Price of lights

Professional lighting equipment is very expensive and in practically all cases, is genuinely worth it - IF you want quality optics, reliable mechanisms and long life and high reliability. I'm just installing some Fresnels in a venue and we're talking after converting to USD around 800 each - and this is for a cash starved venue, where although they're not rich, they want items that will still be working in 10 years (like the ones being replaced!)

The Chinese Fresnels mentioned here, that look like Arris - they're ok, although the build quality is a little less, er, sturdy. I've got some and have broken the focus mechanism on one already - simple pressed components that are a little more bendy that the versions in the Arris.

I've been involved with theatre and video lighting since 1976, and I still have some of that era that are still fully working. If you make your own, they'll either be very basic and short lifespan, or like those mentioned above - cost you a lot to produce. Cheap and quality are two words that don't get put together often in lighting.
 
After building my own Flos, using and renting Kinos and working with Coollights, I can say that Kinos are great, they are well engineered and slick. They are expensive and they are expensive because they sell hundreds of lights, not millions and because they have a reputation in the business.

My own flos, which are not nearly as nice as the ones Matt built a few years ago, have been great. But when all was said and done, for me to build a dual 55 watt biax tube fixture with a wooden housing and a high frequency ballast cost me about the same as the Coollights dual 55 watt biax light. Plus I had to put hours of my own time and labor into research, buying the componets, assembling and testing them. I am amazed that Richard can build such a great light for so little money. If you can afford them, the Kinos are great, but for the same price, you could buy two or three of the same specs from Coollights. If I were a rental company, I would have the Kinos but for what I am doing, I have had really good results from the Coollights that I have bought.

And something else to remember, other than tiny variations, the end result with a flo type of light on-camera will look identical no matter which light, homemade, Coollights or Kinos, that you use. And that is what really matters.

Dan
 
A Kino does nothing but provide convenience... for some, that is all important... for others, not so much. If you can work around the matters of convenience... then you don't have to spend the money.

Thanks for the compliments on my own lights, by the way... today I was driving past the place that was MIG welding them... and getting an ulcer over the memory of the day I picked up the latest batch... and they told me that my cost went up by 2.5X... remembering the blank stare I had as I picked up a pallet of diamond plate aluminum "shells"... and thinking "sh*t... what do I do now?"

There's actually a company that's selling an AMAZINGLY "SIMILAR" light... almost exactly the same thing... the complete idea down to the shape of it and all the ideas behind it... even the adjustable beam spread for Gen2.

Look at this page:

http://www.videssence.tv/products.php

Does anybody remember me talking about the adjustable reflector assembly for Gen2? Um... well... that's it right there. I had a guy named "Gary" who had a lot of questions for me in 2005.

See the DEEP one? On the upper left? Many from this site will recognize that light... Whatever...
 
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I thought up air-rebound shoe-soles when I was 14... talked to my first science teacher about it (Milton Hendrix) then a college business teacher at 19... then finally gave all my drawings to Kangaroos' CEO in about 1991. The Reebok Step air-sole shoe came out a couple years later... it would have been fun to be the guy who saved Kangaroos (who had their headquarters only a few miles from my house at the time).

I was too late on that one... I sat on the idea for too many years.


I'm not too concerned about the Videssence adjustable beam spread flo... it's not like the shoe-thing... I doubt it makes them much money... but it is interesting how much that light looks like the ones I made... it's virtually the identical shape.

I just found it funny, more then anything else... the shoe thing haunts my dreams however.

Lights are NOT out of the picture for me... by the way. You'll see something in that category at some point this year... to be sure.
 
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Matt, you gave me (I stole?) an idea:
Idea-Theft Fest- stories of all the "little people" whose ideas were stolen.

Anyone is free to... take this idea.
 
Gimme' a break dude... I was responding to Dan's post :)

As if I expect anything from a company that's building a light that looks almost exactly like the ones I sold on here... and incorporates the original idea I talked about putting into Gen2.

And by the way... your idea there? Isn't a good one anyway... so nobody would want it.
 
Just joking Matt, I read Dan's post, too. :)
The "fest idea" a joke too, obviously. You know what it's like, right? You lob a bunch of jokes out there, aiming for what- 20% hits if lucky?

Sorry about your experience with Videssence. I would guess for any subsequent ideas you would look into patenting?

Chuck
 
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