Good, cheap, basic lighting kit

Dear Lighting Brethren and Sistren (if that word exists),

Once in awhile a question pops up here in the vein of, "What's the cheapest lighting kit I can buy — and still get professional results?". Well, I've just wandered around the Smith-Victor website. Along with alot of long-forgotten goodies, I found several interesting lighting kits that'd work well for both amateurs and professionals.

In light of the current tight economy (no pun intended), here's a particularly interesting kit: three lights including reflectors, bulbs, 8ft.stands, wheeled carrying case and a lighting guide, lists for $429.95. You can —and, in my opinion, should— add barndoors sooner or later. There are even less expensive options you can put together yourself. Take a look around the site.

http://www.smithvictor.com/products...++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++&nm=K83+KIT

Merry Christmas!

Christopher

PS: No, I don't work for SV, nor do I have any commercial connection with them ... but I'm so tired of the high prices here in France for this type of lighting equipment that I might help them find a dealer here!!

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I do not like SV lights. I think, based on my experience, that at the very least they are unsafe. The materials are not up to par and the results are a disaster waiting to happen.

I did a shoot a couple years back where the lights (SV) were supplied by someone else. As I was fiddling with some gear waiting for something interesting to happen, something did. A woman walked in front of the lights and commented on the heat coming from them. She asked if they were dangerous. I told her not to worry because there was a heat-shield in place. Not two seconds later there was a cracking noise and the aforementioned heat shield shattered and blew outwards towards the woman. We were both rather shaken.

The very fact that there is only glass in front of some of those bulbs, no screen or anything, and they are so damn cheap makes me never want to be around another one.

Of course for every experience like mine there's about a zillion positive experiences. As far as I'm concerned it only takes that one!

Bosaiya said:

I do not like SV lights. I think, based on my experience, that at the very least they are unsafe.

Click to expand...

Wow. Sorry you had a bad experience. Sounds like you used halogen bulbs (or, as Hollywood calls them, "globes"), right? As I said, I don't work for the company, but I know that incidents of bursting bulbs aren't unheard of in hot-lights, of course, with any brand. However, if your heat-absorbing glass exploded, that sounds like a freak accident. The kit I pointed out uses cooler 250w photoflood bulbs which rarely burst. Plus, using a SV plastic diffuser with these bulbs —as well as enhancing a portrait— would help prevent injury.

The fact that you're uncomfortable with the products is another thing. I agree with you, then: don't use them! My advice was basically given for those people who can't afford other, more expensive brands, that's all. SV has been around for quite a long time, founded —I believe— in the late 1800's. A heck of a lot of photographers have used their equipment successfully. However, I understand your point: My very first "pro" lighting units were SV photofloods, when I was a kid in the 1960s. I obtained pretty good results, but it's true that those units had tiny wing-nuts to allow you to adjust the angle of the light. It often hurt my fingers to tighten these, and sometimes they couldn't be tightened enough to prevent the light from s-l-o-w-l-y creeping downward. Some SV socket clamp still use these wing-nuts today. Other, modernized models, use the "Manfrotto type" levers. If you're looking for lighting equipment you might want to take a gander at the website in spite of your understandably negative prejudice .. you might see something new!

Best,

Chris

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Well I'm going to be trying out the Flashpoint strobes from Adorama simply because every review I've read gives them decent rating but I've never heard of anyone suggest them on a forum so I want to to be able to suggest them if they work well.

I'll have to say with the Flashpoint I don't know what I'm missing but I can't see using much more than what I have for a long time.