Continuous Lighting Kit - is it stupid cheap?

Sort by date Sort by votes
I'm sure it's not a scam, per se. The seller is in Hong Kong so, while you will get those lights for that price, it's likely not going to be a very high quality.

And with lights of that wattage/heat, I would be concerned with safety issues.

If you had 300 bucks to spare, though, it might be worth evaluating...
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Dreadylocks said:
I'm sure it's not a scam, per se. The seller is in Hong Kong so, while you will get those lights for that price, it's likely not going to be a very high quality.

And with lights of that wattage/heat, I would be concerned with safety issues.

If you had 300 bucks to spare, though, it might be worth evaluating...
Click to expand...

It is 10 times cheaper than something similar in B&H. I think it's likely to be of a very poor quality. Only pictures look great :)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
From the looks of them, they're glorified work lights.. but with the one thing those are missing... light control :) I'm certain they're cheap, but I just had a friend get some chinese lights and says they're good for the price... caveat emptor, you get what you pay for... treat them nicely and they may last you a long time. They probably throw out tons of UV rays as well... so they hopefully have UV filters on the front.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
knightly said:
They probably throw out tons of UV rays as well... so they hopefully have UV filters on the front.
Click to expand...

A large part of the problem with cheapo lights of this output is that they tend to skip the UV filtering found on more expensive lights.

I think somewhere around here someone posted up some other horror stories with cheapo stuff like this, including some high power devices without proper earth ground. :no:
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
David.rhsc said:
A large part of the problem with cheapo lights of this output is that they tend to skip the UV filtering found on more expensive lights.

I think somewhere around here someone posted up some other horror stories with cheapo stuff like this, including some high power devices without proper earth ground. :no:
Click to expand...

Yeah, I couldn't remember if I'd seen the post about the Redheads without an earth here or elsewhere… maybe both! There was also a guy a few weeks ago with a knock-off HMI apparently without a UV filter, which is really quite worrying.

To the OP: if you're not pressed for time, why not wait and see what non-knock-off bargains pop-up on eBay? I found a friend two proper Ianiro Redheads for less than £180, with barndoors and stands and everything, which he snapped up straight away.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
hi remaker

i think i was the one with the horror stories......

i bought one to check them out....big mistake

metal housing...no earth termination..... if they go live, the stand goes live....put your hand on the stand and bang your dead....
ceramic lampholders turned back to sand after a few hours of use
low amp wiring
paint burnt off after several hours use...i now refer to them as blackheads.
you get what you pay for......i have 5 original iannaro redheads
some of them 20 years old and they still work like new......
that is the reason the originals are 500 dollars each.

personally i would not go near them if they were 10 dollars each

my 2 cents
cheers

ps they are incandescent lamps so they dont need uv filter .....a hmi on the other hand without uv protection would be like looking at a welding flash all day.....
not good for your retina.......
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
darty said:
hi remaker

i think i was the one with the horror stories......

i bought one to check them out....big mistake

... <snip> ...
Click to expand...

Yup, that was the post I was thinking about; couldn't think of a good way to search it. Thanks for re-posting darty.

Hey mods, info like this on high-powered/dangerous cheapo lights might warrant an easy find for folks considering getting a kit. ????
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Darty is spot on with his review. I've never used these particular lights, but I had a similar kit from Lowel, once upon a time. The heat generated by the halogen lamps caused the fixtures to disintegrate before my eyes. I even had one literally catch fire! You're better off spending $30 for dual head worklights on a stand from Home Depot.

Yes, quartz halogen bulbs generate UV (most lamps do, to some degree), but as Darty says a filter is not necessary. I have many professional fixtures (including Mole-Richardson, Colortran and Altman) and none have UV filters. They're rarely used to light people without diffusion anyway.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top