By Kendal Miller and Matthew Jeppsen, October 2, 2007
At its core, video production is about controlling light. This control can be broken down into two areas: the light on the subject and how it is then recorded by the camera. Controlling light within your camera involves using such tools as white balance, shutter speed and aperture controls to manipulate the way your camera sees light. But the fact of the matter is that most shots, no matter how small or large, can be dramatically altered and improved by adding, manipulating or subtracting light on even the most basic level. Anyone who wants to improve their skills as a videographer must learn to do this.
A great starting point is to find a good, solid, location lighting kit and begin to hone your skills. To that end, we recently had the opportunity to extensively test three such basic tungsten location kits, respectively made by ARRI, Lowel and Mole-Richardson.
We began by unpacking and checking out all of the contents offered and then testing several key factors on each unit. First, we thoroughly examined each light included—its build quality, feature set and functionality. Next, we measured each individual light to determine its effective output. This test was conducted by taking footcandle readings of each light with a Sekonic 608 Cine light meter in both full-flood and full-spot positions. We measured each from a distance of 8 feet away, taking three readings and averaging those reading to eliminate any possible error. (For those wishing to do the mathematical conversions, one foot-candle equals 10.764 lux.)
Seeing the light
Each of our three kits comes with a set number of lights, offering a different type of control over illuminating your subject. Light temperature, softness, intensity, as well as accessories like scrims, barn doors, and diffusers, all offer different ways to control each fixture. Additionally, we found that there were certain features unique to each company’s offering.
Lowel’s Rifa eXchange is easily one of the best-designed and easy-to-use softboxes we’ve seen—it can be set up in seconds. The addition of the new fluorescent fixture makes a great product that much more appealing.
Mole-Richardson’s setup offers outstanding durability. These cast-metal fixtures felt as though they could easily survive the most abusive production environment.
ARRI’s offerings also have very solid construction, with waterproof housings for the switches, and hands-down the most solid mount for barn doors and scrims. The ARRI barn doors and scrims snapped firmly into place and never felt inclined to shift or fall.
Ideally the perfect lighting kit would combine all the best aspects of the three we’ve examined here. But, as that isn’t likely to happen, we suggest that you determine your unique production needs and match those with the strengths of one of these kits—or some of the others available on the market. Once you have decided on your best solution, the real fun of learning and improving your lighting skills begins.
ARRILITE Fresnel Combo Kit
$3,040
DV Score:
 
Pros:
Solid construction, powerful light output, great value. Heavy-duty electrical cords, reliable barn door design.
Cons:
Some plastic components, total kit weight is a hefty 81 lb.
Bottom Line:
A reliable kit that can take the heat of production.
Click To Enlarge
The Arrilite Frensnel Combo lighting kit is a powerful location lighting kit that includes two 650-watt and two 1,000-watt light fixtures, as well as stands, lamps, and barn doors for each light. You’ll also find gloves, gel frames and C47s with a storage bag, as well as a selection of eight scrims including two full single and full double scrims for each light in the kit.
Everything is contained in a large hard-plastic storage case, with a smaller case included for lamp storage. Total kit weight is 81 lb. Our review kit also included the optional Chimera softbox and speed ring for the 650W fixture.
Each light has a hard-wired power cord with rubberized, water-resistant molded plastic switches. Components are tough and built to withstand the rigors of production. The stands and yokes are well-built, comprised mainly of metal with some tough plastic components. This kit is a reliable performer.
The light heads are a combination of metal and plastic construction, with a thick plastic knob on the back for focusing from spot to flood. Bulb installation is toolless and relatively quick. The metal barn door construction is solid, with doors featuring built-in gel clips. Barn doors on this kit are the most solid of the units we tested. We noted that the ARRI focus range is much wider than comparable lights, enabling greater control of the light output. For example, you can fully flood the open face 1K with a twist of the focus knob, which effectively cuts measurable output by 10x.
