OT: fluorescent lighting

jazzmaster wrote on 6/26/2010, 6:17 PM

Has anyone tried those "cool max" softlight fluorescent lighting systems. Specifically, the 2700 3-pak. put out by Tube Tape. Any comments would be appreciated. Thank you.

Comments

farss wrote on 6/26/2010, 6:41 PM

We have several sets of smaller single 70W softbox kits.
Great value for the money, don't expect Arri build quality, they're all cheap and cheery Made In China.
Keep in mind that's a LOT of lamps to screw in and out and all those lamps are a little fragile. I made up some tubes out of PVC pipe, push on caps and foam to store the lamps in in our kits.
You will get a lot of spill from these kinds of lights. The more expensive similar units from other vendors do have the option to add grids which can really help. Maybe you could stitch up your own and save some money.

At the end of the day if that's all you have the budget for I'd say go for it. Do have a look around on eBay as well though. There's an eBay seller by the name of "steven.studio" that seems to do some decent lights at a good price, some of them pretty decent knock offs of Arri gear. One local has bought the 1200W HMI and is very happy with it. The same vendor sells quite a range of fluro and LED lights.

Bob.