Before you spend 3 grand, I'd purchase Vic Milt's Light it Right DVD ...

a) to learn a heck of a lot about lighting

b) If you're at all a handyman, to make yourself a Nanolight - US price for components quoted at $75 - maybe double over here. (A friend & I are going to make ourselves one each together here in Perth soon.)

Try rostronics.com

Tom has terrififc deals on light kits, plus you'lll be helping him support his organization for the disabled. I paid about 600 dollars and got 3 lights, 2 of them with softlights, all had barndoors and stands; plus all came with bags for carrying.

Yes, that DVD from VASST is recommended. You might check eBay for lighting kits. Probably better to start with a simple kit if you're new to it.
If you buy units from USA remember that you'll have to get 230v lamps. That VideoGuys kit you mentioned says 120v lamps, but obviously they mean 230/240v. You might also check out John Barry (South Melbourne) and Lemac (Richmond) for good alternatives to VideoGuys, but they're not necessarily any less expensive.

Tom's lights from Rostronics (Britek) are great little lights overall. We didn't buy any of his stands, as we're well set there, but he's got great service, good prices, etc.
And of course while I'm far from impartial, Victor Milt's Nanolights are simply brilliant. When he unveiled these at NAB this year, it was pretty funny to see how people responded to the quality of light from a sub 50.00 kit.
Wish they weren't so big, I'd tote them to Oz for you when I come next month!

The innability of Lowell lights to accept a wire scrim makes them a nonstarter for me. Given the particular cataog you're looking at I'd go for the Redheads over the Lowel lights. (But then, the Redhead kit is incomplete. It'd have to have scrim sets added to it and I'd want to be doubly sure that the accessory holders were there to slip the scrims into the light.

If you can find someone who'll rent you a kit you should try that a few times before buying. Ideally, you'd go to a rental house to get the lights-rather than some hack videographer

Here's the 411 on scrims. Scrims are wire discs that you slip in front of the light to reduce the output. The good thing is that they don't shange the color temp of the light like a dimmer does. Scrims come in single and double density and of those you can get discs with wire all the way across the disc or halfway across. The halves are used to reduce the light on just one side but not the other. Look at the pictures here: http://www.ianiro.com/redhead_fibre.asp

(Lowel kits usually include one or two scrims but they are so difficult to attach to a hot light that they may as well not be there. The redhead scrims simply drop into a slot behind the barndoors-like any proper film light.)

An experienced pro will get a bag for the scrims that can hang from the light's stand and will always put a bag on the stand of each and every light so that scrims will always be ready and waiting. Each bag should contain 5 scrims: 2 full doubles, 1 full single, 1 half double, and 1 half single. Each light should have a full set so that at the end of the day you can look in each bag and quickly count the scrims.

When I started working in this biz in the mid 80s, most of the Bay Area video and film people had either a Redhead kit or a Lowel D or DP kit for their personal kits. 20 years later, the Lowel kits are largely what remains, probably because the parts are available. I've repaired lots of lowel heads. The Redheads weren't repairable here because there was no parts source.

Over those 20 years I've worked on most of the local lighting trucks up to 10 tons. None of the professional lighting people use Lowel heads. For the most part they use Mole or Arri because they are very capable instruments and fairly sturdy. If you live in a marine environment I'd favor Arri because Mole has a bad rep for rust.

Good, well made professional gear is a pleasure to work with if you've got the experience to appreciate it. If you don't have it (and many professional shooters never develop that level of skill in their entire lives) then you may as well use anything that'll poop out some light.

Rob Mack

well, thanks for all of the replies. I'm not sure that I'm any clearer though, Lol. Still in the....... dark.......(oh, couldn't resist!)

I'd love to get Vic Mitts DVD, as I'm sure it would give me some invaluable insights into many lighting techniques.

I will also probably shoot off an email to Rostronics, I guess the main issue with buying from the States is the power incompatability.

My biggest issue of all is that I am hoping to schedule a location shoot within the next two weeks, which doesn't leave me much time for getting my lighting sorted. I've just landed a job to do a retail training DVD for a chain of stores here in Oz and I've been given a really tight deadline.

Thanks again to everyone,

T

A little OT, but what are nanolights? Are they based on florescents or LEDs or something else?

They're based on daylight flourescents. I think Vic has some info on his website. www.victormilt.com

just a quick postscript to my initial post.

I have ordered the Lowel DV Creator 55 Kit. I wound up buying from the U.S and with consideration to the International exchange rate, import duty and replacing the bulbs with 240v, I should save around $700 to $800 Australian.

Pretty happy with that and am anxiously awaiting delivery.

Thanks to all that took the time to give me their thoughts and opinions.

T :)

> ...and replacing the bulbs with 240v, I should save around $700 to $800 Australian.

Don’t forget you can sell the 120v bulbs on eBay and get some of that money back Brand new in-the-box bulbs should retain most of their value.

~jr