Halogen vs Tungsten
 

First of all, let me just make it very clear that I'm not a DP. I've worked with the music video industry for years and I always had this done by people who actually knew what they were doing. But right now I've been trying to get the ball rolling on some personal narrative projects that will be funded by me, so I'm trying to cut some corners. I've already invested more than I should/could have (A1, letus, monitor, lenses, etc). Now, here comes the hot potato. I just found out some halogen work lights (one 500w, and six 350w on tripods) that I used in a music video a long time ago. General consensus is that these suck. They're hard to control, they spill light, they get hot easily. But the point is that I have them at my disposal. Today I went for a casual walk and "accidentally bumped" into the street where all the video/photo lightning stores are. I found a tungsten kit that includes 2 tripods, two 250w light bulbs, 2 umbrellas for about 220€. I don't wanna have to spend this money unless it is proven to me that the difference between what I have right now and what I could get with the tungsten kit is extreme. Any advice will be welcome.

250w is nothing, and the color temperature might be different, so I would say why bother?

250W is delightful...if you're shooting indoors, in NYC-sized apartments, with open-faced lights. I light with 40W, 60W, 75W, 100W, 250W incandescents (3200k) . I have some 500W photo-floods, but they've got too much punch for my fixtures (which don't offer much control).

Once you put a Fresnel lens in front of your lamp, 250W is, as Emre says, nothing.

Can you buy additional lamps for these fixtures?

I bought a cheapo Impact light kit from B&H ($220 for three stands, three scoop-style incandescent fixtures, and a nylon case). I don't regret doing it, but I'd never do it again.

Michael