Seeking Brand/Model Recommendations for a Portable Lighting Kit for Corporate/Interview Work

[Mark Coger]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking at buying a portable lighting kit that I can use for corporate/interview work. I've been looking around and it seems like there are so many different options out there to choose from. Basically I'm looking for a lighting kit that's pretty durable and travel friendly. My budget is $3000, but I'm open to spending more for a reliable and high-quality kit that I will last me for a good number of years. Aperture lights seem to be pretty popular these days but I'm not sure about their durability or longevity. Any tips or advice on what to look for in a lighting kit would be greatly appreciated as well.

Mark Coger

[Adrian Sierkowski]

Travel friendly gets kinda hard since you'll generally want a few heads. I would certainly go LED and bi-color since you can adapt it to many situations. Aperture is alright-- it can break, but is pretty durable. I have seen some green shift in their "x" COB lights with use (generally in tungsten). The real problem becomes budget. In an Ideal world, and I know a few DoP friends who travel with something similar to this, I would have a Hudson Spider kit, a 600X, and a Lite-mat 4, perhaps a 2L instead. And that would be a goo base, but it's essentially 3x your budget.

That said, the slightly cheaper option might be:

FX22 or the upcoming Godox 4x4 light. The FX/FC (I have a 21FX) is a little flimsy, but small and packable. Also relatively affordable. The battery power option has been helpful in a very under-budget tv series I'm day playing on and it has held up reasonably well so far. The Godox (F600bi I think?) I haven't yet used but is on par with the apurture stuff. It's probably a better bet since it's a larger source, and can be a quick and dirty key. I would perhaps get that (1700) and a FX21 (about 400) and you're at around 2000USD. This doesn't leave much for a brighter and harder source which you'll probable want, but maybe you can find a used 600x? New it's about 2K so you're over by $1000. A Fora 500B Might be an alternative, but I haven't personally used it. You can find them for around 1500 ish, which is still over and it isn't as bright, but will do in a pinch.

TLDR

Best I can think of

Godox 600Bi 4x4 Panel (key)

Amaram FX21 (accent/hair)

Forza 500B, you're BFL with dome and fresnel accessories.

You're still over $3000 when you add it all up, and have at least 2 cases to travel with plus stands and such, but it's what I would carry for running around If I wasn't trying to spend 3x as much for a Spider and some litemats.

[Robin Phillips]

I just got two creamsource micro color kits for smaller personal stuff, and Im extremely impressed with them. They're very bright (I think the equivalent of 400watt tungsten fixtures each in tungsten mode, they seem brighter in daylight mode), super rugged, and are natively a hard light. the kits include a soft dome and inserts that alter the angle of the light along with barn doors. in tungsten mode they seem to run about 1h 20m on a 98wh battery, 1hr in daylight mode on the same battery. included hard cases too. though the units are heavy. granted, the kits were 1500/each, so if you want a kit of 3 or more lights aperture may be the way to go

[Adrian Sierkowski]

I'll also add a few MC/MCPros (what I would buy now) can be a life saver .

[Ed Conley]

What are you using currently?

 

 

[Michael Hammond]

I find Godox products to be a good budget-friendly alternative to some of the “bigger” names. From my experience their color science has really come a long way and can stand up to the competition. In terms of build, like a lot of things nowadays with plastic bits you need to be careful. But I’ve never personally had a problem with them. Part of my current go-anywhere kit includes 2x Godox SL300.

Also consider some GVM RGB panels. Cheaper build quality, but they’re good lights for filling in colors and shadows at a pretty reasonable cost. 

