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On 2/19/2024 at 3:00 AM, Tim Sewell said:

Nice one! I've ordered the SmallRig as I've always found their stuff to generally do what they say it will! Thanks for the heads-up.

Agreed! Their price to quality is quite good, very dependable. 
Let us know how you use it, if you love or hate it. 

@Tim Sewell Just came across these as a potentially cheap Fresnel options:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1801897-REG/colbor_cf_200g_fresnel_lens.html/overview
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1796848-REG/smallrig_smallrig_ra_f150_fresnel_lens.html/overview

8 hours ago, Tim Sewell said:

Heh yeah. Let me know if you find something suitable. I'm in the UK so the voltage thing isn't a problem. It would be cool if they had a fresnel attachment available, but overall they're a real bargain. Light, for me, skews a tiny bit magenta, but I'm not too bothered by that, especially as COBs tend to lean green as they get older.

I have a nanlite FL20g, and while it isn't optimized, from what my eye could see, it did a good job. At least in terms of getting it to be spot instead of flood. I should find an affordable light meter and just invest in that, then I could be a little more accurate in my thoughts. Looking at getting two of these Colbor reflectors, I have some of their 100 watt lights and they do a good job. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1736566-REG/colbor_colbor_bhr55_55_degree_hyper_reflector.html

But overall, absolutely for the price these are great. They're bright enough I'm blasting them through a cloth/softbox or bouncing them off something, so I'm gonna get some color shift anyway; and like you said, they'll go a little green as they get older too. But I'd rather have a little more magenta in my skin than green, that's for sure. Mostly because I'm ginger and incredibly pale, so the magenta makes me look a LITTLE closer to normal 😂

On 2/1/2024 at 3:50 AM, Tim Sewell said:

Well it took nearly a month to arrive, so I haven't had a chance to do anything with it yet. On first impressions it's very bright and not to noisy. Metal shell, which is good. Surprisingly light weight. I'll be giving it some more extensive testing in around 10 days time so I'll report back, but I'm already considering getting a second, while they're so cheap! I see that they also do a very affordable light mat.

 

Mine arrived last week! Didn't realize they were 200-240 volt (I'm in the US), so I was running them at essentially half power with some of my own cables. Got a wattmeter to confirm, and yup, they were only pulling half what they should have. Did get a step-up transformer off amazon, though, and wattmeter confirms it's pulling almost the full 500 watts! If I had known that they were that voltage, I might not have got them. For the price, even with adding in a $50 step-up for each unit, they're not too bad! No flickering when I put my phone in slo-mo, which is good. 

Need to get some third-pary reflectors, though, these ones are orphanage grade.

On 1/8/2024 at 5:56 AM, Tim Sewell said:

Will do. I'm expecting it not to be that quiet, but I wouldn't expect to be using a light that powerful close to a mic anyway (hopefully).

How've the lights held up so far? Just pulled the trigger on ordering two since I can make a $300 mistake, or just return them if needed.