Compared to

P

Park Edwards

Veteran
I'm putting together a light kit and am seriously thinking about cool lights. But then I ran across this.

http://cgi.ebay.com/PHOTO-DIGITAL-V...ihZ010QQcategoryZ3860QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem

For the price compared to having to buy a stand, soft box, bulb, fixture it's a great deal.

But I'm wanting to go with Cool lights because of the CFL's. I'm confused now.
I looked at getting the CFL-SFT1 and using it with a HMI bulb and CFL that way I could go back and forth, whereas the other light I can't. But I'd have to buy a stand, adatper, soft box and bulb.

?????
-Rh
 
I concur with you that Cool Lights is the way to go. However, I can't compete with $34 or whatever the final bid will be on that amvona kit. Our forthcoming SFT1 kit price will be $125 for the SFT1, softbox and bulb. Stand will be $59 extra. The softbox will be a 24 x 24 with grid.

Its really a choice between a self-ballasted 8U CFL that puts out about 800w worth of light for drawing 200w or a tungsten solution which will put out 1000w worth of light for drawing 1000w. The bulb life of the tungsten is 750 hours and the bulb life of our 200w CFL is 8000 hours. A bit hard to compare. Also, my solution will be available in 3200K or 5600K when we have it in stock in a few more weeks. You'd have to gel "up" the tungsten to get daylight and of course would lose quite a bit of light in so doing.

But, if it comes down to price you probaby need to go the tungsten route.
 
i'd love to get my hands on the soft boxes you're building, but for know I have two of the amvona dynopro lights and I have to say they kick ass. they are by far better than and fresnel with a speed ring. the quality of light they put out is amazing. a lot of shooters look at them and think oh wow old school because of the long bulbs with mogul bases, but I have to say they put out more light, as well as softer light that the fresnel option. for that mater, more than most open faces with a speed ring.

Jason
 
Well if you think about the way reflectors work, a fresnel would have a tough time competing in any softbox with an open face light bulb. The reflector inside the softbox is just a big parabola and that's about as efficient a reflector as you can find. The sweet spot in a parabola is inside it, not behind it. The open bulb sticking into this middle spot of the parabola is really at the most efficient point you can find to make the reflector work for you.

The fresnel, which is a fine instrument for many uses, has some problems competing because there is no bulb sticking out and into the sweet spot. Just a lens with the bulb behind it. While it works okay, its definitely no competition to an open face bulb inside the softbox--whether that be tungsten, fluorescent or even metal halide.

My thinking is that the fresnel speedring into softbox combo is for those that want to keep a minimal kit and simply increase the size of the emanating surface of the fresnel on occasions where they need a big soft output. It's a compromise to keep from having to buy lots of extra instruments to serve the softbox and keep your kit as small as possible.
 
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