Britek Lights

John Hoffler · March 12, 2008

Hey everyone,

I was just seeing if anyone on the boards had ever used Britek lighting kits. I was looking into buying some lights for HDV / Mini DV shoots and only have around $600 to spend. I found a kit online that has 3 650W lights w/ softboxes, barndoors, stands, cases, grip clips and a few gels.

Also, is it possible to switch out the bulbs in any of these? Say, take a 650 and put a 300 in it for a back light? Or a 1K w/ a 650 bulb?

any help would be appreciated.

Joseph Winchester · March 21, 2008

I haven't use the cinema lights, but I have used their strobes for still photography. They were really cheap and plastic and didn't always fire when the shot was taken. Take it for what it's worth, but if the movie lights are anything like the strobes, I would steer clear of them!

Sean Morris · March 21, 2008

Hi,

I have a Britek light I purchased many years ago, but its not made anymore its a 2k. I also now have ARRI lights

and compared to the ARRI's they are not built as well but it's pretty decent for the price, I cant talk about the cheaper

newer style lower wattage lights but the 2k was a steal for only around 100ish bucks

Its still holding up well, but the bulbs are expensive around 50AU each!

Cheers

Sean

March 21, 2008

I bought a nice quartz light kit from them that I've had about 6months now. came with 2-650's and and a 250 open face. lights, stands, bags, umbrellas. Pretty nice kit for the price.

-Ronney

Timothy Riese · April 6, 2008

I've used the Britek lights for low budget television. I'm not a fan of Lowel lights, but honestly I'd rather have a lowel kit (or some rifa lights for softlight) then the briteks. The main reason is they feel very cheap and lack the ability to control the light well. Whatever you choose, invest wisely. A good quality light kit will retain it's value and should last you many years. It may be wise to spend a little more now, for in the long run you'll appreciate superior heads with better construction and light control (I'm speaking of arri and mole lights here)

In response to your other question with varying light bulbs the answer is yes, as long as you follow two rules, the lamps have to have the same base and you should go no higher then what the light is rates for, so a 650 Arri, for instance, uses a FRK bulb, if you could find a FRK bulb of a lower wattage it would be fine. I see this with the LTM Peppers all the time, in fact they sometimes list the bulbs available on the head.

andrew dean · April 10, 2008

I have a britek kit. Its fine if you are doing something non-critical, but they are just too unreliable for anything important.

In theory a light is simply a bulb mount, wires, fuse, switch and a plug. For a reason I haven't been able to track down, the britek units blow bulbs. At $30-40/bulb, plus the fuse that always blows but you never remember to have replacements, it makes these units expensive to operate and really annoying.

Its not the cheap bulbs, because I bought expensive replacement bulbs and they pop too. I cant find a wire fault, and the unit is simple enough that anything obvious should be... obvious. But, its not. I have no idea what could cause it, but any power fluxuation, bumping of stand, vibration or even a truck driving nearby can cause the bulbs to pop... sometimes none of the above. This hasn't been the case for the arri's i've used, so in retrospect the briteks were short sighted and unreliable units that i'm very reluctant to bring out. That makes the $500 for them go from a bargain to a waste. One arri fresnel that is reliable is infinitely more valuable than a buffet of lights I cannot trust.

Plus, i have not been able to locate 240v bulbs for the 300, 250 or 150 units. Having moved operations overseas, that means all but the 650s i have to drag around a big transformer...

I've had 4 hour shoots where i burned through 6 bulbs in different fixtures. ugh. i SO wish i had just bought a nice fixture to begin with.

benjamin aguilar · April 11, 2008

John,

A while ago(approx. 3 years), I bought a set of britek lights. They lasted for a while, up until just recently. One light blew, then for some odd reason I tried plugging in the good one to find out which one blew and it blew out. You're better off investing in some quality units. I use my 2K's now, a lot more than the Briteks. Also used home made soft boxed lights more when they(briteks) weren't blown yet.

-Benjamin

Adrian Sierkowski · April 11, 2008

You can also find a lot of used older Moles on e bay now a days. I grabbed up 2 junior solar spot 2Ks for about $150 each; one even had a nice set of doors and a scrim set. In the end, like with most thing in this industry, you really do get what you pay for.

Walter Graff · April 11, 2008

Crap as far as I'm concerned. Buy some used Lowels on ebay or other places and you'll save money over the cost of maintaining these Breitek things.

John Hoffler · April 15, 2008

Crap as far as I'm concerned. Buy some used Lowels on ebay or other places and you'll save money over the cost of maintaining these Breitek things.

Thanks for the responses.

I'm getting a pretty substantial tax return this year and decided on an Arri Kit (1K, 300w and 2 650's) and am going to build some china balls. It seems the general consensus is to spend the extra money and get something that it quality and will last. So that's what I'll do.

John Hoffler