Various lighting questions & answers from 2004

[Ken Tanaka]

I certainly would not worry about transporting the fixture fully lamped. I have a Lowel Caselite 4 and only remove the lamps if I'm changing color temperatures. Just make sure all of the lamps are secure in their sockets.

[John Hartney]

Nick,

Keep four 3200k lamps in the fixture, carry four 5600k lamps in the kino box along with one spare 5600k and one spare 3200k. that will fill the six slots in the carring case with a complete change of color temp along with one spare bulb for daylight and incandecent.....

each fixture is fully covered.

[Jon Kamps]

looking to get longneck tracklight bulbs that are 3200k and would match well with GE SPX35 florecent bulbs.

[Aaron Koolen]

I'm very tempted to get a Lowell Caselite for interviews, simply cause of the ease of setup and the cool running of the lights. I still, however, need a little more advice. So far I know I can switch the Caselite to 240V functioning with a switch (Why does B&H sell a special Euro version of the Caselite if this is the case??) . All I'd need to do is get 240v bulbs and a plug adapter to run over here. Sweet. Now,

- Is buying as a kit a good idea, or should I just get the fixture and buy the stand separately?

- If I need to buy another stand, what would be a good one to get (I assume it needs to be small enough to fit in the Case?)

- This will be my key light and probably the only light I'll be able to afford for a while, so should I go for the Caselite 4, or would that put out way too much light for interviews and is more suited to lighting the moon from earth?

- Can the Caselites be scrimmed easily? If so, that might be a good solution to the problem above?

- And finally, is there anything about the Caselights that aren't good? Or flourescents in general I guess. They seem to be a great idea. Less power, cooler, bulbs last longer, and with the Caselite easy to set up..

Thanks
Aaron

[David Woodland]

I have a question about lighting. I need to find a good on camera light that is around $100, that will get the job done. I mainly shoot rollerblading videos right now and I am about to start doing some work for a few clients. Mainly I need a good on camera light to film at night with my friends. Anyone have a good light suggestion. I'm searching B&H but I'm not sure what to purchase. All help is appreciated.


David Woodland.

[Ken Tanaka]

Search is your friend.

[Mark Paschke]

I would post this in the lighting section but I am not sure if the HD10u and its variables such as chroma noise or HD resolutions make any differance so I am wondering about specific to the HD10u users what you have had good luck with.

I have spent about 2 hours reading through the lighting section of the forum and still dont know if I need Barn doors, Softbox, battery belts, a kit, used equiptment or what

Heres what I have to shoot in near future (2 weeks not alot of time to shoot samples/experiment in spare time):

HD Wedding & Music video for band " Pranx " ( younger kids with great sound but not the cash flow for high end music video, even though I think we can manage a quality video)

I know I will probably need to rent some lights but for now I was wondering what you all use as an on camera light and the +'s & -'s

Thanks

[Christopher Winnicki]

Mark !

Here is what I use for my portable lighting solutions:

http://ottawa.hn.org/EQUIPMENT/hd10_...the_field.html


If you have any comments please let us know.


-Chris.

[Michael Best]

Any input on a good on camera light for the XL1s?

[Todd Kivimaki]

I've been doing video tours for a couple of months now, and have been using a 500w light from Home Depot. It's cheap and working ok, but I hate carrying it around from room to room. I don't charge a lot for the tours, and think I could save a lot of time if I had a camera mounted light. I need it to be bright enough, but spread out over the room. Also I would liek it to be run on battery, I think I read some posts about getting cheap power from a pack from pep-boys, will this work? Thanks for the help.
-Todd

[Barry Green]

For home tours, you may want to look at something like the Frezzi or LTM on-camera HMI lights. A 24w HMI might give you enough light (about 100w equivalent) as well as being proper color temperature to mix with the windows. The challenge will be that when you move the camera, the shadows will also move, which will be a very different look and probably not a high-quality look. A softbox may help even that out, but will substantially cut the light output.

A 24w HMI should be around $800 or so...

[Mike Rehmus]

Michael,

A perusal of the thread topics on this Forum or a Search will get you more than you want to know.

[Tony Gilmore]

I'm shooting a lot of indoor interviews and would like to purchase some lights for a typical 3-point light setup. I don't know much about lighting, but have rented tungstens in the past. However, I want to buy lights...renting every week is becoming tiresome. So...will 3 650 Watt Jupiter lights work for this typical 3-point interview set-up? Or what should I get? Thanks.

Best Wishes

[Tom Koerner]

I recently found an old Weston Master II Universal Exposure Meter with an old Leica still cam in some dark recess of my house. Here's My question; ignoring the whole school that light meters are for film (because i'm gaffing now and I want perfection), i was wondering if this thing has any chance of still giving accurate readings. Is there any way to test it short of having a working light meter?

It's old, so it shouldn't work, but it's heavy, so it should work. My belief that heavy things are made well will endure despite all experience. It was rarely used, my grandfather probably never even touched the camera. Thanks for your time!

[Jeff Donald]

The meter should not be relied upon for any type of exposure. Those early cells were not to designed (or more accurately, capable) of lasting this long. Give the meter a honored place on your bookcase and get yourself a modern meter. But even if we could wind the clock back 40 or 50 years, you still wouldn't have a meter than was known for it's accuracy.