someone talk me into buying florescent

[Steve Laramie]

My lights are beat right now. I plan on buying a new light kit but I cant decide between tungsten which im used to or florescent. I hear that florescent lights are harder to control.

 

[10s]

They are different tools, in time you'll need both. The floros can be either 3200k or 5600k while the Tungs are 3200k.

If I could only choose one it would be fresnel tungstens. Why? because the fresnel casts a beautiful portrait quality light and it can be diffused sufficiently to create soft floro type lighting. You can also CTB gel the fixtures and get a small amount of 5600K daylight. This can supplement sun light reflectors, [not the best but it'll work until you get some HMI lights]

A few PARs & open Face Broads [shop work lights or Totas] are nice too because a sheet of Spun on them creates a nice soft light. And then you have the option of using the harsh hard light whenever.

You don't need the flours....

 

[Chris Santucci]

My lights are beat right now. I plan on buying a new light kit but I cant decide between tungsten which im used to or florescent. I hear that florescent lights are harder to control.

It really depends upon what kind of shooting you do. Sure a fluorescent fixture has a broad face, so it's not as easy to control than a light throwing a beam.

If you're starting from zero, you should get some open face quartz fixtures. You'll have way more options than if you only had fluorescent fixtures.

.

 

[spectrumfilms]

I agree...you need different fixtures for different jobs. Really the only situation I would use a flo is as a soft key if I had the room to put up grippage to control it, or ambient fill. Maybe a backlight if need to cover a large area. I probably wouldn't use it for lighitng a background or wall since it would just be a big blob of uncontrollable soft light. The upside of flos is obviously the low power consumption and low heat. I use them with COE's, politicians (etc) where you want to keep the subject as cool and happy as possible. In my book the fresnel is the most useful, controllable light there is. You have many options on how to control it. It would be nice to have a flo in the package, but I wouldn't buy alot of them. You can always soften a fresnel, but you can't do a whole lot controlling a flo. Good luck. I would also recommend buying some small 200, 300 watt fresnels as well as 650s and 1ks. The small ones come in very handy for back and accent lights. good luck

 

[Jeff Anderson]

I'm not a huge fan of my flourescent. Hard to control and I can get a more pleasing (IMO) soft light from diffused or bounced tungsten fresnels. I find I use 650's and 250's the most. Next on the list for me is more small fresnels (100-300ish, whatever I find on ebay that I like) and a couple of 1ks. I'm starting to find situations where having that extra punch is necessary. And I just cant ever have enough tiny lights. Always a use. I've got a tota too that is quite handy for just flooding an area or bringing up the ambient in a shot. Nice small but powerful light. My flo (coollights 2x55) honestly sits a whole lot. Occasionally it or my diy flos make an appearance to add some broad soft light. I see the flos as bulky and one trick ponies. The fresnels are far more versatile to me. Also might want to budget for light modifiers (flags, scrims, silks, gels, frames etc). My lighting abilities greatly improved after I started controlling the light I was putting out.

 

[Cool Lights]

My lights are beat right now. I plan on buying a new light kit but I cant decide between tungsten which im used to or florescent. I hear that florescent lights are harder to control.

If you're choosing fluorescent for the efficiency but would still like hard light at times, our CL-MF0150 fresnel gives you a nice hard light in daylight or tungsten color while still getting the form factor and control of a fresnel and the equivalent efficiency of a fluorescent due to the fact that the light coming out of the fixture is not hot like with tungsten. This is pretty much the equivalent of a 650w fresnel for drawing only 150w:

http://www.coollights.biz/clmf0150-cool-lights-fresnel-p-63.html

And, you can soften them up in various ways when you need to but you can't make a flo hard no matter what you do. Flos do have their own uses though and we have that angle covered as well.

http://www.coollights.biz/cl255p-cool-lights-portable-watt-softlight-p-66.html

 

[Steve Laramie]

I knew the coollights guy would be all over this one. thanks for the responses.

 

[j]

In any kit, you need to have some open-faced and fresnell tungsten units. You can always soften up a hard light, you can't go the other way around.

That said, It would also be great to have a nice big, soft, low watt fixture or two also in the kit.

Rent a Kino 4' 4-bank light the next time you have to do an interview shot, and you will see what you are missing.

 

[ODDNAME]

Ive been playing with what I can afford atm (allmost any regular fixture for allmost nothing) Been playing around with floro-lights in them. Im a 100% beginner with lighting, but compared to harsch tungsten lighst I do adore floros.

Used with a bit of caution floros used indoors does alot of nice things
So until I get proper cash for proper fixtures, for me floro is the way to go.