Well-built, good quality & easy to use light kit
By Harry
Rated 4 out of 5
Date: 2016-01-31
I'd really give this lighting kit 4.5 stars. What brings the ratings down to a 4.5, in my mind, are a few things. First, the light stands that come with it are a little on the cheap side. I use my Manfrotto-Bogen stands, instead, and the lights seem to actually fit the mount better. The lights seem a little more wobbly on the included stands. Not that big a deal though. Secondly, this kit did not come with any manual or directions. The lights are easy enough to use though, but it would have been nice to have some documentation. I guess there is always the Internet. The third thing is that the protective bags for the two main lights are a little small. If they would have been made even one inch bigger, the lights, with the mounting frame, would fit without a bind on the bags zipper. I can see this as a fail point with a lot of use. I also purchased the Dracast barndoors. These are well-made too. These were shipped separately from the light kit and one may have been bent just a tad because I had some difficulty in aligning the mounting screw to the hole on one light. I'll never take the barndoors off, so it's not a problem now. Like others have said, the barndoors help protect the LED light bulbs during storage and shipping and fit neatly into the storage bags along with the lights, though a little snuggly as mentioned above. Now let's talk about the good. These lights are well made and should last a long time. They are easy to use. I like how protective bags, though a little small as mentioned above, are included. I love how this kit fits into a well-made, black roller case. The case is bigger than expected and I can throw some other items into it... like extension cords, batteries and other smallish items. I felt like I got a lot for my money with this kit--two main lights, a back light and the stands that all fit neatly into the hard roller case. I compare and research prices and I believe I got good value for my money. I've done a test and the color that the lights emit is right on. It's so nice to get away from the hot lights I used to use. These Dracast lights can be put away immediately after use. No down time waiting on lights to cool. I am very pleased with these Dracast lights and I look forward to a lot of use with these well-made lights. I felt like I made the right decision in purchasing this kit.
More than I expected, and I expected quite a bit.
By Anonymous
Rated 5 out of 5
Date: 2015-06-30
First, let me say that, if you are buying lights for your work, I highly recommend going to B&H to see the different models available (they have tons on display) and to experience the good advice and expertise of the staff. I was pretty well set on this particular kit for video interviews, and I could have simply ordered online as I usually do from them, but I needed to see the gear in the flesh to be convinced it was all it's cracked up to be. I felt it was well worth the trip, as I was less than three hours away. After an illuminating visit, I left the store after purchasing this daylight balanced light kit on a Sunday evening, and it was in my hands by midday Tuesday. Hey, it was free shipping, and I didn't have to manage the kit on the bus back home, so why not? When it arrived, the box was even bigger than I imagined, and when I opened it, I discovered that Dracast now ships this kit in a super-rugged SKB hard case (!), with decent wheels and pull out handle. Not at all the case that is pictured with the kit, which by itself had frankly not received glowing reviews, mostly about its long term durability. Since lampheads and stands are all packed in individual and rugged cordura bagshaving such a large case is an invitation to add to your kit as you go, and still put everything in one case. Tons of room, and you can even use the case as a 12 high apple box. Did I mention the case was super rugged? Yeah, I stood on it. No problems. Bonus. I had several concerns going in to making this decision. First, were the lights going to be bright enough with frost gel over the barndoors to light a good size room and diffuse the light well? Answer yes. With my C100 at 1/48 at native ISO of 850, I was getting good exposure at f6.3, on the far wall, which was mostly mid-toned. The lights each had a sheet of Rosco R112 tough frost, were about 9 feet apart and over 12 feet away from the wall they were lighting. Plenty of room for me to shoot, as my interviews would likely be done with the lights at about half that distance, in a three point configuration. I did not use the 160 unit (included in the kit) for this exposure rating. Just the two 500s. I will address the small 160 unit in a moment. The second question I had was - the daylight kit has good light, but when you balance the camera, where do you end up with white balance, and how good is it with skin tones? Short answer, test shots from the C100 played back on my plasma screen looked amazing. No hint of green that I could see, and skin tones, while not cinematically perfect, looked absolutely fine to my eye, and waaaay better than most web videos done with first gen leds. I tried stock daylight 5600, and dial in settings from 4200 to nearly 6000, even a custom set using the warm card trick of balancing on a faded leg of denim jeans. Everything worked, creating different looks without having any yellow green spike or any hint of that jaundiced look from before. FWIW, I guess the native color temp of the lights to be a bit lower than 5600, but not very much. I was delighted with my screen test result in terms of color quality, knowing I could dial in my white balance on location and have a great result, so that no color correction in post would really be necessary, at least for web or corporate work, or even narrative film. And even with color correction done in post, very little correction would be needed due to the lights themselves. Well done, Dracast. This is pretty much an ideal kit for me; one I can build on with convenience if I choose. I now get to the little 160 sized light. Build quality is great, and it is useful as a hairlight or an on-camera light. The only (tiny) complaint I have is, that light comes with a power supply, Sony battery bracket and a D-tap short cord, and even a third stand for the light, but the adapter included with the light is only for a cold shoe. I will grant that the cold shoe with ball head is perfect for on-camera use, being all metal and well made, but there still is no way to adapt the light to the stud top of the stand as it was shipped. I will probably buy a cold shoe to stud top type adapter for that, as well as a lightweight boom so the stand can be well out of my shot when using the 160 as a hairlight. I was delighted to have the nice case, bags, extra stand, etc. but if you are going all that distance - why not include an adapter to be able to actually use the stand for that light? It makes no sense, but other than that, this kit ended up well surpassing my expectations, which as I said, were pretty high from the get-go. I don't usually give out five stars for anything, but in this case, I am making an exception.
credit card.‡