quality used light kit for under $1000?

[jdkhanlian]

I am looking for a light kit that can meet the following needs:

-lights to spruce up a background to make it look like daylight streaks(shooting through cookies and CTB): Do I need a fresnel for this or could I get away with focusing my light using barn doors?

-lights to bring up a master/wide shot with a lot of backlight coming from the window

-lights for shooting at night on a light hungry camera

-lights that won't blow my circuits. any advice on how many watts i can put on one breaker?

-bounce boards?

-no loud fan noises on the lights that could be picked up by audio

-any flag advice for shooting in a place that gets a lot of light and has white walls?

-practicals advice?

So basically, I would like to get an all-around good lighting kit. I am willing to spend up to a $1000 and would like to buy used lights since I think they will be a better deal. I want to have lights or a light kit in mind before i try to look on ebay/craigslist for used items.

My initial instincts were to buy a traditional tungsten kit and use CTB to balance to day light when shooting during the day. (Are there any LED daylight balance lights that are powerful?) The price on lights/kits seems to go up considerably when I start considering fresnels. How important are fresnels in a kit?

What about a used lowel kit such as the following? Would this provide enough power?

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/458356-REG/Lowel_DV9023ZE_DV_Creator_44_Kit_.html

 

[Dave ©]

I am looking for a light kit that can meet the following needs:

-lights to spruce up a background to make it look like daylight streaks(shooting through cookies and CTB): Do I need a fresnel for this or could I get away with focusing my light using barn doors?

Any light can be used for this. You can buy cookies, make cookies or poke holes through black wrap.

What about a used lowel kit such as the following? Would this provide enough power?

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/458356-REG/Lowel_DV9023ZE_DV_Creator_44_Kit_.html

I think this Lowel kit would be a pretty good start if you don't have any lights yet. It would give you a # of options.

 

[AwakenedFilms]

Hi jdkhanlian,
The kit you mention is a 240volt kit. Not the equipment you want for use in Jersey City. I am not a huge fan of the Lowel kits. Coddia is right, it will give you a good start, but you will likely outgrow it quite quickly. Should you decide to go with Lowel, I would still be concerned with the wattages of a similar 60Hz kit. 750watt tota splashes light EVERYWHERE. It is great for flooding a room, but definitely not for control. 500watt omni is an all around work horse, but at 500watts, you will find it underpowered for many situations. The Rifa and ProLIght are great accent lights. Overall, I have noticed that Lowel lights are a bit cheap in their build and do not really offer the same power and flexibility that I demand from a light.

I like Arri Fresnel Kits. Very robust, Decent value, last a long time.

If you plan of shooting with an adaptor, or very light hungry camera at night, you will probably need at least a 1000 watt key w/chimera. 650 fresnels are great work horses for general background lighting. 300/150 fresnels are great accent lights.

Fresnel lenses give great control to a fixture. Their shadow fall off is very pleasing. You can use an open face with barn doors, but it is definitely not the same as a fresnel lamp.

As for power demands, an LED or fluorescent or HMI will have a lot more light output per watt as compared with a tungsten. If you will only be shooting daylight balanced, tungstens will prove problematic, as CTB really cuts down on your output. I use 1/2 CTB a lot and mix color temperatures on purpose. I can get away with daylight interior and a tungsten with 1/2 CTB, but only if I am intentional about the mixed temps. On other occasions an HMI or fluorescent is the only way to go.

You can get away with about 1500 watts on a standard household outlet. On some dedicated 20amp circuits such as microwave outlet or bathroom GFCI, you can put nearly 2000 watts. I have about 5000 watts of light in my kit. I rarely use all of it. I am almost always using about 2000 watts at any one time, and its as simple as splitting lights on different circuits.

From the directionality of your questions, I would say you will be disappointed with the Lowel kit linked in your post. If you are trying to match the light level of a daylit window, you will need an 800watt HMI joker or maybe even a 1.2k HMI Arri-sun if you are bouncing the light. This is way beyond the scope of your budget. It might be better for you to reassess your needs and purchase not based on a firm $1000, but rather based on your long-term daily needs. You can always rent an HMI or two but you may never get the candle power or spread you need if you scrimp upfront.

One last word of advice. It is usually better to control the ambient light, than try to throw up more wattage to compensate. Streaks from a window could actually come from a window with some creative diffusion and flagging. Competition with strong back light might be better dealt with by controlling the back light. Color temperature differences might be better negotiated with 1/2CTO + .6ND on a window, rather than CTB on a high wattage tungsten.


Jason

 

[jdkhanlian]

Thanks to you both.

Jason, I really appreciate your in depth analysis.

Hi jdkhanlian,

The kit you mention is a 240volt kit. Not the equipment you want for use in Jersey City.

Whoops…Good catch.

I like Arri Fresnel Kits. Very robust, Decent value, last a long time.

If you plan of shooting with an adaptor, or very light hungry camera at night, you will probably need at least a 1000 watt key w/chimera. 650 fresnels are great work horses for general background lighting. 300/150 fresnels are great accent lights.

I think I may bite the bullet and spend more than I wanted to and try to get a used Arri kit like the following:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/72161-REG/Arri_571984_Softbank_I_Tungsten_4.html

As for power demands, an LED or fluorescent or HMI will have a lot more light output per watt as compared with a tungsten. If you will only be shooting daylight balanced, tungstens will prove problematic, as CTB really cuts down on your output. I use 1/2 CTB a lot and mix color temperatures on purpose. I can get away with daylight interior and a tungsten with 1/2 CTB, but only if I am intentional about the mixed temps. On other occasions an HMI or fluorescent is the only way to go.

I would think that a 1000w or 650w with ½ CTB should be enough to supplement daylight in a lot of situations since I will already have daylight for ambient light and these lights would just be to bring up my subjects some. Is this really problematic? Are there LED or fluorescent light that can be used to supplement daylight and not have to be setup right next to the subject? I feel like if I got these lights that they wouldn’t help me much when I am shooting wider shots where I can’t get the light right next to the subject.

You can always rent an HMI or two

I think this is what I would do. I am too young in my film career to own an HMI.

Color temperature differences might be better negotiated with 1/2CTO + .6ND on a window, rather than CTB on a high wattage tungsten.

So you mean set the camera to 3200K and transform the daylight with 1/2CTO and then use tungsten lights without a gel. Will this come out looking like a natural daylight(white light) scene?

 

[jdkhanlian]

p.s. Here are some shots of the place I will be shooting in. As you can tell there is a lot of natural light and the space is big.

http://vimeo.com/11672909