Light package various brands recommendations

M

M.R.

Active member
Hi,


I'm currently researching but thought I'd simultaneously ask here since there are quite a lot of brands.
Looking to build a basic lighting package. Of course price is important. Fixtures above +-600 EUR are too high, and fixtures near that range are for high power.
I'm making categories Spot / Panel / Flexible / Tube. (Spot can be monolight or fresnel)

Brands that stood out price wise and / or price - quality ratio wise
Nanlite
Godox
Interfit
GVM
Nangnuang
Clar Illumi
Neewer
Smith-Victor
Jinbei
Ledgo


There might be other brands you think of. I'll update along the way.
What are your recommendations for each category?
 
I think you’re better off deciding from a Caleb pike video (dslrvideoshooter). He will get you to the bottom of the best lights in this category faster than what this thread will end up looking like.
 
Check this video out for starters...(that's Caleb who Rob mentioned).

I've bought a few panels from here...excellent value. Highly recommended for everyone besides the 1% who need the best-of-the-best.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcBb-MInwBc&t=206s

(And that's a few years old...there are probably better lights out there now for the same money or cheaper.)
 
The video you mentioned is something I watched quite a long time ago. I've been through some of his newer videos the last couple of days.
But still think this thread is a good idea, since it would involve quite a lot of brands. And can be useful for others.
 
I bundled a couple of interesting options from various brands. I'll probably add a few when I have more time. I do have some more homework, videos/ reviews to check. But I wanted to know if anybody has user experience with one or some of the fixtures beneath. Also wanted to know if there's something I missed out and really should be considered.

I made this list with 'most bang for the buck' idea. More or less money / watt you're getting. So that's the reason why you'll be missing the known brands like Arri or such.

Spots

Godox SL 60 / 150 / 200 Some state the 60 / 100 is better in terms of fan noise. Some say 200 is better. 200 color shift? What's your opinion?
Studio Essentials 100W
Jinbei EF-150 V Sun
GVM LS-P80S
Sokani X60 Some issues with reflector, and also fan noise

NiceFoto 2000B II & 1500B II
Pixel Fodavil C220
GVM LS-P150D
Clar Illumi Max 300
NiceFoto HA3300B

Nanlite Forza 60 A bit more expensive, but seems very nice quality. Good reviews as well
Godox FV200 / FV150 Interesting with the flash option. Is this a good step up from the SL range? Or hardly noticeable
Godox VL 150 / 200 / 300 Is this a step up from the SL range? Or hardly noticeable
Nanlite P200 Not much to find on Youtube
Aputure LS300D MkII Yes lot's of reviews, but it made the list. (in the more expensive range though)
Nanlite Forza 300

Special Spot
Godox S30 Seems really awesome, and the reviews are good. Will be very handy for product shooting

Mandarine Spot
Smith-Victor Ladybug


Soft Panel/Flood Light

Dracast Tulva 2000D (floodlight) Seems interesting, didn't find a lot on youtube so any comments/experience is welcome
Nanlite Compac 200 (Softlight) Quite a large surface with 200watts, interesting fixture
NiceFoto SL2000AII Bi - color, do any of you know if it exists in a daylight version?

Soft Kits / Barebulb softbox combo

Fotodiox Led955 Kit
Fotodiox 2x50W Kit
Clar Basic 2 Light Kit

Ringlight (Looking for the big ones)

Nicefoto LR960A
GVM HD18D (S = Bi color)
Dracast LED180 Halo
GVM 600S (Bi color)
Pixel R45
Ikan Orion 18” (Bi color)
Nanguang Venus V48C (Bi color)
Came-TV Cassiopeia 125D Huge and foldable, very interesting
GVM 600S (Special Ringlight) Very interesting as it can be very versatile and be more than just a ringlight


Will add a few interesting panel fixtures in the next couple of days.
I mostly scanned for daylight only led fixtures, unless the bi-color fixture was too interesting or had a decent amount of power.


I also came across a very interesting second hand HMI fixture, but couldn't find anything on google.
It's probably quite old. It's a 1200W Hmi fixture from the Hensel brand I think calledmaxispot. The ballast seems built in, cause they plug directly into power.
For around 700, it seems quite a deal.
Are these any good or rather to be avoided? Can these be fitted with an 1800W bulb? Stated flicker free, but are they flicker free?


Thanks!
 
A lot of those brands I’ve never heard of. Aputure and Dracast are solid. I have a few Dracast soft round panels and I have friends with lots of Dracast regular panels. My ring light is actually a Dracast, but they don’t make it anymore. As far as that “HMI”, it’s not. Some quick googling turns up what appears to be photo strobes in large knock-off Arri fresnel housings(WTF).
 
