I recently bought a Tungsten light set from Cinelight. A company in Romania that sells lot’s of different lighting equipment. I must say I was well pleased with the build quality. The lights are an obvious rip off of Arri lights, they look and feel exactly the same but cost a lot less. I’ve rented Arri’s tungstens and HMI’s quite a lot for my shoots and to me the quality of the Cinelights feels on par with them. At least yet I haven’t noticed anything lacking.

The kit comes with a nice hard bag with wheels on it and some room for accessories like gels, clips and extra bulbs. The stands are actually quite sturdy for being so light weight (1.7kg each) and nice to handle. Although they are sturdy I recommend getting some c-stands if you need to mount anything else than the lights on them.

The set I ordered was 3 x Tungsten Fresnel 650W hardbag kit with one 650W replaced for a 300W. Our initial idea was to order three 650W and just use a 300W bulb in one of them. That way you’d have the option of using it as 650W or 300W. We asked about this and got a prompt response: “Yes, the fixture will work with a 300W bulb installed because the socket is the same. However there may be some problems with the smoothness for the beam spread since the lower wattage bulbs is smaller in dimension and doesn’t align properly with the reflector and Fresnel lens.” So if you’re looking to cheap out a bit in theory it’d be possible. We decided against it and just got a 300W instead. So far we’ve been happy with the decision and have managed well on shoots with this set.

The cables and the switches are good quality. The focusing works well, it’s beam angle adjustable from 12 to 55 degrees. The beam looks great and works as supposed.

When you order lights you should keep in mind that in most cases the lights do not come with bulbs. So you need to order those separately. I ordered the more expensive Osram bulbs that have a lifetime of 2000 hours as opposed to the cheaper GB brand that promises 800 hours of lifetime. Although I think in any case it’s more likely you’ll blow a bulb due to mishandling then actual old age.

You can get a 1% discount from orders if you like them on Facebook and if you sign up for their newsletter you get a 2% discount (actually on the website it says 3%…, don’t know which one holds true).

Here’s a music video we shot using the Cinelight equipment:

I also have a couple of friends who are using the Cinelight products and they have been quite happy with the products as well. Here’s a video from WAH lit with Cinelight lights. Jukka from WAH chimes in: “Cinelight products are a great value for money. They compare well for example with the more expensive Arri lights. Although the Cinelight build quality might feel a bit plastic at times, it is still almost as good as their more expensive counterparts. The great thing about them is that if a clumsy assistant accidentally happens to hammer one down, it isn’t too expensive to replace.”

UPDATE: I can concur with this as one of the plastic screws seems to have lost it’s threads on my lamp. I need to see if I can fix that. Make sure you don’t overtighten the screws to prevent this from happening.

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