Kino vs Cool Lights CRI

D

denoise

New member
I'm looking for two fluorescent 2 light kits for using them as strip lights for photography and video. Most of the time this would be the only source of light, and I need the best quality of light for delicate and accurate skin tones.

I guess the best (but most costly) option would be this Kino Flo Kit but I'm on a budget. I know there is "cool lights" and other options around but since Kino Flo tubes are rated at 95CRI and cool lights >85CRI I'm more towards the Flos. I'm looking for the best quality more than output power.
What do you recommend me?, Kino ? give their tubes real 95 CRI ? Thanks!
 
You could always put Kino tubes in the Coollghts fixtures. I use the Kino tubes in my homemade Diva 200s and they work great.

Dan
 
Dan is absolutely correct as our tubes work in their fixtures and vice verse. Even if you bought our fixtures, threw away the free tubes and bought Kino bulbs, you'd still be way ahead. But, in 2 years, I have yet to have someone tell me they thought our bulbs didn't give them the effect they were looking for. Many planned to use Kino tubes but just ended up keeping ours once they tried them out. Hope this helps.
 
thank you very much for your answers! then I guess I'm going for the cool lights and trying different bulbs.
 
My understanding has been that the coollights bulbs put out a little more light at the expense of a slightly poorer spectrum. I had thought about trying the Kino bulbs, but I've never had a problem with my color and since I shoot a lot with a HV20 (rated around 80 ASA by most people) I would hate to reduce the light's output.

Now, I have thought of replacing my portable's stand adapter... I keep forgetting to put locktite or something in its threads... even inspecting if before use I still crashed it once (no one hurt, miraculously landed without damage on a soft leather sofa). But thats another issue, just be aware that some of coollights stuff might be a bit quirky, its still an excellent value and it puts out a good quality light.
 
I can't possibly imagine getting better quality light out of Kino Flo bulbs than Cool Lights bulbs. I dare anybody to look at a scene shot with fluorescent light and try to guess the CRI of the bulbs used.

edit -- My phrasing in the second sentence didn't make much sense, but I think my point should be understood.
 
I think its a little like trying to hear the difference between 16 bit sound and 24 bit sound. Some say they can but there's no real proof and most can't. The difference between CRI 87 and CRI 95 is probably almost impossible to see--and thats why we picked it. Its a good compromise between color rendering and output. Boost CRI and lumens go down so you have to overdrive your ballast. Just seems silly to burn up the bulbs prematurely to me.
 
I've got 2 of Richard's portable flo's with 5600k lamps and have had NO problems with my RED camera shooting under them. In fact, I just did a shoot with 2ft Kino Diiva's (regular round lamps, not the wand lamps) that had tungsten lamps in them and they had the dreaded green spike in them. It took a minute for me to figure out what was wrong because I had never seen it before with the Coollights. I would suggest testing the Coollights lamps first and then seeing if you really need to upgrade. I think you will be surprised.

Matthew
 
Interesting. Never heard that the 2 foot lamps had that problem. Maybe one bad batch. In any case, our 3200K lamps are just as good as the 5600K ones and shouldn't have a problem. And, you're all forgetting the attractive carrying case that comes free with Cool Lights lamps. No one else does that (that I know of).
 
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