Run&Gun said:
A lot of those brands I’ve never heard of. Aputure and Dracast are solid. I have a few Dracast soft round panels and I have friends with lots of Dracast regular panels. My ring light is actually a Dracast, but they don’t make it anymore. As far as that “HMI”, it’s not. Some quick googling turns up what appears to be photo strobes in large knock-off Arri fresnel housings(WTF).
Click to expand...

Hensel primarily makes flash strobes, but I'm pretty sure it's an HMI lighting fixture, it could be Arri housings though. Or did you mean it's an HMI, but a crappy one?

I came across another HMI fixture, something similar like this
https://prg-proshop.com/products/item/867/TMB-PowerPAR-575-HMI
But I don't know if it's the same brand.
The seller said it doesn't use a ballast, while those in the link above seem to have a ballast fixed at the yoke. Is it possible for an Hmi to work without ballast?
Are these theater par Hmi's a good budget Hmi option or are these to be avoided for film?
 
M.R. said:
Hensel primarily makes flash strobes, but I'm pretty sure it's an HMI lighting fixture, it could be Arri housings though. Or did you mean it's an HMI, but a crappy one?

I came across another HMI fixture, something similar like this
https://prg-proshop.com/products/item/867/TMB-PowerPAR-575-HMI
But I don't know if it's the same brand.
The seller said it doesn't use a ballast, while those in the link above seem to have a ballast fixed at the yoke. Is it possible for an Hmi to work without ballast?
Are these theater par Hmi's a good budget Hmi option or are these to be avoided for film?
Click to expand...

I'm not really familiar with Hensel, but when I googled Hensel maxispot, what returned was a fixture that looked like an Arri clone fresnel fixture, but internally was a still photo strobe. It's quite possible that they are like Bron Kobold and build both strobes and full-on HMI's(I've owned 3 Bron Kobold HMI's and still own 2 800's), but what I saw on my search was not an HMI, it was a strobe(maybe I just didn't dig deep enough to find exactly what you did).

I've never seen a true HMI that didn't require a ballast. HMI's require a lot of initial power to strike the lamps and then they have to maintain it correctly to keep it "struck"(maintain the arc). Looking at the ones you linked to, they don't look like good options for TV/Film to me. They are designed for permanent installation and the color temp is off. It says one of the lamp choices is 7200K. Optimal "daylight" is 5500k/5600k. "Non-TV/Film" lights don't have to have the color accuracy we need for production. Our eyes and brains continually adjust in ways cameras can't and don't. I've also seen sellers on eBay and the like advertise CFL light kits as HMI's. If the seller says there is no ballast, it's one of two things: they're just not selling/including the ballast with it or it's just not an HMI. The only HMI's that I've seen with built-in ballasts were camera top lights from Anton Bauer and Frezzi.

I hate to be the one to rain on the parade, but usually if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
 
Dracast aren't bad, IMO.

Lupo's new ActionPanel and SmartPanel are incredibly compelling in price and performance. Their SuperPanel is (IMO) way better than the Astra 6x, for instance.

Luxli's Viola, Cello, and Timpani really kick bütt in the RGBWW space, and have a great control app that actually works.

Also consider Quasar or Astera in the tube realm.

Most of the other various Chicom lights put forth an attractive price, but their promises of performance, flexibility, and durability are typically unmet. I've seen too many of these knockoff panels glitch or die, and the customer service is non-existent. I'd urge you to make the sacrifice for quality... "buy once, cry once" as the adage says.
 
mcbob said:
Dracast aren't bad, IMO.

Lupo's new ActionPanel and SmartPanel are incredibly compelling in price and performance. Their SuperPanel is (IMO) way better than the Astra 6x, for instance.

Luxli's Viola, Cello, and Timpani really kick bütt in the RGBWW space, and have a great control app that actually works.

Also consider Quasar or Astera in the tube realm.

Most of the other various Chicom lights put forth an attractive price, but their promises of performance, flexibility, and durability are typically unmet. I've seen too many of these knockoff panels glitch or die, and the customer service is non-existent. I'd urge you to make the sacrifice for quality... "buy once, cry once" as the adage says.
Click to expand...

Matt at Newsshooter has posted pretty favorable(and in-depth) reviews of Luxli and Lupo fixtures. Quasar Science tubes are kind of the "original" LED tubes(linear LED's) and I have a bunch, but I don't really use them much, because it's sort of a pain to use the hardwired versions. But I am a huge fan of Astera and their entire system/ecosystem(I don't have any of their tubes, but do have 12 of their pars).
 
