Lowel Solo Kit

[Jarvis Alston]

Hello All,

I have recently purchased a Scarlet and am currently researching a good lighting kit to start me off. I plan to be involved in a broad range of films, horror, drama, experimental etc. and would like a kit that could cover these needs. So far the kit that looks most appealing to me is the "Lowel Solo Kit" seen here: http://www.lowel.com/kits/solo.html

But there are some cheaper kits on there that might be more suitable for me, such as the Elemental kit.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Also if anybody has any experience using Lowel products feel free to let me know what they are like.

Thanks very much for your help.

Jarvis

[Shapour Daneshmand]

Jarvis,
my suggestion is do not go back to tungsten lighting.
It's obsolete.
think of LED only.
Check this place out http://it-photovideo.com/
i have few of their lights. They are great quality and reasonably priced.

[Noah Yuan-Vogel]

I have experience with a lot of the lowel lights, and some of them are a pretty good option if you need very portable lights. I personally own two pro-lights and two totas but am not so much a fan of the omni and DP lights which are just boring openfaced lights. It might not be bad to have another bigger light like a 1k DP light though for some situations. The totas and pro-lights are pretty amazing at what they do and fit in such a small space. Totas are great for softboxes or umbrellas or other large diffused sources since they are so broad you dont need a lot of space to get a big source out of them, and they pack up incredibly small for their wattage. Prolights are nice because they are so small and light weight and have a huge focusing range with a nice knob (DP or omni have a lever that is not very precise).

Also, lowel stands are terrible, they are flimsy and break and weigh more than other cheaper equivalents. I bought my prolights and totas used but in great condition for about half price, and I still feel it was the best way to start my light kit and build from there. With prolights and totas, I can actually fit a soft key and hard backlight in my tripod case with my tripod and stands and cables for quick small jobs! I don't do that anymore but it was great for quick location interview setups.

Personally I'd also recommend looking into daylight fixtures like fluorescents. Nearly all digital cameras and especially RED cameras do much better in daylight. Fluorescents are not as compact as tungsten can be, but they are far more efficient, easier to get soft light from, and will work a lot better if you have daylight in your scene.

My custom portable light kit has 4 tungsten fixtures and 4 fluorescent daylight fixtures. Full CTB is not a great option on tungsten since all your lights will only put out 1/4 as much light, and daylight situations are usually where you need more light.

I just noticed that kit you linked was $3600 MSRP... I would not spend that much on an average tungsten kit. Be careful with LED though, they usually have a fixed focus and color temp and ugly shadows and misrepresent their output and CRI. Fluorescent is much more accessible and usually a better consistent quality of light.

[Matt W.]

Lowel lights are nice if you like burning your skin. They're fast to set up so I guess that's good for interviews, but the light is extremely difficult to control and harsh and the build quality is horrible and you get burned on them. I would strongly recommend against them for narrative work, but they're capable for quick set up on ENG.

If you're serious about your post and making genre films, you need more lights than that. A LOT more. Like a 5 ton truck more in some cases... But not for everything.

Don't listen to anyone who pushes LEDs and plasma over tungsten. Those technologies are prohibitively expensive, immature in terms of color rendering, and not the preference of any serious DP or gaffer. Look on any truck, what do you see? Tungsten, HMI, Kinoflo. Maybe a lite panel or two here tucked away in a corner.

I would begin with, in order:

2x 650w Arri or Mole fresnels (the most useful light)
2x 350w Arri or Mole fresnels (also useful)
1k softbox (Chimera)
Stands

There are some kits composed of that almost exactly, for good reason.

I would then add, almost immediately:
CTB and CTO gel
Diffusion
Optionally, 2x3 frames
2x Century Stands
A few flags
Reflectors (bead board and duckbills)
Duvy scraps

After that you're looking at adding the following as useful additions:
Kinoflos
1.2k or 1.8k location HMI
1k and 2k location fresnels
4x4 frames and flags
A small generator
Peppers, dedos
Par cans (I like these)
Butterflies and overheads
Color effects gels, cookies, etc.

After that you're building your own grip truck so just rent already! Production insurance is cheap!

Anything else is flavor of the month.

[Noah Yuan-Vogel]

There are a lot of different approaches to putting together a lighting kit and generally the best choice for you will depend on your requirements and working style.

Arri is better made and fresnels are better multipurpose lights, hard to break and not extremely expensive. On the other hand, lowel lights are generally half the size/weight and half the price of a similar Arri light. One is more durable and harder to burn yourself on since it has more space and better heat sink design but that comes at the cost of carrying ~2x as much weight/volume and for ~2x the price. I love trying to get a lot out of a little and offering a lot of value to low budget productions.