[Robin R Probyn]

Im doing this sort of work a lot  . Doc and corp . For interviews ,generally speaking , the main thing you need is a source big enough to give a nice soft key.  It's better to have even just one large key light than 5 little source lights in a box.  Now the vogue is for  much more natural looking lighting , I'll very often just use one large source key , a couple of tube lights for the BG if needed  , but never use fill or hair lights, video slash on the BG, and all that old 90,s look ? . I use the  Intellytech mega6 for a key light , if the kit needs to be really compact the 4 x1 panel . These lights are good as they fold down to a 1x1 size and can be battery powered . And a foldable negative fill , you will often need this in white walled corporate rooms with light bouncing around making the image flat . So I would suggest a large key light is your priority  , but still transportable , forget setting up book lights , no time or space usually. Matt lights that roll up can be handy but they tend to break quicker than foldable panel lights .  COB lights will need huge softboxs , they are relatively  quick to set up but take up a massive amount of space , to the extent ,that some locations you wont even be able to use them . Just use panel lights if you need a soft source . 

[Barry Mitica]

Interesting thread, as I’m in the same position as the OP.

The bi-color COBs (Amaran 60/100/200x S) seem to have much better SSI scores, especially at 5600K, so the color accuracy and skintones should be better, no? All the bi-color or RGBWW LED panel lights (or RGBWW COBs for that matter) I’ve looked at have SSI scores in the low-mid 70s at 5600k and low-mid 80s at 3200K. I’d love the versatility a RGBWW light has to offer, but not if the colors take a backseat, especially skintones. 

In terms of COBs with domes vs panels, I can see the benefits of both, which is why I can’t decide which way to go. 

I also like to keep things simple and versatile. It’s not easy to choose a set of 2-3 lights.

 

[Ed Conley]

On 1/8/2024 at 5:41 PM, Barry Mitica said:

Interesting thread, as I’m in the same position as the OP.

The bi-color COBs (Amaran 60/100/200x S) seem to have much better SSI scores, especially at 5600K, so the color accuracy and skintones should be better, no? All the bi-color or RGBWW LED panel lights (or RGBWW COBs for that matter) I’ve looked at have SSI scores in the low-mid 70s at 5600k and low-mid 80s at 3200K. I’d love the versatility a RGBWW light has to offer, but not if the colors take a backseat, especially skintones. 

In terms of COBs with domes vs panels, I can see the benefits of both, which is why I can’t decide which way to go. 

I also like to keep things simple and versatile. It’s not easy to choose a set of 2-3 lights.

 

there is an Aputure group on FB that has lot's of info and examples of set ups.
Might be worth  look 

 

[Jason R Johnston]

I recently purchased two Pavoslim 120c units and one 60c unit for quick one-man-band work. Three small stands and you’ve got a great lighting kit for about $3K. I bet the entire kit could fit into a single pelican if it had to. Each unit is AC/DC, quick to deploy or pack, and LED RGBW. I haven’t flown with them and don’t intend to, but I don’t see how they wouldn’t be able to.

[Barry Mitica]

2 hours ago, Ed Conley said:

there is an Aputure group on FB that has lot's of info and examples of set ups.
Might be worth  look 

 

I’ll check it out, but it’s not just Aputure. All RGBWW LED panels or COBs I’ve read about have low SSI scores, particularly at 5600K. I was looking at the Intellytech LiteCloth 3.0 Mega-4FC, and it’s similar. I’m wondering how folks deal with the color accuracy, especially, as I was saying, in the skin tones. The Pavoslim 60c/120c mentioned above by @Jason R Johnston have the same, low scores. If one looks at a bi-color COB, like the Amaran 200x S, the scores are over 10 points higher for both 3200K and 5600K.  Reviewers mention this, but they don’t discuss post work involved in color correcting.

There are two things I need to decide on - COB with softbox vs LED panel, and then daylight or bi-color vs RGBWW. 

 

 

[Barry Mitica]

45 minutes ago, Jason R Johnston said:

I recently purchased two Pavoslim 120c units and one 60c unit for quick one-man-band work. Three small stands and you’ve got a great lighting kit for about $3K. I bet the entire kit could fit into a single pelican if it had to. Each unit is AC/DC, quick to deploy or pack, and LED RGBW. I haven’t flown with them and don’t intend to, but I don’t see how they wouldn’t be able to.

Do you find these large enough to use as keylights for interviews? Not talking just in terms of power output, but sheer size with the softboxes and grids on for nice, soft light and falloff.