The Chimera soft box and speed ring employ a standard design that requires some assembly to mount on the light. Used with the 650W light, we found the light quality to be very soft, wrapping smoothly around a subject. The 650W Fresnel is a beautiful design with an entirely metal exterior. This light in particular is built to last. Larger than the Mole-Richardson 650W (see below), it outputs a stronger and slightly harsher light. The open-face 1K light has a mainly plastic exterior, and doesn’t feel quite as solid as the ARRI 650W0. But it puts out a lot of light. Dropping in scrims and gels is a painless process for both lights.
In short, the ARRI Fresnel Combo kit is a powerful and reliable solution that’s built to take whatever you dish out over years of use.
Lowel Super Ambi Lighting Kit
$3,045
DV Score:
Pros:
Lightweight, powerful and efficient. Rifa eXchange softbox can be setup in seconds, and the cool fluorescent lamp option is very useful. The 200W Pro light really packs a punch for its size.
Cons:
Weak stands, mounting hardware, and barn door construction. Omni screens are clunky and difficult to remove.
Bottom Line:
A compact kit with enough included accessories to begin working right out of the box. Well-suited for the traveling loner or small production crew where equipment weight and size is a major concern.
Click To Enlarge
The Super Ambi is a full-featured, self-contained location kit that includes two 750W Tota lights, two 500W focusable Omni lights, one 500W Rifa softbox and one 200W Pro light, with stands, lamps and barn doors for everything. The kit contains two full single scrims for the Omni, assorted gels and collapsible gel frames (one for the Omni/Tota and another for the Pro light), a flag and reflector for the Tota, as well as two 27” lightweight umbrellas for use with the Tota lights.
Fully loaded into a compact storage case, the kit weighs less than 60 lb. A smaller padded storage case comes in handy for replacement lamp storage.
Each light has a rocker-switched removable power cord that’s interchangeable among the different lights in the kit. The cords optionally can be changed out for use internationally. Keyed electrical plugs feature a solid molded stress-relief boot as well as handy storage cinch straps. Cords could be longer, but are adequate.
The five included Omni stands are a lightweight design. We couldn’t help but think that the stands were a bit shaky—we tend to prefer beefier stands for hot lights. The stand for the Rifa-light, constructed of slightly larger-gauge metal, feels tougher without adding much more weight. In a perfect world, all the stands in this kit would be as such.
The Rifa softbox unfolds much like an umbrella to deploy in seconds. The sides are constructed of Nomex, and the flame-proof front diffusion face simply snaps on each of the four corners. The Rifa is the best-designed softbox we have ever used. Lowel also provided us with a preproduction Rifa eXchange option, a swappable fixture for the Rifa that enables the use of three cool-blue daylight-balanced compact-fluorescent lamps instead of the standard tungsten bulb. Light output is on par with the tungsten bulb, and heat output is significantly less. One disadvantage of the fluorescent option is weight: the eXchange option and lamps add a significant amount of weight to the front of the Rifa, and begin to stress the mounts and tightening crank. Lowel offers a balance bar accessory to offset the center of gravity of the Rifa for fluorescent applications. The fluorescent lamps we were provided with for testing were preproduction units, and we had some issues with the fixture threads snapping. Lowel has since informed us that this concern has been fully addressed in the final production lamps.
The two 750W open-face Tota lights are quite powerful and have an even, broad throw. Harnessing that wide output spread becomes much easier when you attach the included umbrellas, though the light quality still doesn’t wrap around the subject like a nice softbox would—it’s still a harsh light source. We found that they worked equally well when reflected or shooting directly through the umbrella. There is no option to orient the Tota vertically, due to certain electrical and bulb design regulations that prohibit such use.
The 500W open-face Omni lights are a slim profile head, utilizing a simple bulb tilt design to either focus or flood the light output. The focus tilt is adequate, but doesn’t offer as much control over the focus range as comparable models. The four barn doors are split, which make controlling and flagging the light an easy task. While the thin metal barn doors aren’t as robust as we would prefer, they are nearly infinitely configurable.
