Light advice to buy, please

Harlockr

Harlockr

Active member
Hello people there. Would someone be nice enough to advice me on a lighting kit.
I still don't know if I should get something like the Lowel DV Pro 44, 55 kits, or the Arri Arrilites. Or just go with a Cool lite kit (which aren't too easy to quite combine from their website... I would prefer if they have something like an all included kits as Lowel DV kits)

I need of course something not too expensive, $1000-$2000, and easy to travel with.. mostly for 1,2 persons interviews, as well as green screen (just lighting for the talent), something flexible for more dramatic looks as well.
: )

Any ideas?
 
The Lowels are great for small interviews. I use two Omni's and one Tota. IMO those three are all you need for a basic 1 person interview.
 
it only takes a stand and a silk or a reflector to make a hard light a soft light. And if you use an umbrella, you don't even need an extra stand. If I was trying to put together an interview kit on the cheap, I'd buy a couple Lowel DP lights, a Tota, and an Omni. Some gels, some stands, an umbrella or two, and some foamcore and c-stands and you should be WELL within your $2k budget and have a very flexible set of lights.

My own kit is 2 DP lights, a Tota, a RIFA-88, 2 umbrellas, 4 pieces of white foamcore, 2 pieces of black foamcore, 2 4x4 silks, 1 3x3 silk, and extra material to change the silks to reflectors if desired. I added a background kit but I usually just use the extra two stands to hold reflectors or something, and a few c-stands. That gives me a LOT of flexibility in what I can light. I added a Mole 2k fresnel just to get some punch but you don't need to do that.
 
Thanks people :)
I was wondering if someone could tell me his experience with Zylight?
Now i'm also considering to get one of those, the Z90, with the battery to use for the run and gun situations, as well as a fill light. That one together with a key light such as a Dedolight 600W with softbox. And a Dedo 150W, for a shoulder/head light. Or just replace that one with the Zylight, and use a 42" reflector for the fill, and use the Dedolight 150W for the background with a Gobo, or something like that.
All these, will be around $3700.
Do you guys think this could actually work? Enough to play with pretty lights, or maybe just less heavy ones at least. And I like the idea of getting a Zylight for the camera, as well as a fill one. And I really, really wanna avoid too hot lights, or waste that many Watts.

It's pretty much above the 2k that I was thinking... but maybe I should slowly buy one thing at a time, and better be a good one at least.
Any comments are welcome
 
Have heard nothing but great things about the Zylights, they are sweet but expensive.

To me, a Dedo in a sotbox is the biggest waste of funds I can think of. The light produced by a Dedo and a softbox is no different that the light produced by a $140.00 Lowel Omni through a softbox, why waste the money? OTOH, Dedos are totally worth it if you are using them without a softbox, with the iris and other Dedo light controls. They are really sweet little lights but once again, really costly for what they are.

A Dedo 150 as a hair light? Once again, I would be using an Arri 150 fresnel at 1/3 the price or a Lowel ProLight at 1/4 the price, why waste the money? You aren't getting the benefit of that expensive little Dedo using it as a hair light. Dedos make sense for patterns, BGs, tabletop, etc. where their small size, focus and throw capability come into play. Through a softbox as a key or as a hairlight, I feel as if you are throwing money away that could be better spent on gripology.

Dan
 
I might get a Zylight just for the fun of it :)
But still need to figure out the others. Thanks for the comments. Lowel sounds good enough, but I just don't like the waste of wattage on heat, that's why Dedolights sounds good to me, because as far as I know, they need less power for the same purpose and that's a big plus for me.

Maybe some guy at COOL LIGHTS, could suggest me something they might have : )
 
I have a couple of ideas of course and we help people configure what they need by a questioning process that kind of draws out what you really need. I prefer to do it through email though as it can get detailed sometimes.

One reason we don't have some components like gels, filters and scrims (although we will have some scrims soon) has been that we mainly try to carry stuff that we can add some value to or lower the cost of it. Also, we've been mainly concentrating on the fixtures themselves and then coming back to add those essential accessories later.

Often times you can find gels locally or on Ebay for much less than we can do it as I just haven't found the great source yet and we do prefer to deal directly with the manufacturer rather than through dealers so there isn't double or triple markup on the items.

You can contact us at richard@coollights.biz or info@coollights.biz. Hope this helps.
 
Thanks, I will email.
Be able to buy just the light or the accessory you need is great, when you know exactly what it is, but it requieres experience and time to check it all.
So a good all included package is great for new guys like me.
 
Harlockr:

Have you checked out prices on the Dedos? I get the feeling that you may not be aware of the costs we are talking about. Dedo kits are often U.S. $10,000.00 to $12,000.00 for just two to three lights and accessories. Great product but really for people who have almost unlimited budgets.

Richard has some Arri knock offs like the Arri 150 fresnel for a very reasonable price. He has larger tungsten instruments that will work through a Chimera as a soft key source or you can try his fluorescent instruments as key sources.

Dedos are great but may not be the best value for you and your situation.

Dan
 
Harlockr said:
Thanks, I will email.
Be able to buy just the light or the accessory you need is great, when you know exactly what it is, but it requieres experience and time to check it all.
So a good all included package is great for new guys like me.
Click to expand...

Got your email and replied. Several questions for you there to make you think about some things. Yes you're right some preconfigured kits would be more helpful and we do want to do that at some point but for the time being I have preferred to help and do a questioning process to make sure people are getting what they really need. Its so hard to preconfigure a kit for all needs and thats really why we've preferred to do it this way. Hope this helps.
 
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