Looking to add on to my light kit.

R

ReelFilmGeek

Well-known member
I am wanting to add to my light kit and am having a tough time deciding what I want.

I currently have the following:

1x 650 watt tungsten fresnel
2x 300 watt tungsten fresnel
1x 1000 watt work light
1x 500 led panel (one of the older china led panels that has to be plugged in to a wall with no battery option, was never happy with it but its several years old now)
2x 128 led panels (just some more cheap $30 leds)
then just a mixture of practicles and clamp lights.

I am starting to keep my eye out for older lights like colortran and even par 64 lights and plan to pick them up when ever i see a good deal on some but am currently wondering should I pick more tungston lights or maybe invest in some led? I dont have many daylight balanced lights and gelling tungsten with a CTB eats up a lot of its output. CFL bulbs are cheap but only soft light and dont seem to do a good job with how they throw their light, and HMI is to expensive for me. so I was thinking of finally picking up some battery powered LED panels, maybe like these

http://www.amazon.com/Aputure-Amaran-AL-528S-LED-Light/dp/B00D77X1BI

or should i just stick with adding some more tungsten based sources to have a complete kit?
 
As you know, no one can really answer that question for you. But it is fun to discuss it with a group. It depends on so many things. Ask yourself what you wish you had when you did the last project. What do you need for the next project?

Since you have some LED panels, Fresnel, and open face light, if you don't have anything specific in mind, and you want to branch out to different lights, consider trying a mini leko. It is a very versatile light that functions very differently from a Fresnel or open face light.

As you mentioned, you may also want to consider PAR cans. On my last project, I ended up using several PAR 16 bulbs to paint the set. Lights don't always have to be big to be functional.
 
Yeah your probably right about only me being able to answer this question but hey I never heard of the mini leko so I already learned one thing. I think something daylight balanced would be a better choice as I find it challenging when I am working with large windows with daylight. Gelling is possible but then Im running around like crazy trying not to blow a breaker. The LED panels would be nice for closeup and after doing some research it seems liek they have gotten better sense the last time i used some. Also just saw a post about a super powerful LED, the ALZO 3000 and also the Pixapro LED 100D (trying to get in contact with the company and see if they can ship to the US as it has a extremely quiet fan). So looks like I need to read into LED because I can't afford HMI lights haha
 
Yes, I'd like to see a real world review of the Alzo 3000. I'm a bit skeptical about the 5db rating. But even so, I have a similar light that at 150watts, is 1 stop brighter than my 650 Fresnel and I find that it is quiet enough for most applications (after I changed out the fan for a quieter one).
 
What type of projects are you shooting?

Are your projects in larger rooms needing bigger lights, or smaller locations requiring lesser wattage lights?

Where do you feel your current lighting package falls short?

How are you set on lighting control and modifiers?

Would it make more sense to maybe add a couple of C-Stands, scrims, silks, flags, cookie, gel kit, to fill out what you already have, or are you specifically looking for another light?
 
I shoot a little but of everything, corporate videos and interviews, music videos, and I like to work on narratives (but those are usually personal projects hence why I won't drop the money on HMI lights).

i do plan on also trying to slowly build up some grip gear and I have some flags and have been trying to find the best deal on c stands but also felt like I needed a few more things to just well round out my light kit so I'm prepared for anything
 
If you are looking for lights, I may be selling a few extra Mole Richardson Tungsten lights in the near future. I have around 75 or so lights now, and need to raise funds and make room for a couple of new ARRI Baby Max HMI lights.
 
One of the biggest decisions is daylight vs. tungsten. Figure out which you need the most of. Modern sensors are daylight tuned and get cleaner footage. Chines biax flo's (kino knockoffs) are cheap, cool, pull very few amps, and make nice soft light. Daylight gets pricey when you want hard light... the cheapest options are probably the Cool Lights HID fresnels. From there it's getting into used HMI.

For tungsten, the world's your *****. There's so much used stuff out there. Even theatrical fresnels and open face, and lekos and pars - take off the clamp and attach a spud (TVMP) and you're good.

If you don't need portable battery stuff, I can't see the fascination with LEDs just yet. Not when a 4-tube biax puts out about 1k of nice daylight for $200 or so. Sounds like Alzo and others are making some nice next-gen stuff.

I've shot a huge amount of projects with Biax flos and 650-1k fresnels with 1/2 CTB for harder light (full CTB kills so many lumens, going a little less gives you warmth for the things you want hard, like hair, cheekbones, walls). I have a pile of open-faced lights (kinda like work lights but real yokes and barn doors) and several fresnels in the 2" and 3" lens range which are killer little detail lights. Just keep an eye on eBay.

