DIY flo lights, how good are they?

A

adaml

Well-known member
Is this an area where you can save a lot of money and still get excellent results, or is it a matter of you get what you pay for?
 
deoends on what bulbs you buy, and what sort of fixture you put them in, but yes you can get great results from cheap flos.. however you may at least want them to look good and respectable.
 
There was a thread around here a few months ago which talked very specifically about certain bulbs and fixtures.

I use a brand I got at Lowe's called Lights of America model 8055SS. They are a 2-bulb, 48" fixture with an electronic ballast that take either T-8 or T-12 tubes. I use them mostly for daylight balanced stuff because I can get 85 cri daylight bulbs at Home Depot for 3 or 4 bucks a piece. Using a T-8 bulb I get no noticeable flicker and the hum from the ballast isn't discernible unless you are right next to the mic, or it's a very small space.

I'll use them if I am using daylight in a shot (like shooting near a window) and they work great. I installed some clips on the back (like on Walter's "Grafflight") which I can either clip vertically on a stand or I clip it to a piece of 48"conduit attached to a superclamp on top of a lightstand if I need it horizontal. they run cool and use a fraction of the juice that incandescent lights do. As soon as I can find some decent priced 3200k bulbs with a cri of 85 or higher, I'll start using them for that color temp as well.
 
Well I was going gang-busters with posts on doing my own flos for a while, but I found that once you get something nice built it's going to cost a fair chunk anyway...

THESE are the lights that I've been selling at $199 each WITHOUT bulbs, case, or barndoors.

I just made this video last night 'cause I shipped another two out to somebody today. I build 'em a few at a time 'cause it's either not enough pay or I'd have to make the price too high... and when it comes down to it I'm just a guy, not a company... so I'm a little paranoid about potential headaches from some A-hole who does something stupid with them... but in case you were interested in doing some serious DIY... that's what mine look like.
 
Those look great Matt. What material did you use for the reflectors? I just use reflective tape in mine. That parabolic shape really seems to up the ante though. Well done.
 
vj, I don't know if you remember, but I'm the one who pointed everybody to the LOA flos from Lowe's. I used those for a couple years, but the size and lack of sturdiness burned me too many times... so I went off the deep end and started researching this crap like nuts... I bought mass quantities of stuff because part manufacturers won't sell just a few of anything... and I intended to start building these to sell. I figured as long as I got the lights that I wanted I was happy... and a few sour attitudes I came across made me content to just sell a couple at a time rather then really go for it.

The shells are genuine diamond plate aluminum in .063 thickness and the reflectors are anodized aluminum of 99% refletivity... I made all that stuff from raw materials that I bought in sheets from manufacturers. There is no higher reflective aluminum out there... before I bend it it's as close to reality as any mirror you could imagine. Of course it does show fingerprints better then I'd like... but there's no reason to put your fingers in there.

The ND gels have these kicked WAY back... I brought these to our zombie shoot and forgot the ND gels and we just couldn't use them... We tried one shot with ONE on top of a 14' stand and it kind of passed for moonlight... but just barely... everybody thought these were 500w floods... I laughed when everybody was afraid of getting burned by them... they get warm and the tubes do get hot... but you could still reach in and change from Daylight to Tungsten within a few seconds of turning it off... and even if you touched the bulb when on you'd have to hold your finger ON it to feel a burn.

They're ugly, but I like these... for 55w each they put out... I'm the type to go for plain jane types that really perform... and I guess that's what I had in mind here too. I'm going to make a 4 bank version just for the craziness of it... and I have a local friend who thinks that's what he wants me to build for him. I'll make each tube switchable 'cause I can't imagine ever needing that much punch unless you want to tan with it.:cheesy:
 
I had been watching the thread about you building these puppies and I was really intrigued. I'm sure I posted that. It's a great bonus making the tubes each switchable. They do seem like a great value even at that price. But alas, I'll need to stick with the LOA's for the moment. I've found that attaching them to a piece of 1/2" conduit makes them a bit more sturdy. The size is okay (three of them fit in a hardshell golf travel case) and I can clamp 3 of them horizontally on a single stand (with a ton of sandbags) if I need to. But I wouldn't mind finding something comparable to that LOA in a 24" or 18" or 12". So if you have any tips on that, I'd appreciate it.

Where do you get your 3200K bulbs?

Jim
 
I have been buying tubes locally from a place called "Cine Supply" here in Saint Louis... I've bought about $500 worth from them so far. I try to stay local when I can, but I'm probably going to have to start getting them from B&H... if you get a bunch of 'em at once the shipping charge per tube is pretty cheap.

I'll never knock anything anybody uses... it's all about the output. My LOA lights just put me in a pinch on a couple shoots that I was getting paid pretty well for... it was SWEAT and tweek... and I finally got 'em working right... but I also had times where a tube would start swirling... flip the switch a couple times and it would straighten up... but what do you do when you're interviewing an author and you notice a light off-cam and it's got a tube swirling? Honestly I don't think the electronic ballasts in the LOA fixtures are high-frequency... just electronic. I'm not trying to bash the lights that I told everyone else to get... but I had a couple turns of bad luck with mine and the last time it scared me enough to come up with something else... but believe me, I'm not trying to really sell these... I'll be happy if requests continue to just trickle in.

Once the weather really cools off you'll hear a little more from me about 'em.
 
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