Ebay Lighting?

looks like a cheap chinese knockoff to me, if you even get it in one piece i suspect it'll be in the trash in a few months.
 
I have bought a lot of gear off of eBay, and I am a big fan of the system. I think that the feedback system really helps to keep shysters in line. Most of the sellers that I have dealt with on eBay have been very good. I am not saying that I have not had some negative experiences with buying off of eBay, I have. However, the negative experiences have been very minimal. Of the well over 100 transactions that I have done on eBay, I can only recall TWO that I think are negative. One was for a vintage still lens that turned out to be defective, and for which I got a full refund (And kept the lens, which I now use as a paper weight). The other is for some cheap light stands that turned out to be garbage. I had to eat that one. All in all, I think that buying off of eBay is good thing. However, I do recommend that you fully research what you want, what it cost to buy retail, and, if possible, research the seller.


Ok. That being said.... There is no way I would buy the lights that you linked to. Why would you want to spend over $400.00 for a LED light with a CRI (Color Rendering Index) of 82 and with absolutely no information as to its photometric performance? I mean, shot, with that kind of $$$, you could get a 250 watt E-26 Medium base halogen bulb, that will screw into any standard house hold socket (In North America), put it in a versatile spring clamp work light and have photometrics like this:

250 halogen in scoop.jpg

... and then have $390 left over for Beer, Pizza and Dancing Girls!

I know, it is not that simple, but if you are contemplating buying lighting gear off of eBay you have to really delve into the site and see what is out there. ... "Continuous Lighting" in "Cameras and Photo"!
 
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Concur 100%. Nothing wrong at all with bargains from China - except for us in the UK where mains voltages are concerned. Some Chinese product is simply not safe, as determined by regulations here, making them illegal to sell. On ebay people can report them and that's bad news. Even for safeties sake using them yourself means perhaps a re-wire and actually grounding the metalwork. The view here is that US regs are pretty slack on this, but with our 230V supplies (and 3 phase 400V supplies) we take earth/ground seriously. Various items of chinese kit I have had, came supplied with two core mains cable - and it needs replacing, and testing (again, another of our regs) before use. The CE mark that is Europe wide is often really explained away as China Export - not our safety mark. I tend to only look at low voltage kit like the one talked about here if I want to just use it, and not open it up straight away!

The branded makes test colorimetry of LED batches, the Chinese rarely have batches that are the same - sometimes even the LEDs in a single unit are clearly different colours to the eye - so matching is poor, and the spectrum can be very hit and miss. That all said, it is a way of getting lower priced products - if you can live with the problems. They seem to do electronics pretty well, but anything put together with metal, with nuts and bolts can be a bit variable!
 
+1

This idea that everything chinese is junk is ludicrous. Just as much as the idea that something that costs 10% of the real thing is going to be as good. I've bought a few Arri fresnel copies of the JieTu brand and have found them to be incredible value. The parts haven't been engineered to small tolerances so the housing doesn't fit together as seamlessly as something made in germany or japan but it is perfectly functional and the mis-fit is only apparent close up. Functionally they do exactly what they are meant to do, don't leak any light, just the assembly and finishing is just a little underdone. They are solidly built and give me what I need. Stands are flimsy but hey, they were essentially free. Also note that I bought at the high end of the chinese prices, to get the cheapest chinese stuff when their top products may cost as little as 20-50% more can be blamed on the consumer as much as the chinese manufacturing.

The main concern as mentioned above is with the wiring but it is a simple affair to have an electrician test and if necessary rewire them. I reterminated all the wiring on the ones I bought myself as I know what I'm doing but still had a certified electrician double check me. The wiring was fine in my case (but even better now and peace of mind) but I've read some stories and you don't mess with electricity. For the sake of an extra $10 an item when you've already saved $1000+... you're not poor if you don't, you're an idiot. If you know an electrician (like I do) then the beer economy will usually take care of payment. That said, the LED is battery powered so this one is less of an issue.

I can't speak of the quality of light it gives off but then I prefer the character of tungsten lighting in general. Just wish it was cool, lightweight and more power efficient. 2x650W + 3x150W is about as much as I dare put on a household circuit. If LED was cheaper I'd possibly rethink my prejudices. Until then I don't dare own one lest the convenience and freedom to set up more than 3m from a power point leaves me dissatisfied with my current options.
 
I've bought from steven.studio myself for lighting, fast delivery, the quality of the kit was surprisingly good. I would buy from them again without hesitation. I didn't even get stung for duty.
 
I should add reading this though I checked the plugs on the mains powered light, they'd put on UK plugs which were marked as BS546 (which isn't the current standard plugs should adhere to), the plugs didn't strike me as good as ones I'd usually buy (for example they didn't grip the cable), I'm definately replacing them.

I've opened up the switch on the cable and lights themselves and other than the plug they look in order.

I've sent a to message to steven.studi advising them to upgrade the quality of plugs.
 
