looking for cheap florescent lights

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deckardScott1980

Well-known member
when lighting i def like the soft florescent lights. The basic house bulb gives off a nice soft light, but im looking for something closer to a kino flo bulb. What bulb can i find that is cheap and easy to get a hold of, to get a nice soft look.
 
why not buy kino tubes ? sometimes cheap isn't the way to go ..
normal florescents are really a pain when they break ...kino tubes are sealed in some type of plastic coating ... crew/actors hate when regular type tubes break ....
i usually have electriction wire up several bare electronic ballast with 15-25ft of #14 wire with clips on end to attach to kino tubes - then tape kino tubes to walls /doors - where-ever needed -
you can't tape non kino tubes ...
 
How cheap are you talking about?

If you go to any hardware store, even a department store, you can get a few small flourescent lights. American Light Company makes some that go under shelves and such. The bulbs can be replaced with those closer to daylight balance. About four of these could be wrapped together to generate a decent amount of light. Cost would be under $100.

You could also build a unit that has four general light sockets, and fill them with the brightest flourescent screw in bulbs you could find. Dirt cheap doing this. Sheet metal, screws, sockets, bulbs.

If you're looking for something better, but not Kinoflo's, try www.imagewest.tv

I really like those on Coollights.biz, worth seriously looking into.

What seperates real Kinoflos apart, other than what donatello said, is the quality of the build and that they have a ballast and a dimmer built right in, with zero flicker. I'm a sucker for Kinoflos. They are soft, but unlike a softbox, they are directional. Almost every shot is gorgous in the right hands. If a gaffer showed up to my shoot and told me the grip truck went over a cliff, but he managed to rescue 4 Kinoflo's, I'd shake his hand, give him a raise, and tell him there'd be no delay in the shoot. :2vrolijk_08:
 
Far and away the best thing about Kino's is there portability, other than that any of these other fixtures are more than their equals. I have a 4 bulb savage fixture with 5600k bulbs...beautiful, and I just used it alongside a friend of mines Diva. My fixture was 219 on ebay his was 799 he ordered a Savage. I just ordered three lights from coollights.biz and the construction is wonderful. I'll make all future Flo purchases with Richard as he graces this site often and knows what the hell he is doing. I read these posts and wonder, damn how much cheaper do you want them for? Kino Flo Diva-Lite 200 at B&H for 528.99 (bulbs not included) vs http://www.coollights.biz/watt-fluorescent-softlight-p-30.html at $185 seems like a no brainer to any one trying to save a buck.
 
cinebuddy said:
I just ordered three lights from coollights.biz and the construction is wonderful.
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That's a great compliment. Aren't they great though? The factory that builds those has a really interesting process that uses a lathe and turns a circular cutout of stainless steel into a softbox fixture for me by turning the softbox model on the lathe at high speed with the stainless steel attached to one end and then slowly pushing the metal down onto the turning model with a rubber tamping tool. It takes about 4 minutes to make one and then it and all the other parts go to be powder coated and then to final assembly, test and packaging. Its interesting to watch. I've included a photo of the back and other side of the fixture that shows the interesting construction a bit better.
 

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I just ordered 2 Flo lights... I had a very hard time doing it though because the pictures that Richard has on his site (and those he posts here) are great and you can see how PRO they are... they look excelent, period... but they are not dimmable...
AND cheaper! You can't tell me that the dimming feature costs them $210 more for the 2-bank and $320!!!!! yes $320for the 4-bank?!? Come on! somebody slap me if it comes close. So I conclude Cool Lights are WAAAAY Cheaper... but not dimmable. :crybaby:
I spoke with Richard, and even though I don't know what he is up to, I know he will continue cranking out more models... and like you said he truly knows and loves what he is doing... so I kept my order to a minimum so I can get hopefully get some cool lights soon... Also, he offers 3200K and 5600K wich are presets and industry standards...
I saw a Flo 2-bank the other day and they look great too, so I went for it. However, I am convinced that the Cool Lights would have made me look a touch better in front of clients... maybe undiscernible, yes.. but the cost would have been felt clearly if I would have been able to go with cool light products... I even considered buying a boatload of ND sheets instead...


Goes without saying that Kinos are so light... but not worth the millions that are still in my pocket right now
 
There are at least three companies selling four 55 watt bulb fixtures. Fotodiox, Savage and now Cool Lights. They all are within a few dollars of each other in price. Some come with bulbs and some you have to add, but with lights provided or bought additionally they all come to around the $275 range.

Now, just to choose which one...Hmm.....
 
If you're looking for something better, but not Kinoflo's, try www.imagewest.tv
Click to expand...


Not bad looking lights, I guess... but what is with the 'high school prom' models?

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