I did this fiddling around the other day - of course 1w is not equal to consistent lumens. But you can see amazon fixtures give good value!

Maybe im just poor but 3 or 4 150w fixtures is next on my hitlist..

I cannot imagine really going with a traditionally priced named fixture like arri for personal (non rental) use.

led_cost.JPG
 
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Godox have a new VL series which are considered upgrades to the SL series. Seems to be similar to the version II of the Aputures, but unfortunately these kinda now incorporating the cabling mess of the version I of the Aputures. And the app is probably not as good as Aputure's Sidus Link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqAkEDX6krg

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod..._led_light.html/DFF/d10-v21-t1-x995739/SID/EZ

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod..._led_light.html/DFF/d10-v21-t1-x995741/SID/EZ
 
I've been using the Luxli Cello for quite a while now and it's a great little light. It's so flexible and great for painting BGs, as a hair light, rim light or a key source for small tabletop. Not cheap but super handy.

 
morgan_moore said:
I did this fiddling around the other day - of course 1w is not equal to consistent lumens. But you can see amazon fixtures give good value!

Maybe im just poor but 3 or 4 150w fixtures is next on my hitlist..

I cannot imagine really going with a traditionally priced named fixture like arri for personal (non rental) use.

View attachment 138846
Click to expand...

Haha!
I actually did the same thing more or less, just with a bit more specifics (including cri/tlci/type etc.)
I aswell wanted to know how much € / W, around 300 fixtures are in my excel sheet.

What are those Amazon fixtures?
 
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The Amazons just show for a search for led cob video light or similar

Mainly I want white muscle to fill space bounce though diff or fight the sun so a point or two of tcli is not critical

I also think that all the COBs probably come from the same couple of factories:)
 
morgan_moore said:
The Amazons just show for a search for led cob video light or similar

Mainly I want white muscle to fill space bounce though diff or fight the sun so a point or two of tcli is not critical

I also think that all the COBs probably come from the same couple of factories:)
Click to expand...

To that end... I have ~3 Bonlux 40W "5500K" COB lights... about $20 each...
https://www.amazon.com/Bonlux-Daylight-Balanced-Spectrum-Photography/dp/B01EFK7XE6

I've either screwed them into ~$7? Tractor Supply clamp lamps or into my old RIFA-EX edison adapters (single or triple). The color on them is pretty lousy out of the box, and there's an alarming number of open contacts on the surface of the light to electrocute yourself with if careless... I attempted to solve both issues by super-gluing 1/2 minus green gel around the circumfrence of the thing (as well as a top cap), and it works OK. With three of them in the RIFA-88 on a triple-EX, they put out at least as much light as its stock 1K tungsten.

Yeah, no easy battery solution unless you get a CPAP battery or similar setup, but it's a fair amount of output on the super cheap and dead simple.
 
If you can get more than two years out of it, the Nanlite Forza 500 is easily the best deal going around.

Adding to the luxli range, the Taiko 2x1 is fantastic value.
 
Run&Gun said:
A lot of those brands I’ve never heard of. Aputure and Dracast are solid. I have a few Dracast soft round panels and I have friends with lots of Dracast regular panels. My ring light is actually a Dracast, but they don’t make it anymore. As far as that “HMI”, it’s not. Some quick googling turns up what appears to be photo strobes in large knock-off Arri fresnel housings(WTF).
Click to expand...

I too found it surprising at the brands OP listed, how could for instance Aputure not be listed???

Go for the likes of Aputure, Dracast, Came-TV, or Godox.

They're all relatively large brands, which have been around for many years, with a wide range of products, and all are very affordable. Those are the core brands I'd recommend you focus your research on.
 
IronFilm said:
I too found it surprising at the brands OP listed, how could for instance Aputure not be listed???

Go for the likes of Aputure, Dracast, Came-TV, or Godox.

They're all relatively large brands, which have been around for many years, with a wide range of products, and all are very affordable. Those are the core brands I'd recommend you focus your research on.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the problem with the ultra-cheap, no-name brands is you just don’t know what you’re really getting as far as build quality and support, which are important if you’re doing this professionally. I mean anything from anyone can break down, but I’d prefer to play the safer odds. I don’t shoot “passion projects”. Everything I do is a paid job. In my world we are the crew and “rental house” in probably 99% of the situations.

So, if all I was doing was shooting YouTube videos for myself for fun, I couldn’t justify fixtures from the big boys that may cost thousands of dollars each, but working for clients that may be paying thousands of dollars per shoot, I can’t justify risking that on a no-name, bargain-basement fixture, either.
 
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