Hello! need help on my final decision to purchase some lights!

J

Jitup

Member
Hi!
Here is a little bit of background on my experience. I am a student/ working professional looking to buy my basic lighting kit. I have extensive experience in working with many different lights. I have mainly used, and absolutely love, Mole, Lowel, LTM, Arri among others. I have experience with tungsten, HMI, and some LED lighting. My personal preference is tungsten, I love the way it makes my subjects look, and love the warming affects. I have nothing against daylight tuned lights, but tungsten is my favorite. With that in mind I will not be buying a tungsten kit right off the bat because I already know what I want in that area, I just need to get the money together to start piecing my Mole/ Arri kit together. What I am seeking advice on is a decent yet uber cheap set up that will get the job done until I have the cash to get my Mole/ Arri kit together. And I have narrowed it down to two options; I just need some other opinions. This kit would be more geared towards interviews and also maybe I will use it for portraits

Option 1
I am considering getting this:
http://www.cowboystudio.com/product/c16/p16-01.php
In conjunction with this:
http://www.amazon.com/Britek-Professional-Photography-Fluorescent-Transparent/dp/B0047CK3FO/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=IPDL7RH19M4H2&colid=330D1VBYPINPS

I like this because it meets my requirement of having a 1000 watt (equivalent in lumens) capable key light as well as having a decent working soft box, and the second one would be a good back light. Also the Britek has barn doors so it would be a decent hair light, plus it comes with a second light, and you can never have too many lights.

Option 2
http://www.cowboystudio.com/product/c16/p16-02.php

I like this one because it comes with a boom. Also since I will be using this for interviews I can edge the hair light and it would work great. Also the soft overhead would work beautifully if I decide to do chroma key work (which is highly likely )

I realize cowboy studio lights are not of the highest quality, but they are cheap and put out enough light that they would be useable for me. If anyone has suggestions of other brands of lights that are in the same price range and have similar output, I am open to suggestions. Sorry for the essay, but I feel that If I provide all the information that I would value as a deciding factor, you guys can give me more accurate advice.
Thanks a lot in advance
 
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Two things to know about inexpensive, coiled CFL light bulbs:

1. 45W coiled CFL's are big and fragile. The 10 bulbs in these kits are probably shipped in cheap plastic shells. You'll need an additional padded case or two to transport them safely.

2. Unrated CFL's have a greenish tinge. High quality fluorescent lights will have a CRI rating of 80 or more. Since this vendor doesn't even state the CRI of their bulbs, you can assume it's not very high. Be prepared to dial up the magenta when setting your white balance.

Note that the boom stand has only one socket with a single 65W bulb. This bulb will be huge and fragile and will get quite hot.

Since I don't have a dedicated studio where I can keep several light stands permanently set up, I sought out the most durable high-quality bulbs available at a reasonable price. I started with a set of Eiko Colormaster 45W coiled CFL's with a 93 CRI rating. These have the broadest spectrum I've seen in a fluorescent:

http://www.dvcreators.net/eiko-color-master-full-spectrum-bulb/

Unfortunately, the Eiko's are very large, easily broken, and cost $23 each. But in a protected environment, they can be worth the hassle and expense.

The bulbs I settled on as a practical alternative are MaxLite R40 SKR423FLDL, which are coiled CFL's encased in a sturdy, mirrored glass floodlight bulb. They're compact at only 23W, and cast a more tightly focused beam than naked coiled CFL's, which makes them just about as bright as the Eiko's. Although their 84 CFI is not the highest, they have a slightly lower color temperature of 5000K, which I prefer to the Eiko's 5500K:

http://www.wamhomecenter.com/produc...=Froogle&utm_medium=Feed&utm_campaign=Product

At less that $6 each (per crate of 12), the MaxLite's are easily replaceable should one of them fail. The individual cardboard boxes they come in provide enough protection and pack neatly in a suitcase. A set of four MaxLites burns less than 100W and puts out over 5000 lumens, four times as much light as a 100W incandescent.
 
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Wow, thanks for the great info. I figured I would have to replace the bulbs, but since the lights come with them I figured I would give it a try and see how they turn out. the website claims them as "high quality photo bulbs" which I think might just be bull. From the reviews I watched online they came in styrofoam cases inside a cardboard box and all of the lights and stands ect supposedly can fit in the carrying case. Thanks for the advice and I will keep that in mind. So what lights do you use?
 
I bought a pair of these boom stands:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003YH2GH6

They're quite solid and the softbox is a single, folding unit that requires no assembly. It takes no more than five minutes to set up, once you get the hang of the boom pole socket. The drawback is there's only one light bulb socket, and the enormous 105W bulb they provide is absurd. I replaced it with a four-socket adapter:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0028K2TXQ

This adapter provides rigid support for a set of four CFL's, but the sockets are a little too close together for my MaxLite R40's floodlights to all fit. So I bought a pair of socket extenders at a local hardware store to offset the height of each diagonal pair of bulbs. It's DIY funky, but that suits my needs better than fragile and flimsy.
 
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