Hey Guys... I am fairly new to video production and will be doing numerous clips on some product reviews in the future with my Canon GL2 DV cam. I am looking to purchase a relatively affordable $400-$500 lighting kit for doing mostly close-up (presentation-style/interview) videos.

I have been looking around and wasn't sure which combination of different styled lights would suit me best. Not knowing the correct combo's or importances between barndoors, soft boxes, etc.. perhaps you could recommend a 3-6 piece lighting kit that would suit me well for my needs. Anything I should stay away from??

Thanks for your advice and recommendations. Hope to join the family here and learn some great stuff!

I really don't want to sound arrogant but I don't know how else to phrase this.

With lighting, you get what you pay for, in essence you're asking for a couple of thousand buck's worth of gear for a fifth of the price.

I can only tell you what to stay away from.
(a) Anything made in China
(b) Redheads.

Chinese stuff is generally poor quality and often has all sorts of colour balance problems. Red-redheads are now old fashioned and more trouble than they're worth. If you want something in that area, go for an Arrilite.

Failing that, for $400 you'll not get a lot. Unless you're willing to go second-hand.

Hey Guru,

I appreciate your honesty and I completely understand. I'm looking at fisher-price quality equipment, but unfortunately as a college student, the most I could afford to spend on lighting is 400-500.

So that is the dilemma I am in, and I certainly need some sort of lighting because I will be shooting primarily in a basement with little natural light and also using a chroma key screen. The majority of the videos will be shot for the web, so perhaps quality of light/color balance is not as big of concern as if I was cutting the video for use on 55" Mitsubishis

If you wouldn't mind... could you take a look at this kit for instance, that I found on eBay (3 piece kit) and let me know if you think this would at least be something that will "get me by" for now until I make some more money in the future to upgrade? I am certainly not against second-hand stuff, but I don't know where else to find it and haven't had much luck finding any second-hand professional stuff in my price range.

http://cgi.ebay.com/1500-Watt-Dual-P...QQcmdZViewItem

Thanks for your help and I appreciate your honesty. Hopefully I will find a suitable set of lights that can work for me.

nothing wrong with redheads as far as I can tell. they are just a little difficult to master!

that kit looked ok, a bit hyper up for what it is though.

good luck with the lights.