Buying first lighting kit. Advice please

B

benandaim

Well-known member
Hi Guys,

I have to invest in a lighting kit that's fairly portable for piece to camera & interview style shoots. I've had someone suggest this Videssence kit
http://www.videssence.tv/pdf/Shooter_Kit.pdf

I shoot a bit of chroma key stuff aswell & realise I need to light the talent separately to the screen. But would this be a good FIRST lighting kit. It would cost me about $2250.

Regards,

Ben
 
For that amount of money you could easily get an arri, mole richardson, lowel or ltm kit which are all pretty respectable or you could assemble one your self from cool lights at a very good price.
 
Benandaim,

The DV Creator 55 is a great kit (referred to above) for all kinds of talking-heads and even small scenes. If that kit is beyond your "first kit" budget, take a look at the Go Jet Set for about half the price (with soft case). That was my first kit and it still serves me well. I tote it on every shoot, just in case.

Lowel lights are modular, in a sense, as they make it simple to identify and order replacement parts (should you need them).
 
Thanks for the info guys. I wasn't sure if the Lowels were considered that good. I'll do some more reading but one of the Lowel kits might be the way to go :)


Ben
 
benandaim said:
Thanks for the info guys. I wasn't sure if the Lowels were considered that good. I'll do some more reading but one of the Lowel kits might be the way to go :)

Ben
Click to expand...


Lowell fixtures are very good, but a tad overpriced. You'd be better off building your own "kit" by buying used fixtures on eBay. As mentioned, Mole Richardson, Arri, Lee, and also B&M and Desisti are very good fixtures.

.
 
benandaim said:
Hi Guys,

I have to invest in a lighting kit that's fairly portable for piece to camera & interview style shoots. I've had someone suggest this Videssence kit
http://www.videssence.tv/pdf/Shooter_Kit.pdf

I shoot a bit of chroma key stuff aswell & realise I need to light the talent separately to the screen. But would this be a good FIRST lighting kit. It would cost me about $2250.

Regards,

Ben
Click to expand...


What if I could get this kit NEW for $1800. Would that be a good deal. Bare in mind the Lowel DV Creator 44 kit is about $2600 bucks over here.
 
If I was shooting portable interviews (and I do) I would want 4 fixtures.

1. 1k Soft source. Preferable a flo or something that can be color balanced
2. 1k Focusable light with an umbrella. You could make this a hard key, semi-soft key, bounce it for ambient.
3. 250w focusable light for hair/rim/kicker. Could be gelled, could be scrimmed, could be softened through some diffusion. Very flexible.
4. 500w dimmable backlight. This should be enough to set off backgrounds in nearly any scenario. Can be gelled, can be dimmed.

To that, I'd add some lightweight stands for travel, maybe a background kit, some diffusion, and maybe a breakdown 4x4 silk. A couple pieces of 2x2 foamcore, and you're ready to rock and roll.

A kit like that should be under $2k. I just looked at the cool lights page and they have nice looking stuff. In the Lowel line, You'd be looking at a Rifa 88 or 66, a Tota, a DP or Pro, and an Omni.

At B&H it's $750 for everything but the RIFA kit including the carry bag, gels, stands, bulbs, etc. The Rifa 66 is about $650 with the stand. So you're $1500 in with 4 lights stands, gels, a softbox, carrying cases, etc. Add a background kit for $200, some spares, diffusion, clamps, and you've got one heck of a good start.

I tend to like to have a powerful softbox because they disperse the light so much a small one has to be REALLY close to the talent. I got a RIFA 88 so I could approximate a large window about 5-8 ft away. Works like a charm. Throw a reflector of some foam core on the back side and you're all set for fill with a lovely soft light. Or use it to light your greenscreen.

The focusable hard souces can always be softened up with diffusion, silks, bouncing off foamcore or reflectors, etc. Very flexible, and if you get some different models you have some flexibility in how they are used. The umbrellas give a very nice light. It's not as soft as a bounce off foamcore, but it's not as hard as just a sheet of diffusion in front of a hard light either. Combine that with the softbox acting as fill, and you've really got some nice light.

If you're in a hurry, or need to go ultra light, take the softbox (or 1k flo) place it fairly close and let the fall off handle the near background. Add a small light as the fill/kicker and roll.
 
The Videssence kit appealed to me because of the fluro's: long life tubes, more comfortable for the talent ETC. I have to travel very lightly also. I'm not sure how to compare the brightness output to say one of the DV creator kits from Lowel though.
 
Its sad that lights are so damn expensive in Australia. Which is why I would look at Richards at coollights. Even after you factor in shipping etc, your going to end up with a more usable solution.

I did a price comparison on Richards website the other day vs my kit and prices were rather a big difference, even with shipping and factor in a GST on the way in. I think the open face lowels are hard to control when you need to.
 
Noel Evans said:
Its sad that lights are so damn expensive in Australia. Which is why I would look at Richards at coollights. Even after you factor in shipping etc, your going to end up with a more usable solution.

I did a price comparison on Richards website the other day vs my kit and prices were rather a big difference, even with shipping and factor in a GST on the way in. I think the open face lowels are hard to control when you need to.
Click to expand...

Noel, are you saying you think an open face is harder to control than a Flo? I don't know that I'd agree with you there.

But I do agree that the Coollights site has some pretty nice fixtures. That 6x55 Flo fixture caught my eye immediately. It's a bit more expensive than a 1k softbox, and more expensive to color balance, but at least it's cool. When I switch my softbox to CFL, I don't get nearly the output I do with Tungsten.
 
benandaim said:
The Videssence kit appealed to me because of the fluro's: long life tubes, more comfortable for the talent ETC. I have to travel very lightly also. I'm not sure how to compare the brightness output to say one of the DV creator kits from Lowel though.
Click to expand...


Each fixture has light output ratings in lumens, lux, or footcandles at some distance from the subject. Use those figures to compare.
 
Noel Evans said:
Its sad that lights are so damn expensive in Australia. Which is why I would look at Richards at coollights. Even after you factor in shipping etc, your going to end up with a more usable solution.

I did a price comparison on Richards website the other day vs my kit and prices were rather a big difference, even with shipping and factor in a GST on the way in. I think the open face lowels are hard to control when you need to.
Click to expand...

That's right I remember you mentioned you were moving back to Australia. How's that going?

We've actually helped quite a few people in Australia. I hope someday we can just open an office there to handle shipping within Australia and service. Its really our dream to have offices there and in Europe somewhere.
 
Cool Lights said:
That's right I remember you mentioned you were moving back to Australia. How's that going?

We've actually helped quite a few people in Australia. I hope someday we can just open an office there to handle shipping within Australia and service. Its really our dream to have offices there and in Europe somewhere.
Click to expand...

Things are moving, getting better monthly, as you would expect. Takes a little time to get the numbers. But getting there.

Richard with your prices, I am sure many would welcome you with open arms. Assuming the govt. doesnt hit you up at every step.
 
Thats really the key in Europe and Australia is the environment is such that the cost of doing business and the cost of living is pretty steep. Don't worry though, we're catching up here in the USA on making things too high.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top