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KINO-FLO lighting (alternatives)
Okay here is a question out there for anyone familiar with KINO-FLO flouresant lighting... I am considering building my own set of lights and is there any reason why I can't building a flouresant lighting set and use day-light balanced KINO-FLO bulbs in it? I understand the issues of portability and such... but I guess I'm more asking about the ballasts and bulbs if there isn anything especially special about them... Jul 21 07 04:21 pm Link i have shot with them and would say that portability is the only thing... as far as the light i dont know of any differenc ein the tubes...and for 3k/4k i imagine u could do a pretty facsimile...now having said that i am wondering too...what makes them worth so much cause i love them and would love to have some in my arsenal Jul 21 07 04:25 pm Link Hogan Photography wrote: Hiho, Jul 21 07 04:26 pm Link Flourescent lights flicker with the mains (60Hz here/50Hz in Europe). Fixtures made for either motion picture or still photography have high speed ballasts, that do not visibly flicker. Thats why they cost more. BTW I've used KinoFlos on many shows. Chuck Jul 21 07 07:11 pm Link I built my setup using parts and bulbs from home depot. Works great, cost about $100, but you need to shoot at 1/60, so a tripod is recommended. Big and ungainly, but 3" pvc pipes that come apart means it stores under a bed. You will have four lines of catchlights in the eyes if that bothers you. Jul 21 07 10:59 pm Link kinoflos rock. we use them extensively in motion pictures and i have used them also in stills with beautiful reselts. Jul 21 07 11:03 pm Link Kino flo are great great great lights BUT if you are a still photographer, much of what is great great great is bound to be lost on you. They were designed by a lighting technician in the motion picture industry and addressed flicker, battery power, and light weight (ie, for affixing to dashboards in automobiles with gaff tape, etc) as well as exact color temperature with the tubes. If you shoot with a digital still camera, really none of this should be particularly important to you. If you can afford them, you'd be stylin' to own two 4 bank units however so far as the people looking at your photographs are concerned, 1/10th the money at home depot on shop lights and tubes can potentially provide you with identical results if you are the crafty type. Kino flo's are fully awesome if thats the type of light you are looking for. Fully. Jul 22 07 12:11 am Link glide on fade photo wrote: Thanks, I supposed that's my next question... and maybe this is a stupid question, but in terms of quality (since I am shooting digital) with the KINO-FLO if I'm setting my white balance with cards and such for my color... will using Kino-flo or some home-made version really make much of a difference? Jul 22 07 09:35 am Link I have 4 of the 4 bulb sets.....they sit in a corner and collect dust....they are always on the fritz, light output is extremely low, they are combersome... i also bought spare bulbs for $25 each and put them in regular florescent boxes.....too heavy to do anything with except lean against a wall...... generally not in use and they all take up a lot of room on the regular units money would of been better spent elsewhere m Jul 22 07 09:42 am Link Hogan Photography wrote: Ive never bothered much with strobes so cant help you much there but so far as kinos go, for all intent and purpose as a still photographer especially shooting digital, understand that they are just flourescent lights with a bunch of advantages for motion picture production that you will likely never see. If you go to home depot you can buy just regular shop lights with regular flourescent bulbs and plug them into AC and be good to go. The last time I was at a home depot they had bulbs in 4 different color temperature ratings. So long as you use all the same bulbs and use them as your only light source (or know how to gel correct them if you are mixing sources) you are not going to see much of a difference between that set up and kino flos. They are just flourescent lights... Jul 22 07 01:17 pm Link If you do build your own, remember that florescent light are discontinuance spectrum. You need to get tubes with a CRI (color rendering Index) of 95, or the light will look strange (to green). Photography is all about seeing light. Next time you are in a office, etc with florescent lights look at them closely, usually they will have a mixture of both cool white and warm white tubes. Chuck Jul 23 07 07:23 pm Link I have been using a DIY fluorescent light setup and can offer a little bit of advice: - Get fixtures with electronic ballasts to avoid the 60hz flicker. These are available at places like home depot and cost as little $8 for a two-bulb fixture if you find them on sale. - Get full spectrum bulbs with a high CRI value. 95+ is fantastic, but you can survive with a little less. Completely avoid anything below 91 because you will get color oddities that you cannot adjust for. High CRI bulbs used to be rare, but they are common at home depot and menards now. I paid about $2.95 per bulb. - If you don't like little bars for catch lights you can add some minimal diffusion fabric. I have 5 lights (10 bulbs) mounted side by side in a wooden frame. I can usually shoot 1/60sec, f/4.0, ISO200, which doesn't bother me because I always shoot a little shallow. My reflectors really don't have a very good shape, so I'm sure I'm not nearly as efficient as I could be. Regardless, I enjoy the fluorescent light and only have about $85 invested. If you enjoy experimenting and trying alternative light sources, you cannot beat the price. PS: I recently saw some very nice lights with high efficiency reflectors, at mendards for about $25, but I haven't tried them yet. Aug 08 07 04:25 pm Link II have been experimenting with the new spiral flourescent bulbs from Alzo's. They put out 300 watts apiece. So far I like the results Feb 13 08 01:39 pm Link kino-flos work well for their purpose, the ballasts eliminate the flicker or short interruptions of illuminence that you get with regular flourescent bulbs. for stills & motion use, that flicker is deadly. you can also get daylight balanced bulbs, or just filter them to your lighting setup or liking. they are quite reliable, we use them in car/truck interiors for catalog photography. m-a Feb 13 08 01:45 pm Link Hogan Photography wrote: The problem with normal flourescent fixtures is that they flicker in different colors, do this experiment grab a digital point and shoot camera and point it to a fluorescent -dunno how it is said in english but preferably the ones that are like bars- fixture, you will see that it changes to various colors like pulsing Feb 13 08 01:49 pm Link Kino-Flo, Which i have been using a lot, means a lot for the Cinematography. Which is i primarily do but for the still photography i never used it. I don't do a lot of stills right now but i think i can get the same result by using the strobe light with soft box, unless you want to do a creative lighting for the subject and the surrounding area. Feb 13 08 01:55 pm Link like everybody else has already chimed, kino's just can't be beat if you are into cinematography. that said, i'm still going to experiment with these bulbs http://www.coollights.biz/cl20056-cool- … -p-83.html there is an interesting thread that i can't remember which site but die hard DIY'ers in the film biz tried every home brew contraption and just flat out said, that if you don't have the right reflector material or bend it the right way, you will never get anywhere near the light output of a professionally manufactured rig. Feb 13 08 05:49 pm Link Hogan Photography wrote: I'm using Kino-Flo and spend years in special effects and lighting technology on sets. Feb 13 08 07:25 pm Link David Nusbaum wrote: Would love to find out where you get full spectrum bulbs with CRI > 95. Not at the home depot where I shop, neither can I find them at my specialty lights suppliers other than Kino-Flo that is and definitetely not at $2.95 bulb. Feb 13 08 07:28 pm Link Amedeus wrote: Home Depot used to carry the Phillips TL950, a full-spectrum T8 fluorescent tube (CRI 98), but don't have it listed now. They're around $10 per tube. Don't know what kind of ballast they'd need for photo purposes, but they're fairly widely used for viewing. Feb 13 08 09:13 pm Link Amedeus wrote: try a reptile store.. never bothered to check out the CRI but the bulbs are not cheap ($30 a tube) but the plus side, your iguana will be content and avoid bone problems. Feb 13 08 11:22 pm Link Kevin Connery wrote: Kevin, Feb 13 08 11:52 pm Link amvona sells a set that may cost less than trying to build your own. Feb 14 08 02:34 am Link |
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