My main question is in regards to how many lights you all would recommend I get for a starter kit?

Usually two or even one big light is enough for starters (+reflector and some smaller directional lights for hair, etc). For small interviews.

LEDs are amazing. But. Cheap ones suck. As far as I aware, CN are among the worst. Generally, it is the reason why you see only one big light - DN, on deals. It also has LED flaws, as all of them, but less.

Also, good to remember that big and good V-Mount batteries are not cheap and charger for them either.

May be just get average LED for moving things and fresnels or fluos kit for bigger inside things.

@vicharis, @vitaliy_kiselev Hey guys - thanks for the advice. Which Kino knock offs do you recommend? Vitaliy - if getting only one LED, which size do you think? 900, 600, 500?

Thanks, Vic. I was literally just looking at that on Amazon. Good timing! Which 500 did you go with? Is it the bi-color?

How do you typically find that you set up your lights? Do you use the fluorescents as key and fill and the LED as a back light?

It changes all the time. I really don't have a set way as I'm still learning. I just keep trying different combo's out till I like what I see. There's a lot of guys who are MUCH more experienced than me on here that could help. This setup was 2 Flo's behind the guys facing a white wall to blow it out and give it that PSA look, then used another one off to the left of them as the key and knocked it down a couple stops, then threw the 500 LED behind them as a hair to try and give some separation. In narrative stuff and improve webseries stuff, I use the 500 as a fill sometimes but it's so hard to match with the Flos. It's one from Fancier I believe and it's just the 5600ish one. 1st gen I believe.

As far as stands, the ones that come with the Flos are pretty damn good. I didn't get one with the LED, so I purchased another one like the flo one for it. Rock solid.

Also, found this bag on Amazon that looks like it'll fit the lights:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001RFBCAY/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Thanks - much appreciated and will look at the 312s.

That's great news. Look forward to hearing how the bag works for you. I ended up getting the 2 4-bank kit. I also ordered a 2-bank 550W for fill light. Also picked up 2 c-stands and some sandbags off of craigslist today. Pretty decent price for some well-used c-stands. And the guy threw in some 1/2 and full CTO - so that was really nice of him.

Yeah, I've got some calls out for some -green. There's an expendables recycling shop that I'm hoping has some.

That's the one.

Hey y'all. So I got my LED light panel and 3 4-bank ePhoto fluorescents. I'm pretty happy with everything. Just wanted to give a shout out to an amazing company in Burbank who makes custom light cases, flag cases, etc... I like supporting the little guy (or gal) and it doesn't get much littler than Sita's operation. She didn't ask me to post this and I'm in no way affiliated with her company, I'm just very happy with the work she did on all the bags. If you live in LA, and need very reasonably priced bags for your lights or gear, I highly recommend giving her a call. Her site is http://stufftproducts.com.

If you are out of town, my only recommendation is that you talk to her to see if she can help. She needed to keep my lights for a couple days so she could size the bags properly. Everything is sized to fit snug.

@Vitaliy_Kiselev I'll be shooting with the lights in a week and a half. Will post some of that footage when I get it. In the mean time, I've attached a pic of one of the cases for the fluorescent 4-banks. And below is an all-too-lengthy explanation of what I ended up getting and experiences thus far.

One gripe about the fluorescents is that I have to echo @vicharris about the barn doors. They are crap. If anyone has figured out a way to get them to remain in place, please let me know. I think it's just a cheap design. I'll be resorting to gaff tape in the mean time.

Oh, and don't buy the Cowboy Studio 2-bank. I wasted a week on those after a return and replacement and then another return. Bad ballasts on both units. And the tech department and customer service at CS was crap as well. I guess I shouldn't be shocked. We all know it's cheap stuff. But still...

I checked the color balance on the lights with the GH2 set to 5400k and a gray card filling the frame. At 5400k, they are very close with a little bit of a pull toward cyan. Maybe a 1/8 minus green would help. Need to test that next week. Does anyone know what gel would be the most like a 1/8 red? There is no 1/8 red, that's why I'm asking.

The light panel was an el-cheapo ePhoto 900 LED. I know, Vitaliy, you recommended that I go with a better model. I just need it for fill in outdoor and had a budget to keep. I color balanced that one, too. It pulls toward cyan/green. Again, will look at gels for it next week. The built-in magenta and "tungsten" hard filters are useless. I actually found the diffusion filter helped bring it closer to the center mark on the vectorscope.

Got a Switronix SWXPL90SK1 Power Kit from B&H for the LED. They seem to be perpetually on sale. Also got an XO Vision XO420 350-Watt Power Inverter with 2 AC Outputs for powering a light or two from the 9V in my car.

After testing the XO Vision, I was able to power the 900LED. Separate from that, I was able to power 1 bank of one of the fluorescents lights. I wasn't planning on using the flo outside, so it's just good to know what it can power. I've been looking at a Power Bright PW1100-12 Power Inverter 1100 Watt 12 Volt DC To 110 Volt AC which attaches directly to the car battery for more intense setups where I can get far enough away.

Reason I'm looking at using the car battery power for lighting is that I was on a shoot in Bakersfield a few weeks ago and this really would have come in handy since we need to block sunlight outdoors and needed to key the talent. Since I didn't have the battery, we couldn't do it, unfortunately. The shoot lasted a couple hours, so a single battery for the LED probably wouldn't have lasted.

For stands, I got 3 Ravelli ALS Photo Video Light Stands. They seem fine. People on Amazon like them. Sandbags will help. The light stands that came with the ePhoto Flurorescent kit are pretty cheap. I am using one of them for the 900LED since it's so light. I'm using the other one with a Pad Prompter.

BTW, the Pad Prompter is kind of expensive, but it works as advertised. Ended up getting Teleprompt+ for both the iPad and the MacBook (which can control the iPad app). It all works fairly well. You can't edit the files on the MacBook that play back on the iPad app, unfortunately. I'll say this, it all works well for the budget. But it doesn't work as seamless as a high end teleprompter with a proper remote. I'll be testing it out next week, as well.

Ended up getting 2 c-stands and sandbags from Craigslist. I'm unhappy with that purchase. I was in a "gotta get this stuff now, frame of mind." And I just sort of thought that C-stands always stand the test of time. For the price I bought them for, I could've spent relatively a little more and bought new ones. In any case, I got a new arm for one and I'm using the other one specifically for flags and scrims, which will be fine.

I won't really know how this will work until next week's shoot. My feeling is that the fluorescents will flow. They'll look good as is or with a little minus-green. The LED will do well as a creative light - add a strong filter or use it as a hair light or something. Haven't seen the location yet, so not really sure what our options will be.

Thanks again to Vitaliy and Vic for their input.

@vicharris. Thanks for the recco. I am aware of minus green. Just looking for the equivalent to a 1/8 plus red.