Lowel Caselite

As part of my lighting ensemble I have a bunch of daylight balanced Caselight 4s. Three of the four lights are individually switched allowing you to add or subtract light as needed. Also comes with egg crate. They're easy on the breakers, don't fry anyone getting too close, and room temperatures stay reasonable a bit longer.
 
Right -- no dimmer like the Diva; the way you control brightness is by individually switching tubes on or off. So it's sort of like having 100%/75%/50%/25% brightness capability.
 
Okay so no actual dimmer, I guess nets and flags would work.

I'm gearnig up for a small feature and I'm deciding between the Caselite and the Lite-Panel.

I only have a kit of briteks right now and I wanted a daylight source. The caselight would be a my main keylight, but most locations are in small houses/rooms so the Lite-panel would end up being useful in that case too.

If I get the Caselight is there a single tube kit that I can use the same bulbs with to act like the lite-panel?
 
Caselites are great in tight locations because they're very flat -- only about 3" deep or so. You can individually control which tubes are active; they come in 2-tube and 4-tube variants. I only have the 4's, I don't know quite how small a caselite 2 would be, but I'd guess it'd be about 3" deep, maybe 7" tall, and about 2' wide.
 
I've used the lowell case lights and they are terrific but look into Kino Flo. I like them better and I don't think they cost much more-plus they have an on board dimmer.
 
Barry_Green said:
For a budget alternative, look at http://flolight.com/ -- they have a 2-lamp fixture with an onboard dimmer for $349...
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For your money, would you get the flo light or kino-flo or something else?
Which exact one would you get?

I am considering getting a Diva 400.
Do you know the f stop @iso 320 and 10 feet?

I hear the diva bulbs are either too magenta, or too green. How do you feel about that statement?
 
When I was buying, I went with the caselites, but mainly because of size. Two caselite 4's take up a lot less room in the truck than two Diva 200's.

Haven't used the FloLights, but Jarred just ordered a couple so hopefully he'll put up a review here. At the price they're at, they're half the cost of the CaseLite 2's, so it'd be hard to justify not going with 'em. I have a PrompterPeople prompter and it's fantastic, so I would expect that their lights would be great too.

Divas are nice, and I wouldn't say there's an issue with green/magenta in the caselites, so I don't know why there would be in the Diva. Kino does recommend you keep one end elevated (base end I think?) in order to keep them from going a tinge green.
 
Barry_Green said:
When I was buying, I went with the caselites, but mainly because of size. Two caselite 4's take up a lot less room in the truck than two Diva 200's.

Haven't used the FloLights, but Jarred just ordered a couple so hopefully he'll put up a review here. At the price they're at, they're half the cost of the CaseLite 2's, so it'd be hard to justify not going with 'em. I have a PrompterPeople prompter and it's fantastic, so I would expect that their lights would be great too.

Divas are nice, and I wouldn't say there's an issue with green/magenta in the caselites, so I don't know why there would be in the Diva. Kino does recommend you keep one end elevated (base end I think?) in order to keep them from going a tinge green.
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I just ordered a 4 tube flolight that is dimable.
I should get it in a week.

It seems like a cheaper price at $599 ($550 on sale).

The kinoflo DIVA 400 is about $850 with tubes.

The flolights don't have cases, or stands, or any options such as eggcrates.
The kinoflo Diva's can be purchased to include everything for $1,040.


I guess the biggest question is how do the ballasts differ?

For the $300 savings on one unit, I can buy two for the price I had budgeted.


Barry, in the scene with the pool table footage used to demo the HVX200, what light source did you use, and was it daylight or tungsten balanced?
 
It's been about five months so I don't remember totally, but I think we only used a couple of Kino 4x2's for that scene, plus the window in the room. Daylight tubes.
 
I just ordered a flolite as well - 2 tube - for small interior locations - Ill post a review as soon as i can

by the way - if you are looking for an inexpensive follow focus - look at indifocus - I was skeptical about the design but it works really great
 
I'm going to buy a flouresant light this week but I'm still on the edge...

1x 4bank Caselite
The Case-Lite makes sense for small crews because everything is contained and portable. Thats it's biggest PLUS for me.

2x 2 Bank Dimmable Flo-Lights
-The Flo-Lites, I'm still hesitant about. What kind of tube/lamps do they use? I would need to buy stands for each one.

The project these are for is going to be DVX but I intend to use them on a few film shoots as well. What kind of gels have people been using to match with daylight? Do they need any 1/2 magenta to pull out the green?

Also they both have baby receivers, what is the best way to rig and overhead. Are the Flo-lights stable enough to hang with a mafer clamp or a c-clamp with a baby stud?

Can't wait to see a DVX review of the flo-lights.
 
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I just received my flolight couple days ago. It is really awesome - great case for travel - it wont break - very controllable and VERY soft even light.

Only issue is the clips holding the tubes are a little weak so we have lost a tube already and you have to be careful loading and unloading the tubes due to the design.

But i highly recommend it - you can get 2 for the price of one kino

they are heavy but will mount easily on a c-stand or maffer connected to something strong.

No gels needed - the tubes are balanced to tungsten or daylight
 
Be sure to tell customer service about your experience, I found the prompterpeople (same company) customer service to be very, very good. They'll want to know about your clip issue.
 
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