Light kit

[Gregory de Tennis]

I've just completed my first year of business with my own company. For the first year I got by with an inexpensive JTL softbox set-up each light being 500w, with one Lowel Pro light. It actually worked just fine for most of the work which is shooting interviews.

 

For my second year I'd like to upgrade my lighting. I'm considering for my main lights either 2 1000w Arri's with softboxes (Chimera etc.) or 2 Lowel 1000w Rifa lights, or a pair of Kino Flo Diva 400's. Interview lighting will still be the main focus, but I also need more light for when I use my Letus35 with the HVX200, or for shooting green screen.

 

I plan for now to use the JTL and Lowel for fill and backlight, and eventually replace the JTL's completely.

 

With money not being a big issue, what would you recommend? Pros and cons on each?

Edited January 23, 2010 by Gregory D

[Adrian Sierkowski]

I really like my Arri Soft Bank D4 kit, which works fine for interviews and is nice to have 'round on any set (fits nicely in my trunk too).It's a 650 fresnel with a chimera, a 300 fresnel and 2 150 fresnels. The 150s especially are very useful as they're tiny, focusable, and can hid anywhere to really pick things out in the background.

The kinos would also be a nice choice as you get daylight tube options. Depends on how often you're working with day-light dominate locations says me. I dislike how kino's look with the tungsten tubes in, and generally, aside from with daylight tubes in, dislike how all kinos render Caucasian skin tones. It's hard to explain, perhaps too blue, slightly, but moreover it just feels "wrong," to me-- same goes for all floro fixtures though.

[David Rakoczy]

Mr. D,

 

Per the rules of this forum, please go to My Controls and change your screen name to your first and last name.

 

The Members thank you in advance.

[Bob Hayes]

I like the Arri soft bank kit.

 

1 open face 1K with chimera

2 650 Fresnel

1 350 Fresnel

 

I then added a Lowell pro light 250

[Satsuki Murashige]

If you are going to be doing greenscreen, I would get the kinos. I'd recommend the 4ft 4bank units over the Divas though, as they are more modular. You can take single tubes out and place them wherever you want with the right cabling. I think the Divas output a bit more light though.

 

You'll still need a few fresnels. If you can afford it, I would get Dedo lights. They're about 2x to 3x more expensive than a 300w fresnel, but they are only 150w and can output as much as a 650w when focused, the bulbs last forever, they have a built-in dimmer, and can run on 12v if you need them to. They produce a super clean, even beam, and their focus range is probably 3x that of a fresnel.