Impact VA903 Five Lamp Fluorescent Cool Light - (120VAC)

Comments about Impact VA903 Five Lamp Fluorescent Cool Light - (120VAC):

It isn't quite as bright as I was expecting it to be, but it definitely is cool and provides a nice daylight quality light.

Comments about Impact VA903 Five Lamp Fluorescent Cool Light - (120VAC):

I use the product for facial shots in music videos cause the round nature of the lamp reflects on the artist shades and adds some interesting contrast in the shades, instead of boring confusing small or distorted circles of lights appearing on the shades. It is a nice and cheap alternative to the ring lights that go for thousands of dollars.

Comments about Impact VA903 Five Lamp Fluorescent Cool Light - (120VAC):

it's nice to be able to adjust the light by turning on off the amount of bulbs you want. the screw holes for the diffuser plate were not alligned with the metal piece that covers holes, so I had to bend some things to get bars for diffuser in. Where was quality control on that?

Comments about Impact VA903 Five Lamp Fluorescent Cool Light - (120VAC):

This is really a great light and seems to be well made. The one problem is with the angle adjustment. It wouldn't hold up the weight of the light (it's heavy metal) despite cranking it down hard. I took it apart to see if I could spot the difficulty and frankly, the engineering was beyond me. I put it together the next day and now it works fine! Perhaps I put it together differently? It must be the case and easily explains why others have complained about the same issue. Perhaps all the mfgr has to do is ensure the correct was to assemble is followed at all times. I sent an email to them to give my opinion.

BONUS: I'm using this light as a reading lamp next to my LazyBoy. Wow! It's light reading out in the sunlight without the heat! I highly recommend to read by this light although it does look a bit large and industrial.

Comments about Impact VA903 Five Lamp Fluorescent Cool Light - (120VAC):

I use it for shooting videos. It's simple to use. Didn't even have an "instruction" booklet. I'm not crazy about how top-heavy the heads are. They need weights to prevent toppling over.

Comments about Impact VA903 Five Lamp Fluorescent Cool Light - (120VAC):

Easy to set up, Super bright light, Great value for the money.

Comments about Impact VA903 Five Lamp Fluorescent Cool Light - (120VAC):

Great light- I'm mostly using it for fill indoors to match daylight through windows. Plenty of light, no noticeable buzzing sound, nice and cool. Build quality is fine for the price. One of the bulbs was bad when it arrived, but given that it includes 5 ~$20 bulbs with a [$] fixture, I'm not complaining. The clamp for the head angle has trouble holding when angled down, but is fine at ninety degrees.

Comments about Impact VA903 Five Lamp Fluorescent Cool Light - (120VAC):

I'm a semi-pro photographer, and I'm always looking to improve my photography skills and equipment. I had been wanting a good lighting system for a while now, but I was always discouraged by the high prices of so many lighting equipment. I came across B&H by way of their Android app for mobile phone. After purchasing the lights, I was asked to review them. So far I have had great experiences with them. The effective range on the ambient light is roughly 10 ft. There are 3 different cycles you can switch the light to. 1)center light. which is the middle bulb. 2)Diagonal, which uses the upper left, upper right, and lower left, lower right bulbs. You can also turn on all of them for the full lighting effect. Without the diffuser sock, the light that is cast is a 'hard' light. Meaning; there will be hard shadows behind whoever or whatever is in the light. I personally prefer the diffuser socks on. This way there is almost no shadow in the background. The diffuser socks soften the light beautifully. I haven't had the light setup long enough to say much more than I already have, but what I can say is...so far, so good!

Comments about Impact VA903 Five Lamp Fluorescent Cool Light - (120VAC):

make a alot light for the low wattage end

Comments about Impact VA903 Five Lamp Fluorescent Cool Light - (120VAC):

Super light output, but product is not made very well.

Comments about Impact VA903 Five Lamp Fluorescent Cool Light - (120VAC):

This is a great product for a medium sized conference room to give just enough lighting for a one person on camera recording. Still looks like natural lighting. I love the way you can manipulate the lighting by the three switches in the back, isolating lights. Although they are a little bigger than I expected, they come apart easily and have handles on the back of the light to make it easier to transport. Great for corporate settings. Since I am familiar with lighting I understood how to put them together, but instructions would be helpful to non-experienced.

