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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
58 of 62 found the following review helpful:
 Good value for money, but... Aug 01, 2009
By Gerald Baron
"theberkeleyprofessor"
The pair of lights are good value for the money. They were relatively easy to assemble and use (adjust). I am a beginner with indoor lighting. The lights give off a strong white light that brings our details in house interior photos.
__ But
The bulb rests on the umbrella's metal rod. I called the vendor, cowboystudios.com and they said that is not a problem since the bulbs do not get very hot. I agree, the bulbs do not get very hot, but I am concerned that any sudden accidental jerking of the lights when moving could cause the bulb to break because of the contact between the bulb and the metal rod of the umbrella. Those new style florescent bulbs are energy saving, but they contain mercury and must be very carefully cleaned up when you break one.
I wish the lights came with instructions. My first attempt at assembling them almost met with disaster. I grabbed the light just in time before it almost fell over and broke. I did not realize that the light must extend over one of the tripod legs -- not inbetween them.
I guess I could search the web for instructions and tips on using lighting, but I would have appreciated a cheat sheet on using the lights.
21 of 23 found the following review helpful:
 Pro 600 watt "Cool-Flo" Fluorescent Photo lighting kit May 16, 2009
By Ladawn Anderson
"Photo Nut"
Wow...I love these lights. I am an amateur photographer. Ask me a technical question and you will get a stare back at ya! Hahaha! I just do it for fun and have a very nice expensive digital, Photoshop Elements 7 and these lights along with digital backgrounds I use. My neighbors love me...I love to take pics of their babies and kids! It is a win win situation and these lights are perfect if you don't have a lot of money to spend. Very nicely put together with totes to store them in. I just think they are great and at such a reasonable price!!!! Very good service too. I emailed them on how to put together (I am sure they think I am an idiot) but answered me right away with a video instruction attached! What a great company!
12 of 13 found the following review helpful:
Great value Feb 02, 2009
By P. Elliott
"Our Man Flint"
Easy to assemble and with compact flourescent lights it is cool to work with because they don't give off as much heat as regular bulbs. The lights are very bright but cheaper to run than normal because they are CFL. Very inexpensive pair of kits in one box but provided exactly what we needed for home video making for our youtube channel. The tripod assembly even comes with its own carrying bag which helps make it portable.
13 of 15 found the following review helpful:
 Possibly a good value depending what you get. The bulbs are less than 71 watts ea. Jan 14, 2010
By Lakelyb
OVERALL I agree with most reviews here - it is good considering the cost, and will fill a need many of us may have. Cowboy Studios is good. I was missing the carry bag and they shipped it with courteous communications.
LIGHT BULBS:
Notice the ad does not say what is the actual bulb watts. So I asked and Cowboy replied it is supposed to be 85 watt bulbs but they sent me 105w because they were out of 85w. My bulb label says "105 W., 5500K, 110V, 60HZ". I measured the watts of the "105w" bulbs as 70 watts using a "P3 P4400" P3 International P4400 Kill A Watt Electricity Usage Monitor. (Each "105w" bulb is measured as 70 watts, 127 volt amps, 0.61 power factor, while supplied with 120v, 60 hz.) If you get the intended 85 watt bulb, I would guess its actual watts to be even lower. The watts, and equivalent incandescent watts seem exagerated. My bulbs had no indication of where, or who, manufactured it.
LIGHTS AND UMBRELLAS TOGETHER
The color temperture of the lights seems very good for photography - meaning very white, like sunlight. With two "105 watt" lights and 2 umbrellas only 6 feet from my subject,the brightness is only moderate, so I still use fill flash, or tripod. With F3.8, ISO 400, my shutter needs about 1/20 second unless I add flash. If they had shipped the correct watts, I may have been disapointed. The lights are too big to be centered at the foci of the umbrella. Much (or most) of the light is spread around the room and not put on the subject. If you have a white room it will help a tiny bit of the stray light to get to the subject.
THE CARRY BAG:
Notice the ad has no indication that a bag is included at all, or the bags size (the ad may change after my review). I did not recieve one so I asked for one and they sent it. It is a zippered cylinder about 5.3" diameter by 30" long. It is good quality. It holds everything except the big bulbs. For the two bulbs, with their protective styrofoam, you will need another bag about 14x12x6. Previous orders got bags big enough to hold everything including the bulbs and extra cords (see Eric C. Anderson's review and comments).
Please vote if this review was helpful or not. Thanks. Sincerely, Lakelyb.
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
What a great deal! Oct 21, 2009
By Eric C. Anderson
This very inexpensive set of lights includes a great carrycase, and gives beautiful color balance for your video shoots. With the extremely low power consumption. lack of heat generation, and portability with the carrycase, I don't think you can go wrong. When I tell my friends how much I paid, they can't believe it!
I was not aware of the included carrycase, so it was a very plesant surprise. It is large enough to easily carry all of the lighting equipment, plus extension cords and outlet boxes and other stuff as well.
So, if you need lighting to shoot video indoors, and don't want to spend a lot of money, this is for you!
See all 43 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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