Although the softbox kits we have aren't from Britek they probably come out of the same factory. All of Spot's comments are spot on.
Certainly they're not the most robust designed bits of kit around however for a home studio I can't think of anything that comes close to the same bang for the buck unless you roll your own.
One thing the cheapies lack is that ability to fit a grid so you might find spill to be an issue depending on how you're trying to light. A couple of cutters and stands to hold them should address that issue. For hairlights you can use the 11 to 15W mirror backed CFLs with a bit of Cinefoil to complete the kit.

Bob.

Britek's softboxes are not for those who need to do multiple setups a day.

It is a very fiddly job to correctly put the sticks in the ring around the bulbs, and I can't imagine anyone doing that more than a few times before they have to give the softboxes to someone with a heavy duty sewing machine to redo the seams. That's what I had to do after my second setup years ago, and it was quite obvious that this was not a one-time accident.

Also, there is no mention of CRI in the specs, so you can very safely assume that the particular "bulbs" they chose won't exceed CRI 85, and they could be a lot worse than that.

The best high-power CFL bulbs that will fit a regular Edison socket cost about $85.00 each. Do the math...

Low CRI = mucky colors. You can do a bit of tweaking by using a minus-green gel in the box, but then you are already reducing the "Maximum Dynamic Music Power Watts" quoted for these lights.

If you're on a budget and want best quality light, stick with tungsten lights for now. Lowel makes a lot of different fairly inexpensive lights that are quite decent, see for yourself at lowelEDU (a great educational resource, no matter what lights you use).

I still do a lot of lighting although I stopped doing it as my soul source of income back in 2001. Normally I wouldn't touch these for a rental package but these are so cheap compared to professional instruments that I might actually consider them on speculation, knowing I might be selling them on ebay immediately. Personally, I think good tungsten instruments are a great investment because they are reliable and versatile, but their cost puts them on the business expense scale rather than the personal toy scale.

The color issue is important. Even amongst the best daylight lights I've always needed to add a little green or magenta to make them match each other. With this kit I'd want a 4th light that was much brighter to use as a key, and I'd want something hard and focused to spice up the backgrounds. I'd try to use all of the flos to light the interviewee and then light the background with other things knowing that color consistency isn't as crucial on the background. We know what color people are so all the lights need to be consistent, but we don't really know what color the background furniture is so those lights can vary from what's on the subject. The lights on the subject can be a little off if they're all off in the same way.

One thing I like about the lights in question is that each bulb has a switch so you can reduce the output. That's a nice touch. It'd be nice if the panels also accepted a fabric egg crate on the front to control spill, and it'd be good if there was a selection of diffusion panels for more or less diffusion. Maybe I'd pay more for those accessories if the basic unit was decent.

The fact that they're daylight brings up a question for me. Generally, I used to find that a 1200W HMI PAR was barely enough to work along with sunlight, and then only if you were careful. These don't come anywhere near the output of a 1200 PAR so you're more likely to be mixing them with indoor tungsten or with indirect sunlight spill.

In the end, you use them for what they are capable of and if they aren't cutting it with the existing sunlight then you control the sunlight or shoot somewhere else.

Would I recommend these? I suppose so. They're cheap and an improvement over nothing at all. There's a certain risk that they'd be poorly made and fragile, in which case you lose some of your money or lose time hassling over warranty repairs, but better lights cost more money.

Rob Mack

Thanks for all your suggestions and comments. I really appreciate it. I realize you get what you pay for but since I would be using lights so infrequently, I didn't want to spend any more money than I had to.

For me, it's a balance between paying so little for a kit only to discover it's almost useless and spending so much for a kit that it's a waste of my money. My videography is strictly for fun as a hobby.

I live too far away from any source of video equipment rental for that to be a practial option. Due to both my hands being made up of nothing but thumbs, I've avoided looking into home made lights too.

