upgrading the modelling bulb in flash kit?

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tikigod19

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hi all,

I am very new to photography and bought a flash kit (a cheap Chinese one that I now can't find to link you up to!) for studio shots of my daughter which all came out very well and was great fun.

I now have to record a few interview videos and was considering getting a softboxable (is that a word?!) continuous lighting kit.

Then i thought that seeing as I have the flash kit with softboxes stands etc already, could I just upgrade the existing modelling lamp bulbs (75w I THINK) to something slightly more powerful and use these as my lights?

I know its no real help not being able to link you to the kit that I bought but when looking for spare flash bulbs in the past I remember it was virtually impossible to find out what it was but the nearest I can find is like this

many thanks in advance for your help
 
Your link is probably what you actually have, that particular kit is sold under a lot of different names..

Basically it's a bad idea. The reason that these cheap kits only have low powered (read useless) modelling lamps is that there is no cooling fan and because of this they will overheat more quickly if you put a more powerful modelling lamp in there.

If you try to fit a fluorescent modelling lamp instead that won't work either because they are physically too big to fit.

The answer is to buy dedicated video softbox lights. Lencarta has a new model coming out with 4 x 105w fluorescent lamps, that's a lot of power and which will be perfect for your needs. I think they will cost about £150 each but haven't been given the price yet so I'm not sure. They will go on the Lencarta website as soon as I know.
 
thanks Garry, I'm sure I remember choosing my flash kit because it DID have a cooling fan... I remember ebay messages being exchanged along those lines anyway but it was so long ago I can't remember if I purchased the cooling fan model or not, however the kit I have does look a lot like that one.

is there any way I could confirm whether it has a fan? Is it just a case of listening?
 
Garry, also you mention the 4x 105w would be loads of power, but the 3x 75w I currently have as 'low powered'.. is there really that rgeat a difference between 75w and 105w?
 
tikigod19 said:
thanks Garry, I'm sure I remember choosing my flash kit because it DID have a cooling fan... I remember ebay messages being exchanged along those lines anyway but it was so long ago I can't remember if I purchased the cooling fan model or not, however the kit I have does look a lot like that one.

is there any way I could confirm whether it has a fan? Is it just a case of listening?
Click to expand...
That particular make is made in a range of models, some have a fan and some don't, mostly though the ones sold on Fleabay are even worse than the ones sold by other sellers and don't have a fan. And even if it does have a fan, the fan may not be capable of reducing the heat enough - are you old enough to remember the useless fans in the old Amstrad computers?:) I think you will have to listen to find out, but if it's a very small and useless fan it may be difficult to hear.

Garry, also you mention the 4x 105w would be loads of power, but the 3x 75w I currently have as 'low powered'.. is there really that rgeat a difference between 75w and 105w?
Click to expand...
Your 75w modelling lamps are tungsten and pretty low powered and dim. The 4 x 105w lamps in the new Lencarta video softbox are fluorescent and have roughly 4x the light output,making an equivalent tungsten output of around 1700 w
 
Garry Edwards said:
Your 75w modelling lamps are tungsten and pretty low powered and dim. The 4 x 105w lamps in the new Lencarta video softbox are fluorescent and have roughly 4x the light output,making an equivalent tungsten output of around 1700 w
Click to expand...

right, I thought it might be something like that. Ok so its a fluorescent kit I'm after. The issue is I need it in the next few weeks and I think £600 for 4 might be a little bit expensive. Could I get away with 3 and if I reduced the price slightly what would I lose in quality?

My cheap nasty flash kit has actually been great value for money for a novice photographer like me, and although I'm a bit more pro when it comes to video, I'll not often use the lighting kit so don't want to spend too much
 
Well, that will depend on what you're doing but a 3 light arrangement for video is pretty standard so I would think it will be fine for most situations. If push comes to shove a simple reflector can often do the job of an extra light.
 
ok thats good news. What about the fact that I already have boom and standard stands which have (what I assume is..) a standard fitting on the end? I have softboxes too but these attach to a specific thing on the flash head. I'd like to not have to rebuy identical stands and softboxes. If I could avoid doing this then I'd have more budget to spend on better quality lights...
 
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