Comments about Impact VA903 Five Lamp Fluorescent Cool Light - (120VAC):

Very loose head. Puts out lots of light

Comments about Impact VA903 Five Lamp Fluorescent Cool Light - (120VAC):

I use these lights for video shooting. Putting light where you need it is a big plus in video. Some times you don't need a lot of light due to the restricted amount of space. The dimmable feature of these lights makes it possible to fit the situation.

Comments about Impact VA903 Five Lamp Fluorescent Cool Light - (120VAC):

Used indoors to complete the natural daylight.

Very interesting product that allows to use daylight cool lamps from different watts: 20, 23, 32, 37W.

Does the job and the price is very attractive.

The bad points would be that the lamp kit is very large and quite fragile to manipulate.

Also, the quality can be improved very much: manufacture defaults, and plastic hungs far too fragile for the weight of the lamp.

It should be included a bag or a case to be transported and stocked.

Comments about Impact VA903 Five Lamp Fluorescent Cool Light - (120VAC):

These lamps filled my small studio with light and did so at a reasonable price. To be honest, I was afraid that I would get what I paid for. But these work so well that I'm not going to save up for other lights.The light came with a defuser that isn't really necessary, but there might be times you need that extra softness.I read some other comments about dents and bent shrouds, but I think those issues had more to do with shipping damage.The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is that a storage or travel case would be helpful.

Comments about Impact VA903 Five Lamp Fluorescent Cool Light - (120VAC):

I use this light for interior architectural photography.The light itself is really simple, relatively compact and works well, the three switches allow for variable light intensities. The stand and the connecting head could be more robust. The clamp that locks the head angle requires a lot of force to lock and unlock. The stand is barely adequate for this size of light especially when extended. I purchased two of these lights[...]

Comments about Impact VA903 Five Lamp Fluorescent Cool Light - (120VAC):

I like the lights I just purchased. Bright, and much cooler than equal lumens of tungsten plus bulb life is much greater.

The heads are heavy and that means to hold them in position on the stand, you must tighten down the knob extremely tight or else it will creep downward. I am going to try to add some washers as shims to maybe get some better friction and more purchase upon the clamping knob.

Comments about Impact VA903 Five Lamp Fluorescent Cool Light - (120VAC):

Purchased as part of the 2 lights with stands kit.

I set up the stands, screwed in the bulbs, attached the white plastic diffuser disk and tried it out. First thing to note... although the B&H rep on the phone told me the plastic diffuser disk was not included, each lamp came with one. Unlike other reviewers, I had no problems with the standoffs for the disk lining up, or any other problems.

The light is very even but although its nice that you can turn on selected bulbs using the 3 different switches, I need to turn all on every time. The output, with (5) 30W fluorescent bulbs is equivalent on paper to a single 500W incandescent photo flood, but I'm seeing that it is at least a full f-stop lower. Use the optional diffuser socks and you lose another f-stop.
Note: Make sure you tighten the light head adjustment handle really well as the heads (with 5 fluorescent bulbs and all the electronics) are pretty heavy. Otherwise they might start sinking during your shoot.

Comments about Impact VA903 Five Lamp Fluorescent Cool Light - (120VAC):

Very usefull in small are for interview because it
does not warm up the place and the guy in front off the camcorder. Color are very good. Simple to use and very large range off setup.

Comments about Impact VA903 Five Lamp Fluorescent Cool Light - (120VAC):

Use as main a fill lights in the studio, for portraits.

I do not care for strobes and speed lights. I want the light to be constant so that I can easily see shadows and light through the viewfinder.

This light meets my needs and wants. It is quite versatile. There are three switches on the back, which allow you to turn on the bulbs. This makes it so that you may turn on 1, 2, 3, 4, or all five bulbs very easily and quickly. A super feature!
Each bulb is about 30 watts. The bulbs run cool. I got UL listed bulbs with the lamp as a kit. They indicate 32 watts each. Commonly, the multiplier for fluorescent is x5, which would make each bulb effectively 150 watts. However, the light is not thrown out at any distance this strongly. When I have all five bulbs on, I figure approximately 250 watts makes it to 8 feet. Therefore, a multiplier of some sort is true, but varies upon how far you are placing the light from the subject. This is a concern for strobe users trying to figure the amount of light needed, since a strobe can be (usually) dialed to throw a certain amount to a certain distance / place. Once you get used to these lamps, they become second nature quickly.

The lamps come with two standoff studs and a diffuser disk. I prefer to use a diffuser sock.