Ultra small flourescent setup

[Stephen van Vuuren]

My goal is a 10lb or less kit with one adjustable flourescent (or other cool light) on stand with second stand with adjustable reflector.

I'm looking for an extremely lightweight cool light, preferably flourescent with swappable tungsten/daylight bulbs.

1. Light on foldup stand, nice if flood/soft options
2. Second stand that will take a small reflector including reliable mounting for reflector.

My goal is I can set and light without crew to hold reflectors) and it does not generate heat.

I have an DVX100 and will be usely mostly natural night. Just need light, reflectors to supplement avaible light from time to time.

[John Locke]

Check these Gyoury lights out. They're the lightest, brightest, most compact portable fluorescent lights I've seen. If there's a plug available, you're in business. But for outdoor/traveling lighting, the only downside is you'll have to buy a 30v battery belt and a "Slimverter"...which adds about another 1K to the price of the lights.

[Jacques Mersereau]

Great stuff, but like most "great stuff", prepare thyself for sticker shock :)

[Stephen van Vuuren]

I saw this before at B&H and thought - Yowza. $1000 per fixture. Maybe I looked for some used one. Seem to fit the bill though.

But I hoping for something about 1/3 that price per fixture, but that may not exist. It's three of those cost as much as my camera or NLE setup...

[Ken Tanaka]

A -potential- alternative is to use a high-output, water-resistant aquarium fixture. Advanced reef-type aquariums use essentially the same fixtures, lamps and electronic ballasts. You might be able to put together a very comparable system for a bit less money, although maybe not half as much. "That Fish Place" has quite a broad selection of lighting gear and might be a place to start browsing.

[Imran Zaidi]

I posted this link a short while ago, and I thought you might find it of interest.

http://www.film-and-video.com/index2...0Homepage.html

Click on Articles/Instruction on the left menu, then scroll down and find the article "Using Thirty Dollar Fluorescent Fixtures to Light Like a Professional". It's pretty neat the results this guy shows using very inexpensive fluorescent equipment.

If you look around at his other articles, you'll see some remarkable evidence that it's not how much money you throw at your lighting kit that matters; it's more about how creative you can get with what you've got. Oh, and notice the caliber of some of his subjects in those other articles. Impressive.

[Stephen van Vuuren]

Thanks for the info - but I was worried about them flickering. I noted in the article that it says not flicker on NTSC.

But I'm shooting 24P, generally 1/48th or 1/24th - I wonder if the flicker will be visible?

[John Locke]

Stephen,

I don't know how he manages not to get flicker with just one inexpensive light. I have some homemade lights that have several fluorescent bulbs clustered together and even though there's probably some flicker going on, they tend to offset one another so that you don't notice it.

[Stephen van Vuuren]

John:

Yeah, I sent him an email for some info.

How did you build your lights? How portable are they?

BTW, that Flash image on your web-site is pretty stunning. Did you create it?

[Stephen van Vuuren]

Just got a reply from Walter - he says that setup will flicker at 24p.

I hate to spend so much on lights, but maybe I can figure something out (used or build with a higher quality fixture).

[John Locke]

Thanks, Stephen. I made the design...then had a friend help with the rotating light beams in Flash.

Check your e-mail. I'm sending you something now about the lights I made.

[Mike Rehmus]

John,

The flicker is caused by the current in the lamp going to zero as the voltage alternates (in your case) 50 times per second, crossing zero 100 times per second. All of the flo's are going to zero output at the same time unless you have a multi-phase power source.

I believe the better ballasts do run at a frequency somewhere around 10 to 20 kilohertz to avoid flicker.

[John Locke]

Mike,

What's surprising is how flicker-free these screw-in type curly Q fluo bulbs are in the first place compared to long bulbs that require a ballast.

With four or five of the curly Q bulbs clustered together as one mount, the way I made my unit, there's no evident flicker in footage.

As I told Stephen in an e-mail message, though...even though they are flicker-free and put out nice "cool" soft light, the downside is that they just don't pack enough wallop. I'd have to put the light right up next to the subject to get ample illumination...either that, or adjust the f stop and aperture for low light and make sure any other lights in the background didn't drown it out.

[Mike Rehmus]

They have built-in ballasts and those just might be running at a higher frequency anyway.

Interesting that you aren't getting enough light. What "equivalent' wattage are you running?