s.
Three simple Manfrotto raker stands and a basic lighting boom.

The 3060As can be used for key and fill, or combined into one 2' x 2' super soft source that is ultra lightweight, 1 inch thick, and you can stick a simple velcro grid on it to control spill.
The panels can also be clamped to panel ceilings, taped to almost any surface, half rolled and simply stood on the floor etc etc etc.
They are easy to rig and operate without having to deal with a bulky control box, as all the dimming control electronics are inside the panel.

The 198 is a cheap little LED panel that can be used to accent a background feature and are small enough to hide behind a vase or book in the background etc.
Use another 198 as a hair/rim/kicker on a simple boom arm.

You don't need C-Stands, normal stands (as I consider them) will be fine, but do buy a good brand like Manfrotto.
Mount the hair light able the subject using an extending boom arm.
And make sure to secure everything with sandbags where appropriate.

The lights I've mentioned are all LED Bi-Colour, the 3060As don't reduce in brightness across the temp range.
2x3060A outperform my LS1 in it's soft box but at a third of the price, while taking up much less space in tight locations.
Plus you can split them for more flexibility (pun intended)
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The 3060A are nice I have two in the 2x2 configuration mentioned by Duncan. Two make a nice key for an interview subject. They weigh almost nothing and I really like the 2.4ghz remote, works better than my aputure 672 one did. The bi-color is really handy for location shooting. Another cheap LED I recently bought was one by GVM on amazon, they claim super high cri and output specs for their panels. I was skeptical, but decided for $87 to try their 480 model which is bi-color from 2300k-6800k. The light is very spotted which is where they get output numbers. CRI appears decent and works good as a hairlight. Altogether it was about $400 for all three lights and it packs down to take up hardly any space. Another popular option are Quasar Science tubes, the 4' daylight version is $75 so you could get 2 or 3 and still be able to get some cheap stands and have a pretty portable lightweight interview kit.
 
doubledark said:
maybe another approach is to buy a kit that will allow you to do your one-man-band interviews but then rent/hire a gaffer to do higher end work and "not get stuck in low end corporate video land forever"?
Click to expand...

To be clear, there's nothing wrong with doing low paid video production work, I was only talking about hitting a ceiling in looks you can create with the kit mentioned.
 
If the OP can wait and save up about $2k or so, I'd recommend a LiteMat 4. It's big, but light and portable. It comes with chimera diffusion and egg-crate, and can be used with light-weight stands. Combine this with a 2' quasar tube which is also very light and portable and that can be your hard(ish) kicker of hair light when you need it.

Those two units will probably set you back around $2.5k (US), but will save you in weight, and is a kit you can build on top of as you grow into better paying jobs.

I definitely agree with just hiring a gaffer. But I know sometimes it can seem like a better idea to invest in the equity of gear instead...if you can pay it off fast enough.

I know this is a lot more than the $800 the OP was hoping to spend, but I guess my suggestion is to save up more money before making the purchase.

Otherwise, maybe get two 4' quasar tubes? Not sure...
 
LiteMat 1, Cineroid FS400 / 800, Westcott Flex, any others it scares me (FalconEyes, Menik, Aputure)?
Seeking advice here, you´re real users, no biased reviews.
I´m one man band, doing corporate global companies interviews, mainly indoors.
I´m really exhausted after seen a lot of reviews. No so deep wallet, but I prefer spent $ in ONE trusty reliable source, than more units with failures or color casts, not proper batt lock, green spikes!
 
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