Anyone try these fluorescents Cool Lights?

[Jim Gunn]

Anyone try these fluorescents Cool Lights?

I have some nice Kino Flo 4-foot 4 banks that I exclusively use daylight bulbs in but now I need more fluorescent lights to supplement my Kinos. These seem to be going for a very inexpensive price compared to Kinos. Anyone have any experience using these? I plan to supplement my two Kinos with four or so of these CL-455 series lights filled with daylight bulbs. Also- the bulbs are 5600 K, and the Kinos I believe use 5500 K bulbs. Would this slight color temperature variation make much of a difference mixing the Kinos 4 foot 4 banks with these?

http://www.coollights.biz/index.php

[Richard Andrewski]

Hi Jim,

I'll let some of my customers answer on the quality part because you're probably looking for a user opinion and not mine (as owner of the company ;-).

Anyway, I can tell you though, that you shouldn't notice the difference in color temperature really. A 100 difference is not that much in the daylight region. Sometimes you can tell more in the 3000K to 3500K area even small variances but daylight is much harder to detect differences in--especially that small.

[Tim Polster]

Hey Jim,

I have the 4 bulb model and am very glad I purchased the light.

They are a great value.

I use mine for indoor work.

The color needs some time to reach the correct temperature, so the light needs to be on for at least 5 min before shooting.

The Construction is fine and is very easy to carry be the handle upside down.

The other option on the market basically priced me out of buying them, so I am happy I found the cool lights.

The yoke adapter was a bit confusing, but I ended up making one myself.

But you need to be aware of the yoke configuration before you purchase.

[Marcus Marchesseault]

Is the 6-lamp fixture no longer in production?

[Richard Andrewski]

Hi Marcus,

I just ran out of the 6x55 this week. They were far more popular than I expected and I only made 40 of them as I thought most would want the smaller units. At first, this turned out to be the case, then all of a sudden there was a run on them. ;-)

I still have some of the CL-655PB which is the same unit minus the ballasts and bulbs for the DIY type project where you supply your own ballasts--whatever appropriate type that might be.

Still many 4x55's and 2x55's in stock though. We'll have more later in the summer when I get my other "new" stuff ready to ship to the states.

[Richard Andrewski]

Jim,

What Tim is referring to is the fact that the yoke is a bit thicker than most--its made out of 5/8" tubular steel. Most manufacturers make a mounting yoke out of 1/8" flat bar iron stock which makes it a bit easier to find a stand to yoke adapter with a bolt long enough to work with it. that's what I originally specified. But,

It was a last minute thing that my factory threw in without my knowledge. They thought it made it more professional looking and I can't argue that it's more attractive. The only problem is that the yoke is 5/8" thick so it requires a special stand-to-yoke adapter with a long enough bolt to handle the yoke width. It's kind of a silly problem to have but it boils down to the lack of a stand-to-yoke adapter in the states with a 3/8" bolt long enough to work with the thickness of the yoke. You need at least a 1 1/8" length bolt to be safe.

None of this has stopped users from buying though. Where there's a will there's a way and many couldn't wait until we get our stand-to-yoke adpater in stock. There are three main solutions right now that users are using until we get our stand-to-yoke adapter in stock in the states (within 30 days or so).

1). buy our junior light stand which has the appropriate type junior stand-to-yoke adapter at the top or 2). Drill out the yoke to a 1/2" hole instead of the 3/8" one there now and use a Mathews or Avenger TVMP adapter which some users are doing. 3). Two users are just using the units on a worklight stand until our adapters are available soon. Those types have a knob with a long bolt stick out of it at the top which is more than long enough to go into the stand and cover the width of the yoke.

One user in the UK chose to adapt our units to speaker stands and that worked fine too. Tim found another solution too using a special bolt to stand adapter where he replaced the bolt with a longer one as I remember.

Like I said, kind of a silly problem to have but this is the kind of issue you get into when you start manufacturing stuff on your own. At least we don't have electronic issues. People like the light output, color temperature, etc. That's what really counts in the end.

We'll have more accessories for the units too later in the year with eggcrates and translucent diffuser panels too.

[Liam Hall]

Hi Jim,

I can thoroughly recommend these lights. I bought the 455 and 255 units a couple of weeks ago and I've just spent a week on the road giving them a full workout.

The 455 needs a sturdy stand like a C-stand, it's too top heavy for a regular light stand. I fixed both lamps to their stands via a studio grip. It was a bit tricky to do the first couple of times but I soon worked out a method.

Richard, you can put me down for a couple of those adapters as soon as you have them.

Hope that helps,

Liam.

[Richard Andrewski]

Hi Liam,

I wondered how you were doing. Figured you were busy as you didn't report back how you were doing. Liam is one of three "Cool Lights" pioneers in the UK. I don't think the other two are on this board though.

By the way Liam, which model grip did you use to mount the light?

[Liam Hall]

Originally Posted by Richard Andrewski

By the way Liam, which model grip did you use to mount the light?

I use a Manfrotto (MN035 Superclamp) - not sure if they sell under a different name in the US. I'm sure Mathews must make something similar.

Cheers,

Liam.