Dan Brockett
Forum Replies Created
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Yes, but they have thoughtfully included nice minus green resin panels, no gels needed. Like them more, I just leave them in the lights, no gels to crinkle in the wind, make noise or wear out. The Minus .5 Green does the trick.
Dan
A Producer Who Is Also A DP? Yep, that’s Me.
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What Bill said.
Unless you are ponying up the BIG bucks for LitePanels, Coolights are the best value out there. I too own two of the 600s and a 250, love them.
Dan
A Producer Who Is Also A DP? Yep, that’s Me.
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No 128s? That’s too bad, most of us were hyped about someday using 128Gb and 256GB P2 cards.
Dan
A Producer Who Is Also A DP? Yep, that’s Me.
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Hmm…I have used Peppers but never a Pepper kit. Interesting, I didn’t know that they did kits. Good little lights.
Yes, I think DeSistis are quite the underground thing, a few people in the know use them but generally, they are relegated to second fiddle. It;s a shame, they are good products.
Dan
A Producer Who Is Also A DP? Yep, that’s Me.
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I could never figure out the Altman marketing angle, the look identical to the Arris, yet they don’t cost much less (10 to 20%)? I would always go with the Arris for that price difference.
Desistis are very underrated in my book, I have had a Monet 1k Fresnel for years and it is a great little light, well built, has never given me an ounce of trouble. In the U.S., Desisti just seems regarded as a non-contender but I think that they are a great value.
Strand seem to be solid, but not a particularly popular choice, other than for HMIs.
I think it comes down to Arri, Mole and Lowel because they make the most kits and most newbies want pre-assembled kits. Then you shoot for a few years and discover pre-assembled kits are not really a great solution, they are always lacking exactly what you need and usually give you a bunch of stuff you don’t need. I have three pre-assembled kits and I rarely use them as is, I make my own kits for different situations.
Dan
A Producer Who Is Also A DP? Yep, that’s Me.
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Todd,
I have had two of the LED 600s and one of the LED 256s for about a year and half now. They have been excellent, I have been very happy with the build and performance. They aren’t good for everything, I hate the way people look with bare LEDs shining on them but when used with a Chimera or bounced off of a Flexfill, they are excellent.
I used these LEDs to make up my present travel/interview kit, all three lights and stands fit into one Storm case nicely along with some Matthews travel stands and it comes in just under 50lbs. Great stuff.
BTW, Richard lives in China although he is over here periodically so you have to take the time difference into account when e-mailing or calling him. His support people here in the states are excellent as well, the few times I have needed a repair, they have taken excellent care of me.
Take care,
Dan
A Producer Who Is Also A DP? Yep, that’s Me.
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There are lots of other “tribute” tungsten instruments on the market that pay homage to Arri and Mole lights such as the Image West and a lot of other “no name” stuff on Ebay.
The big advantage of buying the Cool Lights stuff is that Richard Andrewski is actually reachable, responds and gets his clients taken care of when there are fixes and repairs needed, Cool Lights service has been exemplary for me. With many of the other brands, once you have purchased the lights, you are on your own as far as support and follow up.
The Cool Lights tungsten stuff is pretty good for the money and the CDM fixtures offer HMI-like performance for a fraction of the cost of “real” HMIs. I think you would be hitting the sweet spot in recommending the Cool Lights stuff over anything you are going to find on Ebay or at Home Depot for newbies especially.
The next best thing would be used Arri and Mole stuff but as we all know, the challenge of that is that few newbies know what to look out for when buying used gear and there doesn’t actually seem to be that much used tungsten lighting available out there overall. People generally buy the Arri and Mole stuff and use it forever, I know I have had my Arri kits and various Mole instruments since the mid 90s and it is all still going strong.
Cheers,
Dan
A Producer Who Is Also A DP? Yep, that’s Me.
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Yes, it is just the warranty difference. I would highly advise buying the camera model that is sold in your country.
While the new Panasonics are functionally the same, you won’t get a 370 serviced under warranty in Japan or Europe and you won’t get warranty service on a 371 in the U.S.
Dan
A Producer Who Is Also A DP? Yep, that’s Me.
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Isaac:
I have a client who owns the EX1s, I shoot with them often and they essentially look the same as the EX3. I own the HPX170. IMHO, you will never, ever match the two in the way you are attempting. EX3 is much sharper, different colorimetry, gamma, matrix, knee. I agree with the other advice, if you want them to match, rent another of either.
I am shooting a long term doc with my HPX170 and my 5D MKII in interviews. Same issue, they will never match in a million years. Luckily I am going for the mixed media look and will usually be using one or the other in a given interview, even though I am rolling both side by side.
If you want low end cameras to match, using identical models is just a starting point, even two HPX170s or EX3s setup identically will never match perfectly although the texture and general feel will be the same. It is amazing how different even two of the same models adjusted with the same settings can look.
With pro cameras with CCUs, you hire an engineer to paint the cameras to match each other and you can nail them to each other. But with low end cameras, not going to happen usually.
Dan
A Producer Who Is Also A DP? Yep, that’s Me.
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While I have not yet cut with the V5.0 of MC, I believe that AVID is now much more FCP-like with this latest version than ever before.
Perhaps someone with MC 5.0 can chime in but some of the latest selling points were that AVID now works natively with any QT media and AVID now has the same drag and drop TL that FCP has.
If I was starting out TODAY and had never edited professionally, I would buy MC over FCP. I have been on FCP since Beta so it is too late for me to start over, I know FCP way too well and use it pretty effortlessly but the lack of updates and the sucky media management mean that AVID is overall, a bit stronger tool these days.
Dan
A Producer Who Is Also A DP? Yep, that’s Me.