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Only of use to UK readers, but there are some incredibly dangerous 13A plug fitted adaptors and power supplies on ebay. Trading Standards and even Watchdog have been on the case, and even Amazon are guilty of selling really iffy kit. Watch out for the tiny bodied 13A plugs that despite the labels do not meet BS. Many fuses are solid wire, and some are even dummys, not in circuit at all. Many have in the pictures sleeved earth pins - many of which are not connected at all. Trading standards have large numbers of fake fuses floating about - no good as fuses whatsoever, and some of these products when cut open are frankly scary. There is no way to determine if a moulded plug is a good or bad one without destroying it - so always treat them with suspicion. Re-wireable ones can be opened up at least.
 
alex1 said:
Was thinking of buying some LED lights off ebay.

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/NEW-Touch-Sc...ltDomain_0&hash=item3f1d1cf7c2#ht_3305wt_1397

Dimmable, touch screen, 3200k-5600k color change temp, 500 LED. Seems like a great deal.

Has anyone here had experience with buying lights off ebay? If so, what did you get and how did it work?
Click to expand...

I have not bought LED lights off ebay... I did buy a set of CFL based lights and attendant fixtures. After two uses, one of the fixtures 'broke'. Apparently the manufacturer had made use of a 'larger' socket than usual for the US, placed as small metal insert to allow standard E26 bases to be used, but that had come away from just being 'press fit' to the socket walls.

I was able to 'repair' this with some epoxy glue, and because they are CFL's I wasn't too worried that the base would heat up significantly, potentially causing problems using something non-metal or ceramic in the fixture.

I suspect the other lights are equally as flimsy... but heck for about $120 they do work... and for my low usage, may be ok.

If I were in a position to buy better quality... duh... I would...
 
paulears said:
Only of use to UK readers, but there are some incredibly dangerous 13A plug fitted adaptors and power supplies on ebay. Trading Standards and even Watchdog have been on the case, and even Amazon are guilty of selling really iffy kit. Watch out for the tiny bodied 13A plugs that despite the labels do not meet BS. Many fuses are solid wire, and some are even dummys, not in circuit at all. Many have in the pictures sleeved earth pins - many of which are not connected at all. Trading standards have large numbers of fake fuses floating about - no good as fuses whatsoever, and some of these products when cut open are frankly scary. There is no way to determine if a moulded plug is a good or bad one without destroying it - so always treat them with suspicion. Re-wireable ones can be opened up at least.
Click to expand...
You're spot on, I've warned this guy that not only are the plugs simply not safe, I think he's wired the polarity in reverse, this is a photo of one of the plugs when I opened it (one connection broke on opening the plug).

A4cxeyFCMAA4TXj.jpg
 
alex1 said:
Arn't most LED lights sold here also made in China?
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Isn't 'everything' made in China... and it's stacking up on the shipping docks as we speak (well write...).

But the 'difference' between the 'quality' producers and the 'ebay' selloffs, boils down to quality control, and what level the manufacturer specs the product.

The 'quality' manufacturer may have set a spec that rejects 80% of the LED's produced... where do those get sold... to manufacturers on the next tier down... and so on until 99% of the LED's are sold... then there's the industrial liquidators... for that remaining 1%...
 
steven.studi has taken the feedback about the plugs seriously and they'll be supplying adapters instead to the UK or using BS1363 plugs so future customers shouldn't have the issue I did.
 
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alex1 said:
Was thinking of buying some LED lights off ebay.

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/NEW-Touch-Sc...ltDomain_0&hash=item3f1d1cf7c2#ht_3305wt_1397

Dimmable, touch screen, 3200k-5600k color change temp, 500 LED. Seems like a great deal.

Has anyone here had experience with buying lights off ebay? If so, what did you get and how did it work?
Click to expand...

Big thing with LED's is they are not so friendly mixing with other light sources. This is mainly because of poor CRI so even with gels and fancy recipes they can have limits. If they are your only light source they are not bad, but your color spectrum would be limited.

I would rather stick with "real" lights if you can. Go tungsten or high CRI flo's. Check out some "cheap" lights on www.alzodigital.com I've used these http://www.alzodigital.com/blog/?cat=3 and they are comparable to kino-flos except much cheaper. Alzo also sells 85w flo bulb available in daylight (5600k) that puts out 5 times that equiv. in tungsten light, so approx 400w. Put that in a cheap softbox or put some flags all around it and you've got a great soft light source for very cheap.
 
I've been down the Ebay road several times with various equipment- batteries, CFL bulbs, softboxes, etc. General rule of thumb is: expect fair to poor build quality, expect to have to work on/rewire at times- but you can buy 3 or 4 of the item (maybe more) for the price of the same name brand item, which is also made in China. I've found it to be a good tradeoff, since I use this equipment occasionally and not full time for a living. I can see why those in that category would go for the better stuff.

If I were putting together a light kit off Ebay today I would look for cheap softboxes with one or two household bulb type sockets, then get 85 or 150 watt CFL bulbs (daylight balanced). I'm using similar lights to shoot a feature as we speak and they blow away anything you can get at a hardware store. I once bought two umbrella type folding softboxes in a nice zippered case with 85w bulbs and stands for $50. Can't find the deal again though!
 
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