Looking for a starter light kit

T

Tony B

Active member
Looking to buy a lighting kit to do product shots/video work. I design websites and got a DVX 100a to add video work to my services. I would like to buy a decent 2 light kit with soft boxes. Would like to go floresant, but I'm not looking to spend a ton of cash.

Here's what I found at B&H: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=2247&A=details&Q=&sku=461510&is=REG&addedTroughType=categoryNavigation

I'd really like to keep it a grand or under. Wouldn't mind getting a 3 light kit, but I could use a 2 light with a refector if needed.

What would you guys reccomend? (if there is a decent flo kit I'd go with that too)

Thanks.
 
I would get some lowels or some Arris.
The lowels aren't as durable as the arris but if you aren't going to be rough housing them or renting them out you should be good
 
Under $1000 for a good quality three head kit is not really possible with new, but if you consider used, you should have no problem at all. Stick with Mole or Arri and you won't go wrong. I would get one or two 650 Fresnel's and one or two 300 Fresnel's as a starter. This won't work for anything big or daytime, but a nice place to start. Set aside a bit more for some extras like scrims and barn doors as well.

If you have a good local rental house, you should be able to rent a nice three or four head kit for $80 - $90 for a weekend. This would give you a much better idea as to the capabilities of these types of instruments.

For fluorescents, I got a Lowel Caselite 4 which I like for its great portability, though this alone would exceed your budget be about $500. Most of the rest of the Lowel products are OK at best, but no where near the quality and durability of the Mole and Arris. Kino's are great but even a bit more expensive. The cheap fluorescents that I have tried out were mostly crap, so I would avoid them.

When you need bigger guns, rent. No need to try and own HMIs and big tungsten sources that you will only use on occasion. They are expensive, big and require real distro to use, so unless you are shooting all the time, rentals make the most sense.
 
Check out the flolights:

www.flolight.com

They're really nice, great light output, and the have dimmable models. One of the smaller dimmable models might suit your needs quite well. You have two of those (1 of each) for a grand. But for random shooting I'd recommend one of those and 1 or 2 used, smaller fresnels from a reputable brand (Mole, Arri, LTM, Desisti, Altman) and plenty of scraps of gel & diffusion and such.

Don't overextend your budget on the lights themselves. i.e. Better to have cheaper lights with as many knick-knacks as possible (barn doors, scrims, grids/eggcrates for softboxes, gels, diffusion, stands, extension cords, etc) than to have fancy lights laying on the floor unplugged with no bulbs in them.

-Kevin
 
One thing that you will learn very quick is that a good decent stand is vital to your lights. Also how much do you plan on carrying these lights around ?Having a smaller form factor might be beneficial
 
I am wanting to get a Chimera soft box kit from B&H Photo .... does anyone think the Flo light with dimmer would be a better choice?

I was thinking of getting the Chimera kit with a Lowel Pro light (with impact light/boom stand) and a gold Flexfill for doing basic interview setups.

I mention this because I figured this was a good starter kit. Does anyone agree?
 
For a good interview setup I would suggest 2 650 watt lights , 1 350-150 watt light and a large soft source like a rifa light.
 
John--

I don't own a flolight (yet) I just checked them out at the recent show. But it seemed really nice. Runs cooler, well built, dimmable, and puts out a TON of light.

You have to take into account that fluorescent fixtures are not only more efficient than tungsten right out of the gate, but they're also an inherently soft source, so you need little or no diffusion when using them as a softbox-- making them that much more efficient. That medium-sized dimmable fixture from flolight puts out as much light or more than a 1K into a Chimera.

The only downfall is that they're a bit heavy. And if you're using an open-face or fresnel into a Chimera you can always pull the softbox off and have a direct light source... so there's some added flexibility that you don't get with the flos. But heat, electrical efficiency (not blowing fuses or burning down random locations), light output, and dimmability, not to mention that you can get daylight or tungsten balanced bulbs and swap them out as needed w/o light-loss from gelling-- fluorescent is the way to go.

-Kevin
 
i've always liked lowel lighting kits for video. has anyone heard of elinchrom? i just saw them on the bogen website. they look good but i don't know if they are mainly for photos.
 
Since you said you need to shoot product shots, a good softbox is the way to go.
Especially if you shoot anything with reflective surfaces. A big Flo would be nice, but like mentioned in an earlier post, a great stand is needed. I would look into getting a boom stand with counterweights. Fresnels are great for edge lights and kickers, work wonders as a key light(with diffusion). But ONE BIG source light is required for tabletop work. A good sized softbox and a few pieces of foam core and show cards can be your best friends. Pick up a few small mirrors to add to your tabletop lighting kit as well. If you go with the FLO...(man that never gets old ...lol) make sure you get it with a diffusion panel, or at least some diffusion material large enough to cover the entire face of this fixture. Good Luck
 
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