Lowel-Light Manufacturing, Inc.
140 58th St.
Brooklyn, NY 11220
(800) 334-3426
www.lowel.com
Long known as a company serving the film and TV
industry and professional broadcasters, Lowel proves it
has the right stuff for the consumer and prosumer alike.
Designed with the digital video shooter in mind, the Lowel
DV Creator 44 tungsten four-light kit delivers all the
needs the home-based or small video business requires in
one complete affordable package.
In reviewing the Lowel DV Creator 44 kit, we
had the opportunity to test it with a real world
application during a commercial shoot for a local hair
salon. As expected, the salon was crowded, cramped and had
varied lighting from overhead fluorescents, bright tiny
spots and natural outdoor spill from huge uncovered
windows and was chock-full of mirrors. Lots of them.
Everywhere. A photographer's nightmare. During a previous
shoot at this same location, we used a cheaper no-name,
less solid light kit, and the comparisons were remarkable.
Earlier, we forgot extension cords, and the struggle to
find available nearby outlets with the no-name's very
short light cords was a real pain. Worse still, the heads
and attachments to the no-name kit were flimsy and didn't
hold their position very well, dipping to the floor in the
most inopportune moments. Not so with the Lowel DV Creator
44 light kit.
Case Study
The Lowel DV Creator 44 kit comes with four tungsten
lights: a 300W Rifa-light plus soft box, a 750W
Tota-light, a 500W Omni-light, and a 250W Pro-light. The
kit also includes a gel kit, lobo-arms and flashes, a
Tota-brella, barn doors, four interchangeable stands and a
hardshell case.
Once fully packed, the carrying case is a heavy
one, and when we had to tote it up four flights of stairs,
the case seemed to get heavier on that last flight. The
case has both handle and a nice strong padded shoulder
strap, which helped navigate that last flight of stairs
tremendously.
Look into the Light
All of the lights except the 250W Pro-Light have on/off
switches attached to their cords. All of the cords were
more than 16 feet long and when fully extended, the stands
can reach a height of 7-1/2 to 8-1/2 feet. Add nearly
three feet of attached lamp cord, and you have room to
roam.
The Pro-Light 250 switch is on the lamp itself,
so the user needs to set the light stand where she wants
it and turn it on before extending the light-head out of
reach. The lamp is focusable, and removing or adding the
barn doors was quite easy. By using the Pro-Light
spotlight at its smallest beam, we were able to highlight
a very small background subject with ease. The small lamp
doesn't have a handle to fine-tune the light's position,
but touching just the right spot on the back of the light
found it wasn't too hot to handle. The other three lights
in the kit all had good solid handles to grab a hot light
with confidence.
Omni: Solid as a Rock
The focusable 500W Omni-Light is surely the workhorse in
this kit. This is the one you use and abuse the most. The
Lowel Omni-Light is solid, easy to assemble, and the
barn-doors attach on and off in a snap. Attaching and
engaging the Tota-brella umbrella is easy and it firmly
holds its placement, unlike the no-name kit whose umbrella
usually ended up pointed at the floor more than anywhere
else. For run-and-gun shooters, it's easy to replace the
bulb in a flash, losing very little time in the process.
Totally Tota
The 750W Tota-light was a bit difficult to operate, and
was our least favorite of the kit. The tota-brella space
was small and awkward, and attaching the protective screen
wasn't very intuitive. Frayed edges of the screen can poke
an unaware user and if you blow a bulb, you may struggle
to get the screen back on. With a 750-watt bulb, you'll
want to keep it covered. The Tota has a switch on the
cord, and this is a big plus because this light gets hot!
Unlike the Omni, the Tota-light doesn't have a grip
handle, but it does have a large knob for positioning the
lamp. The Tota-light is a powerful light and can
effortlessly light up even the darkest background.
The 300W Rifa-Light and soft box was clearly
the most fun light to play with. If the user could take
only one light to a shoot, this would be the one. The soft
box diffuser cover was easy to attach, either with the
light fully open or not. The Rifa-light opens and
collapses with no trouble at all, and packs tight in its
own cloth sack.
The kit comes with two sizes of polyester gels
for the Omni- and Pro-lights. Along with the blue gels to
match the tungsten light with daylight, and gray, called
frost, to soften and diffuse highlights or shadows, there
are also a few translucent mat/diffusion sheets. The gel
holders attach effortlessly to the lamp barndoors and have
easy-to-operate clips to attach the gels. Finally, the kit
has a couple strong, flexible lobo-arms and a large metal
flag to further extend the reach so you can precisely
control the light spill even more.
Large Hands Make Busy Work
One odd problem I discovered in the kit was when
loosening a thumbscrew on the small Pro-light. I'm
left-handed, and I always loosen when I mean to tighten a
screw. So while attaching the lamp to a light stand, I
twisted the light's thumbscrew open too far, and the screw
fell off, and the enclosed nut fell out of the lamp head
casing. The opening was so small, that I had a heck of a
time trying to get the nut back inside to re-tighten the
thumbscrew. Luckily, I had my handy-dandy makeup kit with
a couple photographer's dream tools: bobby-pins and
tweezers. I lost nearly half an hour of shoot time trying
to fix the lamp. I noticed that the Tota-light has this
same design, but the nuts and bolts of the Omni and Rifa
lights are within easy reach.
Conclusion
C-clamps would be a very nice addition to this kit, and
would round it out to the point where it would be hard to
imagine what else a typical videographer might need. But
this is being very nit-picky, since the Lowel DV Creator
44 tungsten four-light kit is a very full-featured kit. As
a former run-and-gun news photographer, I wish I had this
kit during many of the awkward lighting situations I came
across. The Lowel DV Creator 44 kit helped make our
commercial shoot at the salon a huge success, and every
bit as good as the Big Time Pros, and that's what really
counts.
TECH SPECS
Number of Lights in Kit 4
Watts per Light 750 Tota, 500 Omni, 250
Rifa, 250 Pro
Carrying Case Lowel GO-85 case
Accessory Mount no
Handles on Lamps yes
Spot/Flood Adjustable yes (Omni and Pro)
Barndoors yes
Scrims yes
Gels yes
Softbox yes
Umbrella Tota-brella
Maximum Tripod Height 8.5 feet
STRENGTHS
WEAKNESSES
thumbscrews
SUMMARY
The Lowel DV Creator 44 Tungsten Four- Light Kit is
rugged and dependable, and comes packed with all you would
need in one light kit.
Jennifer O'Rourke is Videomaker's Managing
Editor.