Scrims are difficult to install and remove from the Omni. Not a simple drop-in design, they require some fiddling around to get things situated nicely, which is not an easy task when you’re handling a hot light. This is an area we would like to see addressed.
The final light in the Super Ambi kit is the 200W Pro Fresnel light. Its lensed design allows you to focus the light down to a tight spot, or flood wide using a side knob. The design includes the split barn doors just like the Omni. Interestingly, we found that the 200W Pro performed very favorably versus the 500W Omni in some output tests. In fact, the 200W was the outstanding performer in this kit, apparently thanks to its lens and reflector.
Essentially, the Lowel Super Ambi kit is a production-ready solution that’s well suited to traveling and on-location usage. The kit comes with a number of very useful accessories and options, and is extremely configurable for a variety of setups. The lightweight and compactness of the kit seem to necessitate that stands, barn doors and clamps are not as tough and as sturdy as we would prefer. However, if you’re looking for a versatile and compact field-lighting solution, the Lowel Super Ambi kit may very well be the one for you.
Mole-Richardson Molequartz Fresnel Combo Pro
$3,695
DV Score:
Pros:
Tough fixtures and stands. Painless lamp replacement, heavy-duty electrical cords, and solid metal switch design.
Cons:
Diffused Fresnel is not the most efficient output per watt. Slightly unreliable ring fastening clip.
Bottom Line:
A tough kit with a nice range of light options. Built to last.
Click To Enlarge
Mole-Richardson’s Molequartz Fresnel Combo Pro kit is a full-featured, self-contained location setup that includes one 200W, one 650W and two 300W light fixtures, as well as stands, lamps, filter frames and barn doors for each light. Set Wear gloves and a gel pack also are included. The kit comes with a wide selection of scrims for each light, 20 in total. There is a half single, half double, full single, full double, and scrim storage bag for each light in the kit. Everything fits into a large hard plastic wheeled storage case, with total kit weight standing at 75 lb. Our review kit included the optional Chimera softbox and speed ring for the 650W fixture.
Each fixture has a extra-long hard-wired power cord that features a molded stress-relief boot, and tough cast-metal switches that look like they could be opened up and repaired in the field if necessary. Everything is solidly built for the rigors and abuse of production. Stands and yokes feature tough metal hardware that locks solid on every connection. This kit feels completely bulletproof.
The light heads are a tough metal construction with thick plastic knobs on both the front and back for focusing from spot to flood. Remove a single pin, and the Fresnel lens assembly swings away for simple and painless bulb installation. The barn doors are nice and large with heavy metal construction. We did have a concern with the design of the upper tab, which secures the rotating barn doors, scrims, and speed ring to the light. It’s spring-loaded to apply pressure and grip the ring, but the spring seems to be a bit weak for this application. We noticed that if you jostle the softbox or roughly rotate the barn doors, it sometimes slips off. This never resulted in anything falling, but it’s an annoyance on an otherwise very well-designed kit.
The optional Chimera soft box and speed ring employ a standard design that requires some assembly to mount on the light. Mounted on the 650W fixture, we found the light quality to be very soft. We noted that the 200W light doesn’t output nearly as much light as other similarly rated lights. In general, all of the Mole-Richardson lights tended to be more diffused and therefore rated less output than similar lights. The quality of light is slightly less harsh as a result. This seems to be due to the Fresnel lens having an additional frosted layer in the glass.
The 300W and 650W lights feature the same solid metal design, and are built like tanks. We also noted the 650W light is relatively compact in size compared to the ARRI 650W.
While the Mole-Richardson Fresnel Combo Pro kit is not the most powerful or compact kit we have used, it is built rock-solid to last for years. If you’re in the market for a no-nonsense and reliable lighting solution, the Mole-Richardson Fresnel Combo Pro is an excellent choice.
|