I've been preparing to purchase a Lowel Caselite. For some reason, I've been thinking of getting the Caselite 4 but I wonder if it's too much right now. You see, I'm slowly building a versatile kit (which now has a couple of Pro-lights and V-lights so far) and I wanted a nice portable flo (for the primary use as a soft key in interviews - but also, with daylight tubes for use supplementing sunlight). From what I understand, the Caselite 2 has an effective power of almost 500 watts. Is that adequate for the above uses? More importantly, is the 4 tube system overkill for those uses (with the effective wattage of almost 1k)?

Thanks for the help.

~~Dave

In my opinion, get the 4-bank light. You can not underestimate the power of the sun and you want this light to supplement sunlight. I just used the similar coollights CL-455 which uses the same lamps and has similar mirrored barn doors and I don't think it is overkill at all. You can always turn off two of the lamps.

Definitely the Caselight 4. The only reason I would get the two tubes model is to use it as a fill light or if the lesser weight would be an advantage, such as having to fly the light on a boom, but even with the Caselight 2 you will need a hefty boom and stand.

Also keep in mind that the larger the light source the better the quality of the light. Lowel also has a six tubes unit similar to the Caselight but unfortunately is made mainly for studio use, still is a great light. http://lowel.com/estudio/

If you are buying the Caselight mainly to fill sunlight remember that most fluorescents in these ranges of outputs will hardly make a dent under direct sunlight.

We've got two Caselight 4s and they're very nice indeed. You can switch two of the tubes off so it's really no different to having a 2, just more options.
They are rather heavy though as the case is very solid, almost too solid in my opinion as there's nothing in the construction that really protects the contents if it's dropped by airport luggage handlers. Ours usually come back with the tubes popped out of their clips, not a drama but do check this before use after they've been travelling. The eggcrates are great and the reversible barn doors are also an excellent idea.

Thanks so far, guys.

I wasn't intending to use these under direct sunlight. I plan to use the for day interior stuff, to supplement sunlight through windows.

I'll stick with the Caselite 4, then. It's probably the most versatile (you can switch it down, but you can't switch the Caselite 2 up).

Thanks again!

~~Dave

Even for interiors, if you're trying to balance incoming daylight through a window, it can take a surprising amount of artificial light to do so.

Just another vote for the Caselight 4 :)