Gene

We've got several similar kits (although ours only use 1x 70W CFL) in rental. Theyve survived for over a year including baggage handlers at airports, if they can survive that they'll last a very long time for use in a home studio.
These small 70W softboxes are very quick to deploy too, as long as it takes to open an umbrella as the rods are fixed to a small hub that locks over the single ES socket.

On the other hand our long departed tungsten instruments were a constant loss maker although they kept me employed forever repairing the things.

Speaking of lights, we're finding the Zylight Z90 is becoming a hit with the stills guys, especially for shooting weddings. Wierd I know, a purple accent on the wedding dress maybe?

Bob.

I think the units Navydoc is looking at would be fine for hobby use. My concern is more of how they'd fit into a lighting package that grows over time but hobbyists don't usually grow their kit like that so there's not a lot of risk there.

I'd definitely recommend sandbags to stabilize the stands but those could be improvised or sewn at home out of old pants legs and ziplock bags full of sand.

I used to work in a busy lighting rental house. Most of our tungsten units were Mole and some lowel kits. All were money makers although Lowel lights are a bit flimsy. Mole units would suffer if you backed over them with a truck but otherwise didn't require much maintenance. Their main problem was rust. (I personally prefer Arri's fresnels and Mole's open faced lights. I wouldn't put the Arri fresnels into a busy rental rotation though. Fine on a truck with real grips and electrics working the gear but too fragile for unskilled hands.)

The most fussy and finicky lights? probably early Kino Flos. I think the company has learned a lot over time and they're much better now.

Biggest overrated POS today? Probably LightPanels.Way too expensive considering the inflexibility of the light.

Rob Mack

When doing intreview shoots we use Dedolights, a set of three 150s, though they crank out what looks more like 300 watts.
They are also compact, tough and surprizing cool to handle.
I love these lights, though I know they are overpriced.
I rent them.
They make an HMI line too though I've never used them.

I like Dedo's but never could justify the cost to buy them. However, there is a lens kit for them that turns one into a focal spot. kind of handy for some of the computer shoots I light where I need a little slip of light down in a computer case.

Definitely not something you'd buy for personal use on a tight budget.

Rob Mack

There is a design flaw in Britek lights that are halogen that will make your bulb or connector melt if you use anything larger than 500w. That said the 500w halogens are great and durable. I used Britek lights on lots of high end shoots.

Biggest overrated POS today? Probably LightPanels.Way too expensive considering the inflexibility of the light.

I'm of a mixed mind about these.

I've been on several sets where they have been used exclusively, and they do have the advantage of allowing very, very fast setups (much quicker than either tungsten or Kinos).

The quality of the light is OK for many uses, but I'm not blown away by even this very expensive brand of LED panels (and the others I've seen are simply not OK for critical use).

Agree with everything you're saying.
We're catering to the bottom end of the market so all the lighting kit we carry has to:

a) Not need a truck to move it.
b) Run off a domestic power circuit.
c) Be able to be rigged by one person.
d) If it can be run off batteries better still.
e) Meet safety regulations for "domestic" use.
f) Have a reasonably quick ROI.

Our most recent investment has been a pair of 200W Joker Bugs with all the extras and kit to run them off batteries. Given the cost of these they will take a long time to give us a return.

Bob.

Yep, Joker buglights are pricey and I usually see them in a shooter's kit, or as a gaffer's favorite. It's the sort of light that does well when someone likes it and uses it constantly. It can do a lot - I think you can adapt it to an ETC leko or you can use it in a china ball.

For tungsten lights we used to set rental rates based on 50 rental days - meaning we'd need 50 rental days to break even. Most of the houses around the bay area seem to go for far fewer days to break even when it comes to HMIs and Flos. Not surprising since they're much more expensive and when they break they cost more to repair. I haven't priced them but I imagine a 200 Joker buglight would be about $100.00/day and would include a chimera and some other accessories. (Just checked, it's $125.00/day). If the total cost to buy a complete kit was 3200 then that'd be a 26 day payback but the rub with that is that you have to come up with the 26 rentals.

Rob Mack