And don't get caught up in the knee-jerk love of C-stands. They're great for many things, but for the same price as a turtle-base C (and non-turtle bases are just a pain to transport) you can get a steel beefy baby which will hold a lot more stuff, like up to 8' frames (with a pair). Kupo makes a killer junior combo stand for $150. Nine times out of 10, I'd rather have a baby roller than a c-stand anyway. C-stands are great but people new to this seem to think they're the only stands ever invented.
 
Oh will look into all of that. Some good info so far. Just trying to get a decent personal grip kit and I'll probably stay away from HMI because if I need them for a shoot I can rent them. Will look into the flo lights. And I did order a battery powered led just to have a battery powered unit if needed (got it used for only 75 bucks so couldn't pass it up). And I willook into those other stands later
 
IMO, I would start investing in flos.

I recently started buying fluorescent units, since I felt my tungsten based kit was pretty solid. I decided to start cheap, and bought two 2-tube Impact (Ready Cool 110w) units with spare Kinoflo bulbs. Now these units are nowhere near Kinoflo quality, but they are super lightweight, put out a decent amount of soft light and provide that much sought after 5,500k light.



I am hooked, and now saving up for 4' Kinos.
 
4' Kinos are really fabulous, light and versatile. I've been using them a lot lately with the flozier, which is basically 1/2 grid. Divas are pretty good too and having that dimmer on there is great for auditioning levels of fill. If you can get them second hand, then all the better. Try the other, less expensive brands. The ability to swap tungsten for daylight bulbs is invaluable, especially if you're augmenting light in a daylight lit room. Can't beat 'em.
 
ReelFilmGeek said:
Aputure-Amaran-AL-528S-LED-Light
Click to expand...

Aputure-Amaran-AL-528S-LED lights are known to have a magenta bias, so you will have to gel them to get a proper color balance out of them.

There are new "CRI 95" LEDs coming from several manufactures, but so far the only ones that are shipping are the small LED lights.

Aputure Amaran AL-H160 High CRI 95+ 160 Ultra LED

I bought one of these to try a month ago and recently ordered a few more of them. The color response is very good, and they are extremely bright for such a small light.
 
What sort of a set kit / expendable package do you have? What about the odds and ends that are almost always personally owned like covered wagons and movie tone lamps? What about grip support and control like flags and diffusion frames, and REAL stands to put everything on and be able to send it high up without fear of any mishaps? All of these things are good to have.

Or if you're talking strictly about conventional units, I'd look into lights that can give you a lot of punch like PAR cans, source fours, and 2k blondes.
 
I never knew Impact made kino knock offs for so cheap might give them a try. What are the pros and cons of the 2 bank and 4 bank lights?
 
Unless I'm seeing something else, those aren't really kino flo knockoffs at all, just another 55w biax light. Those lamps burn really bright and the color tends to be off, also having the reflective surface inside the barn doors defeats their whole purpose of cutting light. I can't speak for their construction though.
 
Chinese biax knockoffs - I own several. They've been really great lights.

The Osrams and no-name lamps most ship with - in my experience, anyway - everyone has a yellow cast which actually needs violet to correct (like 1/4 CTB and 1/8 minus green). if your whole scene uses the same lamp, you can just WB. It's a bad color for Canon DSLRs on daylight, really kicks up that orangey skin without gels. Overall, they're dynamite lights, esp. if you can get a quad for $200-$300. They all use some sort of ballast overdrive, but they're quiet and really kick out the photons. never have replaced a lamp yet, either.

I think I'll try some tru-match kino bulbs though. Supposedly you lose a half stop to a stop with those, but I'm losing a little with gels anyway. $21 or so a pop.

Quads vs. duals: quads kick out a LOT of soft light. Everyone I've seen has a "dual" switch so you can light just two lamps. It can be hard to find a case for them though.

Duals are handy though, they're smaller and they're the perfect greenscreen lights and fit in all sorts of cases. I even have some of those original "flolight" gooseneck duals. They're made of plastic and are light enough to hang from a ceiling grid clamp. I'd say get at least one quad and two to four duals, depending on your soft daylight needs.

Main thing with the knockoffs - try to find models with a for-real steel yoke on 'em. The flash-bracket models look pretty weak... the goosenecks suck ass. The lollipops (kino and Cool Lights) reportedly wear out quickly.
 
I have used these Chinese made Biax Diva knock-offs. And while they can offer good bang for the buck, I have found that many of them use cheaper ballasts which die and need replacing.

Just something to think about.
 
ReelFilmGeek said:
Hm might start off with something like this for starters, a lot cheaper than I thought it would be

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1008971-REG/impact_ready_cool_2_lighting.html
Click to expand...

Dude... do not... DO NOT get a gooseneck flo. The gooseneck I've owned are total, ummm.... bowel product. They come loose, the knobs are crap, they sag, etc. etc.

Take a look at the Cowboy Studio stuff on Amazon, check some reviews there. Amazon sellers tend to be a little more responsive.
 
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