Lighting a Press Conference with “tiny” budget

[Bill Davis]

Not just “Lowel’s” but specifically (shudder) Pro lights.

Take all yokes and mounting hardware off and then make the fighters HOLD the damn things BARE HANDED!

I guarantee the freakin’ lights will get so dam hot that the whole fight will be over in 15 seconds and the only question will be who dropped theirs first.

(can you tell I’m NOT a big fan of Pro lights?)

[Dennis Size]

Be careful Bill. Mark’s LOWELL lights are like children to him. Insulting his lights will REALLY piss him off! 🙂

[Bill Davis]

And one should always “love” their children. However it’s also important to understand every child’s individual strengths and weaknesses.

It is a strength of the Pro Light that it’s so small and powerful.

It is a WEAKNESS of the Pro Light that it’s design builds and holds heat like a black car in the Arizona summer. I’ve been burned (quite literally, NOT figuratively) by more Pro lights than any other device in my career and so I don’t like them.

I ADORE Totas in soft boxes, warehouses and anywhere else a small, light, compact perfectly designed fixture needs to blast out a WHOLE lot of light. I own EIGHT of them.

I’m agnositc on most other Lowel stuff, but appreciate that the line has great value for what it is, and was designed by folks who really know video and especially the line’s accommodation for lots and lots of light control accessories.

At the point in my career where I was looking for affordable gear, I found a great deal on an Arri fresnel kit and so I built my skills with fresnels – which as everyone knows are a whole different beast from open face lights. So I had no need to ever own or get intimate with more Lowel stuff than I ran across in other guys kits.

Hence the burned fingers – figuring that a small Lowel fixture might be designed like, for example, a small Arri fixture as regards to heat dispersion and that I could grab and pack the suckers at a similar point in the “cool down time cycle.” It’s NOT. At all. Period. Ouch. Not AT ALL.

[Mark Suszko]

I object on two counts:

One, I use Lowel Omni-Pros, I have Totas as well, but haven’t had need to pull them out for some time since we got the Rifa lights. These days I use the Omni’s and the Rifas or just the Rifa and a bounce card, if backlights are not an issue.

If you’ve burned yourself handling a type of light more than once, you’re a slow learner. 🙂 Like I said, I shoot an average of three news pressers a week with this 20-plus-year-old kit, and they DO have very nice and always-cool handle grips. The light sheet metal they are made of has little mass and is all-black, so it cools off rapidly, IMO. My normal procedure is to douse the lights first, then by the time I have wrapped the mic, mic cables, and mult box, and bagged up the camera, the lights are only warm to the touch, and can go right into the case, no problem. I must be doing it right because I lose maybe just one bulb a year doing things this way. Those lights are workhorses.

Two: my real children have each already let me down many more times than Lowell lights ever have… and I had a fabulous Father’s day this year: the wife and kids gave me a new ukelele! (Might be as close as I ever get to Hawaii on my salary).

Hey, you wanna use Fresnels, you have my blessing; they are great lights too. I will even stipulate that their quality of output may indeed be “superior”. I just think mine are lighter and actually cool down faster, and are less fragile. *Maybe* a little less expensive too. And they do the jobs I need them to do.

We can do a shoot-out some time Dennis: we’ll do it on the honor system. You run your comparable Fresnel light for 20 minutes, I’ll run one of mine. After twenty minutes, turn them off, wait fifteen, measure the temp on the outer case. I’ll take your word for what your results are. Friendly gentleman’s wager: Loser sends the winner a useless and valueless trinket representing their town or home state, a key fob or fridge magnet or some such. I just need to figure out where on each unit the thermometer should be attached for a fair reading, before we go ahead.

My guess ahead of time is that in fifteen minutes, they will both be cool enough to handle without a glove (though I always carry one or two in the kit). In case of a tie, we can agree to continue being great friends who just haven’t met in person yet.

[Bill Davis]

Mark,

I think you’re getting me confused with Dennis Size.

*I* am the guy who hates Lowel Pro lights. (with a passion)

I also believe you’re getting the Lowel PRO light – confused with a Lowel Omni light.

BTW, I totally understand confusion. It gets harder and harder each year to keep the brain cells operating with anything approaching efficiency – so I’m pleased I still can still tell the difference.

Still, you’ll see that on the REAL Lowel Pro light, there’s not only NO HANDLE. but virtually NO PLACE TO GRAB The sucker except the body of the light (which after too few minutes typically approaches the temperature of the surface of the sun.)

Sorry, that’s my story and I’m sticking with it.

[Mark Suszko]

Bill, my offer still stands, I’ll take you BOTH on :-). Give it the same 15 minutes and I’m confident you can handle it as well.

I don’t know any gaffer or DP that doesn’t keep a glove around for handling lights when they are hot. That’s what we use when adjusting barn doors. I have used the Pro-V adjustable as a back light and as an on-camera light. You can put a handle on it if you plan to hand-hold it, I guess, but that’s not what it’s really for.