Best LED light kit in the $1500-$2500 - 3 lights?

[Darren Levine]

Doug, while im sure your video is good practice, i think its in a bit of bad taste to be pushing a paid instructional video here, even hiding this lighting kit you speak of behind the pay door. as well as offering this as relevant in response to a equipment request in this industry is quite the stretch when it was produced several years ago.

[Doug Jensen]

I disagree, but I'll delete the post anyway to avoid any infraction of the rules. BTW, all the tungsten gear I recommend is still being sold and can perform just as well as it ever did. Newer isn't always better. And the point of the instructional video is not WHAT you buy, it's what you DO with it that counts. That is the key element that most people ignore in their rush to buy lights. A mere shopping list of my gear would not helpful without some education as to what to do with it, which is much more information than I can type here without examples and visual aids. And I also stand by my advice that if you can't afford to do LED right, stay with tungsten and you'll get better results.

[Craig Seeman]

Having watched both of Doug's Lighting DVDs one thing I find noteworthy. The Tungsten suggestions remain as valid today as when he created that DVD. The LED lights, even Litepanels, have made noteworthy improvements. LED lights in general are more diverse and have better light quality and through many more brands. There's a greater variety of LED fresnel like lights now for example.

I think it's difficult to recommend a general kit for LEDs because so much of our needs may be situational. Many of my interviews take place in small apartments or offices and most panels aren't practical.

If you need a small travel kit Litepanels has a three light SolaENG kit for about $3000. Now they have a three light Caliber small fresnel kit. The Caliber kit is only $995. For Panels the Astra 1x1 start at $665.

Fiilex also makes very good small fresnel like LED lights.

Aladdin and Westcott make flexible (bendable) 1x1 "panels."

If you're on the cheap, Aputure makes some small lights which claim very high CRI (95+). The caveat is that they're not that strong though, both in lumens and in build quality.

All this means that you really need to think about the kind of spaces you light and kind of lighting controls you want. I think it's harder than ever before to have "one kit to rule them all." Look at your own situations and determine which lights will fill most of your needs most of the time within the budget you have while minimizing the quality issues.

Saying one lights interviews, by itself, wouldn't tell me enough. I can't help but think, after watching Doug's LED DVD, that he shots in palatial spaces compared to me (I apologize if I'm wrong but that's the impression I got). I consider myself lucky if I'm shooting in a room that's 10x15. It can be as small as 8x8 or thereabouts and keep in mind there are often objects that can't be moved that are cluttering those spaces.

So when I see "video blogging, interviews, maybe the occasional skit" I have to ask:
• What are the typical room sizes?
• How wide do you want to go (how far do the lights have to "throw" and be out of the shot) and what are the practicals involved that you might need to integrate or overcome?
• Given the spaces, what kind of lighting might you need to separate the talent from the background?
• Given the backgrounds how would you want to light them?
• Are you lighting in your own studio where the space isn't likely to change or do you have to travel (even locally) and may be hit with variables?
• If traveling is it easy to pack what you need in a car or do you have to hand carry as much as possible?

Once you've defined your needs, you can then budget your kit.

[Oren Arieli]

Well said, Craig. I recall that my go-to kit for many years was a Tota, Omni and 32" umbrella. Quality of light was fine, but my skills and modifiers were lacking. Therefore, I got the same look almost anywhere I went. Now that I learned the value of hard and soft light, plus light control (flagging, focusing, spotlighting, pattern casting etc.), I'm no longer depending on the next lighting instrument to change my looks.

Doug's point is very valid. Having the lights is just the beginning. It's knowing what to do with them that makes the difference.

[Simon Thewlis]

It would be a few years since my Kino Diva last came out of its case (let alone a Redhead). I've been running Dedolight Felloni 1'x1' panels and LEDzillas for hair lights and the like and they have been great. Everything runs off battery. Everything runs cool. Light, robust and easy to move.

That being said, it is a very personal choice. There is a lot that is great about tungsten lights (having started in theatre in the early 80s), and about Kinos - as large soft sources. Its just balancing up all the pros and cons and how they best add up for you.

I'd highly recommend the high CRI LED kits from CAME-TV. I've been using a kit from them for several months and they're really good. No green/blue color cast and the color temperature is adjustable with either a knob or by the touch-sensitive LED display on the back of each light.

CAME-TV High CRI Bi-color 3 X 1024 LED Video Studio Lighting [L1024S*3+B7+B8] - US$1,540.00

[Josh Bass]

I was talking to one of the top gaffers in town and he recommended something like this (there are a whole bunch of similar ones so look to see which particular kit would fit your needs--this one is $1700 and each light comes with batts as well, bi color and dimmable too!):

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1069037-REG/ikan_ib508_v2_kit_ib508_v2_bi_color_led_3.html
I know at least two people in town who own the larger (1x1) Ikan kit like this, and like it, though that one is around $3k and comes with no batts.