Hey guys, I have been doing a LOT of research regarding a good low budget light kit that would work for both photo and video.

I found a bunch of very old threads here on dvinfo (early 2005) were a lot of forum members spoke very highly about the Everlight Kit. I now wonder if Everlight still is a very good low budget choice or if you maybe think you can get something better now for about the same money.

The Everlight kit that I have been looking at is the following one "JTL TL-1500 Everlight Kit with Barndoors and Reflector (931501-BR)"
http://www.photography-lighting.com/JTL-Everlights-Lighting.html

Today I also had the chance to visit the light manufacture EkaSlip and in their showroom I did some test shooting with both my digital camera and my sony hd camcorder.

The lighting setup that I was most intrested at was a three point light system with the MasterLite 1000 (http://www.ekasilp.com/masterlite.html).

The photos turned out a little bit yellow but I am guessing that's just some setting in my camera and the HD video turned out to be KICKASS!! Totally blown away by how good the quality of the video turned out to be with the proper lighting.

One thing that is a bit negative with getting 3 Masterlites is that it is a little bit over my current budget and they aren't that easy to transport around.

So is the Everlight Kit still a very good choice for both photo and video or is their something better around these days or so should I just wait a bit and save up for 3 Masterlites?

Nobody that wants to leave a comment?

Hi Valentin,

It's been a little slow here lately. Perhaps NAB slowed things down. Usually though when you don't get an answer, it's just that people don't know about it.

I've never seen that kit before, so don't have experience with it. It's probably fine like a lot of the halogen open face/flood solutions out there--which there are a lot of them. You might also try ebay to see what's going on there with used stuff--maybe that will fit your budget better. If your needing a portable solution many times halogen does work out to be the best as fluorescent can be fragile unless the fixtures are engineered in a certain way and built for portability.

Your second link wouldn't open for me so I don't know about it either.

I've been using one of the "kits" for about 3 or 4 years. I needed something liteweight easy to set up and inexpesive and these lights filled the bill.

The stand don't go as high as I might like for certain things but I had other stands that I carry with so it's no problem.
For the money it's a decent light. The Everlight softbox lights make for great overall lighting.
I just did a "training" video for a national client and used the Everlights to kill off the flouresents in the office I was shooting in and again one of the retails storefronts. Worked out great.
HTHs
Don

BTW, you might consider the ones with the fans to hlep keep them cool.

Don

hmm.... those masterlights look to share exact parts with interfit and sunpac's "digitlite".... I bought a digitlight and sent it back because it was nowhere near daylight balance.... very red.... flickered when dialed down, all plastic and very fragile and the bulbs where soldered in.

I ended up getting a few fotodiox 6 bank flos..... very nice, metal build, cheaper, brighter, built in barndoors, proper daylight osrams.

as for tungstens..... redheads or fresnels seem to be the way to go.... The arri 650 fresnels can be found under 300.... and appear to be an industry standard..... just 3 of them make an ideal kit!

They run about 3000k (depends on the bulb) so they work out pretty well as far as color temp goes, they are plastic so a bit of care is needed but I have beat the crap out of them and they've held up fine so far. As for flickering I have to question that-not quite sure what you mean. I've never seen it and never had a problem with it happening and really don't feel they are "fragile" in the socket area. Believe me I really have beat these things up for over 3 years and they work fine. Lightweight, easy to move around with, I do wish the stands were better quality but like I siad, I still have stands from when I was a still guy 30 something years ago and use them when necessary.
Is it the BEST product out there -no but again for a budget set it's not bad.

Don