I find fluorescent becoming a rather addictive kind of light to use the more I test it out. If it was less pricey I'd load up on Caselites! I find the whole design and portability of the thing very exceptional.

Lowel Tota and Omni uses
 

In the real world, how are these two lights most often used? Soft box, bounced off of an umbrella, shot through an umbrella? Just a gel for diffusion doesn't seem to work, at least the 10" x 12" they sell as a kit with the light.

I am still trying to decide what to do as far as soft boxes and diffusion panels go and now almost regret having purchased the Tota and Omni lights. I can spend big bucks for Chimera soft boxes and speed rings or just buy Lowel Rifa or Photoflex Starlights for not much more money. In that case the Tota and Omni's won't see much use.

Greg

I use the tota with umbrella and omni with a chimera. I really like the chimera!

Graeme

Have you tried the Tota with a Chimera? The Tota's seem to put out a lot more light than the Omni in my experience. The lamp on the Omni is in the shape of a traditional bulb whereas the omni has a much longer tube shaped lamp. Maybe it has more to do with the shape of the Omni and Tota reflectors than bulb?

Thanks for the reply.

Greg

Greg,
The Tota is most often used in a softbox, like the Chimera that Graeme noted. (Note that you will need to buy a speed-ring on which to mount the softbox to the Tota.) Bouncing off of a white board or, failing that, an umbrella is perhaps the second most common configuration.

The Omni's are really general-purpose open-faced instruments. You'll generally not want to blast one directly at a subject. Being open-faced their output is harder to control than a fresnel. But Omni's can also be fitted into softboxes or bounced with excellent results. They're relatively small size and light weight also makes them handy for rigging and for use for background lighting.

But by all means I encourage you to experiment and use your imagination as your needs change. Remember, light is light and whatever works best for YOU is what works!

Have fun (and wear gloves)!

Check out my Lighting 101 series on my website. I use totas and omni to demonstrate basic lighting. For the most part though, I use lots of bounce/reflectors, and can get by with using only one light.

Cheers

Kino vs. Lowel
 

I'm looking at a Lowel Caselite 4 right now. What's really appealing to me about this is that the light is built into the case, so it's very portable. It also puts out a lot of light. With the intensifier barn doors, it puts out about 750 lux at 10 feet.

I'm also considering Kino, but I know nothing about Kino and looking at their site there's so many options. Any suggestions on a good portable & powerful Kino?

The comparable light to the CaseLite, in the Kino lineup, is the Diva 400.

The CaseLite is a *lot* smaller, so if you want portability, the Lowel has an advantage there. The Kino has a dimmable ballast, so you can more easily fine-tune the light level (with the CaseLite, you control the light level by turning on/off individual tubes).

They use the same kind of lamps. The CaseLite brags about more light output because they use mirrored barn doors as "intensifiers"... it definitely helps pump out more light, but when using the black barn doors the light output would be the same between the two. The CaseLite is a bit less expensive as well, about $1000 for a full kit vs. about $1300 for the Kino (including lamps).

Thanks Barry. I think I'm going to go for the Caselite. Another good thing about the intensifiers is that it increases the size of the light, which makes it softer.

I don't know why, but there is no techinical info to be found about any of Kino's bigger lights at their site.

Lowel Rifa 55 & Pro light power cords for 240v
 

Can any one tell me if l buy a Lowel Rifa 55 & Pro-light from B&H to use in Australia with 230/240v globes do l need to buy there Euro or Uk power cables to handle our 240v in Australia or will the wiring in the standard cables designed for America be fine ?
Please note that l realise l will need plug adapters for the ends of any of these cables to be able to use in Australia power points.
Also can any one tell me if l can use the " Kettle,computer type plugs" to connect to the the cable that comes out the back of these lights, l have seen a picture of female plug that connects to the male plug that comes out the back of the Pro-light and this female plug appears to have a cut away in the plug molding under the middle prong is this correct ? and does male connection have a corresponding bit that fits in to the cut away on the female connections meaning you can't use any other sort of cable i.e. Kettle,computer type plugs except Lowels.

Any info would be great.
Andrew Pascoe

No Problem with 220V/230V/240V
 

I use my 120V B&H bought Rifa 55 & Prolight all over Europe & UK - you're correct, all you need is a set of suitable lamps for 220V/240V (Not the same!), and a plug converter, but that's it.

The cable (female-type) that comes out of the Prolight is meant to be connected to a 4 meter Lowel extension cord that comes together with the Prolight - it ends in a regular male connecter, so you can connect it to whatever extension cords you have (12 gauge, prefereably). The Rifa lights On/Off switch is placed on the extension cord, so you're sort of obligated to use it.

Thanks Bezalel
So what you are saying is that you don't find the cable from the Rifa 55 getting unsafely hot ? If so this is good as l'v ordered my Rifa 55 & 2 Pro Lights from B&H but l did get the 230v version of the Pro light which has a Euro spec cable but l don't know if there is any difference in the actual spec of the wire in that cable compared to the standard one. l also called the Australian distributor for Lowel and asked what cables do they use with the lights they sell and they said that they buy the lights off Lowel with no cables and then make up there own with Australian plugs. They do sell them for $55AUD but if the cable that comes with the Rifa 55 isn't a safety issue in regards to heat then l'll have saved myself $55.

Thanks Andrew

Lowel Lighting Kit
 

Well I bought this kit used a while back http://www.lowel.com/kits/lowel-lightK5br.html and I used it once. It worked great, but it was such a nuisance because it had no stands. I had just spent $359 on the kit and pretty much had no money for any stands.

Have any of you used this kit? If so, could you give me any recommendations on how you used it and if it worked out good?

Looks like a nice kit. Are you doubting what you bought?

Hi Rob, yeah, I am doubting it now that I've used it. It's probably because I'm so new to this stuff and lighting in general. I showed it to my dad who's a portrait and art photographer and he didn't even know how to use it. It came with no instruction manual and it we looked like those guys in the movie, "The Gods Must Be Crazy" with the coke bottle, haha.

I emailed Lowel asking how I could mount those to a normal stand but it's been about a week now and they haven't gotten back to me yet.

I listed it on ebay and got to bids so maybe it was meant to be that I owned this kit.