I often find myself on jobs with only me and one gaffer and tight schedules and want to be able to fit my kit in the trunk of a car and still have enough fixtures to light a (small) feature without sacrificing the ability to use lots of soft light when I needed. If I had Arri lights on the same budget and restrictions, I would have half as many fixtures to work with and wouldnt be able to put lights in as many places. I can arm out a lowel pro light or tota as a backlight using a lightweight arm that fits in my light kit, whereas if I want to do the same with an arri fresnel I need a c-stand, long arm and a sandbag. I occasionally work with those small arri light kits and they are quite well made and heavy duty but I'd rather have smaller fixtures and plenty of great modifiers that fit in my kit and give me options since hard light is great but a bunch of fresnels with only one softbox give you almost no options as far as utilizing various qualities of light.

[Matt W.]

Arri is better made and fresnels are better multipurpose lights, hard to break and not extremely expensive. On the other hand, lowel lights are generally half the size/weight and half the price of a similar Arri light. One is more durable and harder to burn yourself on since it has more space and better heat sink design but that comes at the cost of carrying ~2x as much weight/volume and for ~2x the price. I love trying to get a lot out of a little and offering a lot of value to low budget productions.

Fresnels also cast single shadows by virtue of the optical design (the reflector is curved to bounce light to the same focal point as the filament); open face lights cast multiple shadows and are inherently much harsher than the frosted fresnel lens. Garish on skin tones. But fresnels are less efficient. There's a big difference between an open face light and a fresnel light--it's not just a matter of weight or build quality, it's a matter of how you want the scene to look. For bounce or through diffusion, or if efficiency trumps all else, an open face light can be better. But it's not an apples to apples comparison; they're not interchangeable units.

I use lowel lights--they're great for interviews, portability, and punch if you want to bounce or diffuse them. I wish I could afford a rifa light, which seems like the fastest way to a nice bright soft source. But I wouldn't recommend them in this case. Those stands are a hazard on location.

Jarvis wants lights for dramatic genre material, not lights that are designed solely for fast set up by a small crew. In his case, rental is the right answer, since you really need a small grip truck to appropriately light anything more than an interview, but if you must buy your own stuff and you want to shoot short films (and I'm somewhat hesitant to admit I fall into this camp), start with fresnels, which are much more aesthetic and versatile than open face lights. Maybe get a 2k mickey for bounce, though, or a soft box for an open face unit. Branding is a matter of preference, but I love Arri fresnels--big lenses, bulletproof design, etc. and they're really not all that expensive.

[Jarvis Alston]

Thanks a heap guys for your help. I've done a little research into the Arri lights and the kits are surprisingly cheap. Especially with the aussie dollar being so good right now. I've been looking around mostly on http://www.bhphotovideo.com and am really impressed with the prices and selection. I will most likely order a kit from there. I will be able to rent more lights if the production calls for it but I would like to have a selection of versatile lights on hand. Arri fresnels sound like the way to go.

Thanks again everyone for your feedback. If anybody has more input please don't hesitate. Cheers.

Jarvis

[Jeremy Wiles]

Arri H-3 Hybrid Kit. I've owned it for months and it's great. The two LED's are temperature controlled and have more output than other LED's on the market using the intensifier. My RED batteries power the Arri LED's, which is great for run and gun stuff.

[Milton Loo]

Renting is the way to go imo.

Not only is the gear almost always better than what you can buy (unless you're loaded and own a 10 ton package truck), you'll get the support and advice from generally experienced rental house staff who know their stuff. It's also a great way to learn about the latest gear, talk shop, and build future connections.

Of course this might be a problem if you're based in a smaller town. If you're in a large film city, just rent!

Oh and LED lights are definitely better reserved for tight spaced, run and gun situations. Personally I don't like the falloff of LEDs and the slightly 'plastic' quality of the light. For cinematic material, you'll still want to stick with Tungstens, KINOs, and budget permitting, HMIs. Tungstens with Chimera light banks in particular look terrific. My day job is as a union lamp op. I see Tungstens, KINOs, and HMIs used on a daily basis. LEDs on the other hand are rarely used, unless say, in a car. Now LED technology IS improving though. Just that as it stands, I prefer the other fixture types.

[Sam Eilertsen]

Lowels are light and versatile and easy to set up, although as other people have said they're easy to burn yourself on, they're also not the most durable. Rifas are very nice for soft light. Totas have a lot of punch for their size, but they're difficult to control, there isn't a good way to gel them without having spill because you can't put a gel right on the light or the barndoors. Omnis are OK but I'd rather a fresnel any day.