Lighting equipment help

Micah Fernandez · April 16, 2005

Hey all, I've been shooting for quite some time now (around 2 years) and I know about the science behind light, at least most of the basic principles. I've proven myself to be a competent DOP apparently, because I'm being given a humble sum of money to buy my very own set of lights with. But since I've been shooting guerilla/squatter/zero budget style (basically, my set of lights consists of 500 and 1000W yellow garden lights and a 100W incandenscent bulb with a dimmer switch) I don't know the trade names of pieces of lighting equipment-- inky-dinky, fresnel, HMIs, kino-whatever (that's a brand though isn't it?). I'd really appreciate the assistance in helping me sort out which piece of equipment does what, and also if any of you could recommend a good basic set of lights to start out with.

Thanks in advance. :)

drew_town · April 16, 2005

Call B&H Photo Video in New York at (800) 947-9941 and have them send you their "professional lighting" source book. It will have the information you need to sort out the different types of lights and the brands. I think the source book is free. Visit www.bhphotovideo.com

Ed Nyankori · April 16, 2005

The most common light kits are Arri and Lowel. I like Altman lights (we have a few in the studio) and Ive noticed their light kits are comparable to Arri kits at bhphoto.com...a little cheaper though.

You can usually find some great deals on Colortran kits on eBay. Usually 650w open faced w/stands...Not as sweet as fresnels but once you learn them they are great...

I own a lowel dp4 kit and its alright too...

Paul Bruening · April 17, 2005

Hello,

I'm going a new route on my next feature. I need high light volumes at both daylight and tungsten temps shooting 5274 Kodak stock. HMIs are out of my budget range. This is what I did. I bought theater cans. 1K PAR cans are obtainable from Dr. Bob's for under $30.00 per. You can put 1K 3400 Kelvin PARS in them for about $30.00 per. You can get 1K Dichroic PARS that run at 5200 Kelvin (half stop loss in footcandles) for about $140.00 per. I get the Star-PAR lens set and mount them so they can fit into the barndoor assemblies (lens from B&H and barndoors from Dr. Bob). The set of four lenses costs about $40.00 per set and the barndoors are around $60.00 each. That keeps you from having to buy a full compliment of bulbs since each has it's own lens (I'm running VNSP on 3400s and NSP on the 5200s). You can scrim and ND them at the barndoors for control. The other benefit of PAR cans is that they don't make flicker hassles. So, you can use sloppier camera motors.

Is this useful for you at all?

Josh Hill · April 17, 2005

Par cans are okay, but don't go overboard on them. I have 2 1k par cans and 2 Arri fresnels (300W and 650W).

Altman fresnels on BHPhoto are a good bit cheaper than Arri. I'd get a few par cans, but also a few nice fresnels. A couple of 300W and a couple of 650W, or some open faced tungsten lighting.

eBay is your friend, you might actually be able to get a 575W HMI with ballast for a grand or so.

Mike Hall · April 21, 2005

The companies listed so far are all good lights. You may also consider Ultralight http://www.ultralightmfgco.com/ B & M Lighting http://www.bmlighting.com/ and of course, Mole Richardson. Both ultralight and BM have a pretty good light for the money, however I put 420 globes in my Ultralight tweenies because the sockets tend to burn with extended use with 650 globes, and the BM baby focus knobs can melt when the light is on for an extended time pointing down (both mfg may have fixed these problems by now). Other than these minor points, they are very good lights. I have found that the Altman, Arri, and Lowell lights perform and hold up pretty well.

Since NAB ends today, both B&H and Barbizon have show specials; Barbizon : http://shop.barbizon.com/ may be a bit easier to get the show price from as BH can sometimes have very strange rules for sales. Also, DTC in San Francisco is a great place to buy lights, and much more knowledgeable than the other two. http://www.dtcgrip.com/ They have just moved, so you may have to call them direct as opposed to shopping online. Also, there is filmtools http://www.filmtools.com/ with great Arri prices.

If you need filters for correction, the best price I've found is Rhino filters, although they only have colors and heat gel, but they're $60 a roll, so that's pretty good. http://www.rhinofilters.com/

Personally, I have at least one of each of these manufacturers lights, and, although I personally dislike the Mole distributor network very much, as it limits the amount that my business can grow with them, I have found that Mole lights perform and last the best. Believe me, I have tried everything not to shop Mole, and this year we have started going "all mole, all the time" because of maintenance problems with the other mfgs.

The best price I found this week on Tweenies and Inbetweenies (mole) was the BH NAB show price, however I find that many times DTC will have a better overall price because they sell the barndoors, scrim, etc at a lower cost, and because I'm on the west side of the country the shipping costs are lower. I have not seen Barbizon's specials from the show, as they were not available as of yesterday.

Anyway, I hope this helps a little bit. I've spent quite some time on this problem myself, and I would like very much to hear others experiences with Altman, Colortran, etc.

Mike Hall

Glendale, AZ