Yet another cry for lighting kit help

darst

darst

Active member
Still relatively new to starting my lighting arsenel, but so far I have picked up 3 Arri 650's and 4 13' 3364 Bogen stands and an Altman 1K Fresnel and need a few more fairly priced items to round out a nice kit for a good indoor lighting set up. I may do some outdoor shooting too, but am not worried about getting that kind of set up at this time. I just want something that will last me and learn and grow with me. I was thinking some Arri 150's and an Arri 300 but there aren't a lot on ebay, (I guess because no one wants to sell them!) All of the equipment I listed above I bought off of ebay. (I paid about $800 for everything I listed above) Thanks for any help!! :violent5:

Matt
 
If you don't have barndoors and full scrim sets for each of those lights, thats the next thing to get. I'd suggest getting an inkie (a mole-richardson mini mole), maybe also a 1k open face- these are great for bouncing into things. Most people overlook safety when they are first starting, so get some sand bags. A c-stand would help- you could easily hold a piece of beadboard, flag off a light, or arm a light out for a kicker, etc. but I'd focus on getting the previous stuff first. Also, make sure you've got a good pair of gloves like setwear.
 
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I do have sets of barndoors for all, but no scrim sets for any of them. I still need a couple of C-Stands and have been watching ebay for some cheap ones.. Yep gloves are a must, have quite a few sand bags, need to pick up (make) a few more. Thanks for your suggestions!
 
darst said:
I do have sets of barndoors for all, but no scrim sets for any of them. I still need a couple of C-Stands and have been watching ebay for some cheap ones.. Yep gloves are a must, have quite a few sand bags, need to pick up (make) a few more. Thanks for your suggestions!
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Arri 150's and 300's would be a great asset to your lighting arsenal. As mentioned earlier, C-stands will improve your capabilities 10 fold. Not only for holding a light, but holding foam core, bracing a prop, and keeping someone from coming into the bathroom. I highly suggest you get a couple of Mafor clamps(bogen super clamps), and perhaps a Bogen Magic arm, for holding lights in really odd places. A couple of ceiling- scissor clamps, a Cardellini clamp(go to filmtools.com) for holding lights on pipes.. and a million other places. And dimmers for your lights. I wouldn't buy a dimmer for any wattage below 650 watts, and I prefer to buy only 1000 watt dimmers or larger. You can find deals on these , if you know where to look. Try the Harbour Freight tool website, you'll find "Router speed controllers" same thing as a dimmer, for cheap, cheap.. Normally, these are $ 80 + . These dimmers probably won't last your lifetime, but will get you by for a couple of years of use.. MY 2 cents
 
Cool, going to pick up three of the 9.99 dimmers at Harbor Freight after work, $24.99 in store, but if you take a print out they'll match the price... Not too shabby!

How are the amvona C-stands off EBay, anyone have good experiences with them?

Thanks!!
 
SilverWolf said:
amvona c-stands have been talked about lots on here. Pretty much from all the threads they are a great for the price
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I bought one of those, and frankly, I was impressed....If you get one of these... Make sure it's the X-large version... That would be the same size as industry standard stands from
American or Matthews.
Will it be as good as a Matthews stand, 20 years from now....time will tell..
 
Hi Matt.

As filmat11 said, the magic arm (or two) is a must have, and the dimmers, helps to increase the versatility of your kit ten fold. On the light front a totalight or two are a must for me, ceiling bounce, floor bounce, reflector bounce, I use them almost on every shoot and in more ways than I can remember.

Thanks.
 
Awesome guys, thanks for the pointers! I went to harbor freight last night and picked up 4 of the dimmers. Watching ebay for the C-Stands... Just missed one yesterday.

The Magic Arms are not something I had thought about, but they do seem very useful in a variety of ways... Thanks guys!

Totas I will also have to check out a little deeper.
 
darst - I bought a Matthews c-stand on Ebay. They do come around, you just
have to be patient and make sure you know it's retail value before you bid.

Charli
 
Thanks, yeah I always use BH Photo to compare prices on what stuff is going on on ebay. I think that's a pretty good gauge. I have been looking for Matthew's but not a whole lot on ebay. Amvona seems to have a couple different types every day!
 
How are you guys searching for this stuff on ebay?? I can't find anything when I search for "c-stand". Or "amvona".

Maybe you guys baught everything haha!
 
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