able to buy one light , a couple a hundred bucs hands down a Tota .

I am an Omni guy with an umbrella. :-) Make a good key or a bounce or a soft with the umbrella.

If the budget were higher I would get a RifaEX. You could get an Amvona softbox and then by a 200w mogul base CF for it. That comes to $200, but they are not as convenient as anything Lowel.

Given your budget it's hard to think of anything much better.
You could checkout this eBay seller:
http://stores.shop.ebay.com.au/steven-studio-china__W0QQ_armrsZ1
I haven't bought anything from them myself but I do know people who have and I see a lot of their product being resold with quite a markup. Quality is quite good, much of it kncok offs of Arri designs.

I bought a bunch of these:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/HEATPROOF-SWIVEL-LAMP-SOCKET-UMBRELLA-HOLDER-ADAPTER_W0QQitemZ320432880526QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item4a9b49bb8e

Then a bunch of 15W mirror backed compact fluro lights. Add some clamps with spuds and a cheap toolbox and I have a complete lighting kit for under $200. Oh you might also add some cheap light stands. Don't need anything over the top as the lights are very light.

You can also buy cheap softbox kits. We have 5 kits that contain 3 lights, softboxes and stands. Paid under $300 each. Not a whole lot of light but enough for interviews. We rent these out regularly so I can say they're built well enough.

Bob.

My first thought was that 200 bucks will get you a decent stand, a couple of sandbags, stingers, cube taps...Where's the light?

The omni or the tota would both work but I'd go for the omni because it's more directional, has spot/flood, and doesn't leak light everywhere like a tota. The umbrella would be a good starting point for softening the light in an easy way. Both units have built-in clamps for an umbrella.

I'd be hunting on Ebay for this stuff. Tungsten lights aren't complicated and should be pretty good used.

Rob Mack

There are some Ianiro RedHead knockoffs in there for cheap. These were popular in the late 70s and were a good alternative to an omni kit. However, 30 years later I see a lot of those omnis still kicking around.

Rob Mack

They're not bad but those kind of lights use a fair amount of power, generate a lot of heat and lamps fail at the slightest bump. Plus tungsten light is not good for green screen, not even all that camera friendly,

TBH if I was only allowed one light and the budget wasn't an issue I'd go for a 800W Joker Bug plus all the accesories. Simply awesome light.
We have a couple of the 200W units that run off mains or battery (lots of expensive batteries :-) ), apart from a major foobar trying to get the Osram lamps to hot restrike they've been rock solid. We managed to blow up two ballasts thanks to Osram and K5600 fixed them for free, nice people to do business with. Unfortunately this kind of kit is out of my own pocket's reach and I'm certain that applies to most here. We've also recently bought a Creamsource 400W LED light for $8K. Man that is a beast, just glad I wasn't paying for it.

Bob.

We bought a few LightPanel units and got a lot of use out of them in the Galapagos (I didn't go) as well as in interviews here.

For me, an LED unit wouldn't be my choice of first lights. The thing about an open face tungsten unit is that it's real simple technology and the light coming out of it is shapable and somewhat focusable. Of course a fresnel is more of all that but you lose some of the raw output.

You can make a hard light soft, you can't make a soft light hard. You can never cast a crisp shadow with a lightpanel or any other LED unit with multiple elements in it.

The Joker Bug 800 is a great instrument, without a doubt. They aren't enough to compete with sunlight but they're quite good indoors with views out of windows.

The 200's just piss in the ocean. And all HMIs are outside a 200$ budget.

Flos are another option. They spray light everywhere like a tota but without the heat, and if you're looking at Totas or bare bulbs then the bigger screw-in flos might make sense inside of a Chimera.The only problem with most flows is that their color spectrum is often very different from other light sources so you have to watch out for green and magenta casts.

Rob

Thanks again for all the advice! Sounds like an Omni or Tota (eventually both) are in my near future.

Cheers!

Ken

I have some LED lights that I really like. They are daylight color and where they excel is in augmenting natural light. On the type of documentary style stuff I do, LEDs are just wonderful.

Anything but tungsten is good. It looks like tungsten will be banned globally by 2012. The phased in ban started this year down here. None of it left in any studios that I know of.

Bob.

With you on the LED’s Laurence I especially like the fact that they are battery powered no taping cables to floors etc

Zylight LED’s check out the Z90 and IS3

Bob put us onto these a few months back so I have budgeted this for 2010

You may want to look into this.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Large-Softbox-lighting-Video-Photo-Studio-light-Case_W0QQitemZ330369625664QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item4ceb906e40

Same seller as the bulbs recommended above. Seems like a decent kit, can't talk about quality, but if it works, it's a great value.

As mentioned earlier, you also want things like sandbags, to keep your lights stable on the stand and to keep people safe. You don't want your lights tipping over. The stinger mentioned above is a high-quality extension cord which for a 750 watt Tota light you would need.
http://www.filmtools.com/filmtools-15-foot-stinger.html

Remember your budget should cover all the bits in your lighting package.