[John Delustro]

I’ll check out the SOLA. Bescor looks good in the catalog, but I picked up a cheap kit from them, and both units were broken before I opened the box. Figured that they were still inexpensive enough to consider disposable if the quality was acceptable, exchanged, and the replacement kit was broken in a different way. I’ll be avoiding them from now on. The Ikan seemed very nice at B&H, though a different customer in the store reported dimming issues with it. Still likely to try that next. I’ll look into the Videssence.

Thanks!

[John Delustro]

Looks like 95% of the time, I will only need a 6′-10′ throw, with the journalist being the primary (sole) target of the light source(s). The primarily goal for these units is to make things more portable, both regarding size and weight. My perception of less maintenance (and lamp costs) is a secondary benefit.

[John Delustro]

Thanks Mark, I think I need to investigate this request on my end a bit more. I had initially just wanted opinions on LED’s (which I have little experience with, outside of the Litepanels and Colorblasts), but now I’m not certain of what the end purpose of this gear is. I was asked to do this to facilitate night ENG shots, but the vast majority of those shots for us have the NYC skyline as a background, which is both bright enough on its own, and a bit too far away (from Tribeca) to bother illuminating. I’ll update when I have more specifics.