Multipurpose Lighting Kit Needed

A

averagejoe

New member
We shoot about 50/50 indoors and outdoors and the small antiquated kit that I have now is going in the trash. I am looking for a top of the line kit that can be used for indoor and outdoor applications. It will need to be somewhat portable. I don't care if its heavy I just want it to fit into a nice sturdy hard carrying case and be able to travel with the crew if necessary.

My Budget is $3,000.00 MAXIMUM and less is preferable.:furious3:

Needs to have Soft Boxes, Reflectors, Basic Battery Backup power (Most of the time we will have outlet power), Stands.

I know exactly what to buy if it were for my still life digital photography (Alien Bees, White Lightning, etc, etc.) but not for the video stuff.

We shoot Sony HVR Z7U's
 
For outdoor lighting $3000 is barely enough for ONE light, stands not included. For outdoor a reflector is your friend.

For indoor I would go with some Arri tungsten and Kino/CoolLight for fill. For your budget you can get 2x 650w fresnel ($800 used, $1000 new), 1x 150w and 1x 300w fresnel ($500) 1 Kino Diva 400 ($1000) or 2x Cool Lights CMD655 ($1200). The rest can be spent on stands, C-stand, sandbags, grip etc.

$3000 really isn't much when it comes to video lighting and you'll probably won't be able to afford "top of the line." There's a ton of useful grip gears that I'm leaving out (such as overheads which can really help with light diffusion when outside) and the lighting combinations that you want might vary.
 
Thanks for the reply. I have been looking at this kit!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=360207596695&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Most outdoor shots are done with no light and Just reflectors to tone down facial shadows and the indoor has no ambient light so I thought this kit might be worth giving a try. Could these light be used outdoors in Low Light Conditions or would they be to hot?

I also have my eye on this kit. It's pretty much just lights so I would obviously need to pick up some other gear but a 4 light Arri set would do the trick I believe.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=360208647081&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT
 
So you think the Altman 3 light kit is better than the Arri 5 light kit? I understand that more is not always necessarily better but wouldn't the 2 150w's help to warm a bit more? Like I said before, I usually subcontract out the lighting so I am a complete amateur when it comes to this portion of my projects. Would you suggest adding anything to the Altman kit to "theoretically" improve the kit overall? Our outdoor stuff will be in low light conditions and our interior will be with very little outside light also.

Again, Thanks for the help. My lighting guy is pretty much stonewalling me on every question because he knows once we get a kit it will essentially cut down the amount of projects we will need him on.
 
The arri 5 light kit is where you would start. The Lowel kit is night but there is lots of stuff that i would never use, though Lowel 250w lights are something that Arris is missing - they do have the 300w but not in small compact form like Lowel.

Don't be misguided though the Arri kit is just the beginning. You will still need flags, c-stands, gripology, etc to make it a viable lighting kit.
 
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