liz_hickok

<p>I have been photographing Jell-O for a while now, and never been happy with my lighting equipment. I'm ready to purchase a better set-up, but I'm overwhelmed by the options.<br>

For a short period I used hot lights because they were cheap and had full-spectrum color, which is incredibly important for getting great color with Jell-O. But obviously they quickly melted the Jell-O.<br>

When I was still a student I tried out fluorescent lights, and some LED's (from ikea), but I didn't realize how much quality I was losing with the range of color I could capture. Plus with a mixture of different (cheaper) bulbs I spent way too much time trying to get consistent white balance.<br>

So now I was looking at Kino-Flo's, which seem great, and their "Barfly" model seems like it could fit underneath the Jello, in a small space (between the table and the plexi that the Jell-O is on) But they are expensive! And from the other posts, it sounds like there have been improvements in Fluorescent lighting in the last few years. Should I spend less and get another brand, even just from the hardware store, or is the extra money worth it on the Kino flo's?<br>

I take my pictures with 4x5 chromes half of the time, and Nikon D300 the other half. I want to print my images really big, so I shouldn't be skimping on my lighting.<br>

I also considered strobes, but they are similar in price to the Kinos. Plus if I want to make a video I would need another lighting set-up.<br>

Lastly, from what I have seen, most people are using the Kino's for portraits. Can I use them for traditional smaller table-top product photo that I do occasionally? Calumet sells the "Quattro" 4 bulb fluorescent kit for that kind of thing which seems good enough for table-top photo. But if the Kino's would work for both, that would be great.<br /> <br /> Thanks!!!</p>

<p>Hey-I was just doing a search for the same thing. Did you end up getting a camera that worked for you? The Coolpix P6000 looks pretty good, but I can't tell if the time lapse feature lets you take full-resolution pictures, or just video-quality pictures.<br>

I have an older Canon Power shot camera- SD500, so the software hack looks interesting, but a bit intimidating. I'd be curious which of the suggestions you ended up taking. Thanks!</p>

<p>Hey all-Thank you so much for your responses. I am keeping track on ebay and Cragslist. But it is a little overwhelming. I don't have serial numbers, sadly.<br>

What I'm hoping to do, though, is give the insurance company the info on the tripod, which is why I posted here. I'm hoping someone might recognize the tripod in the picture and help me with model/make info. Without it, it is hard to claim a value. I paid a certain amount for the whole kit- camera, lens, case, polaroid film loader, and the tripod. But I figure the more info about the tripod I can give them, the better.<br>

Anyone know anything? (I included more info on the camera kit in my original post)<br>

Thanks so much for your help!!</p>

<p>My Toyo-View 45CX 4x5 kit camera and tripod were stolen two nights ago, and I'm trying to figure out the replacement value. I got it on ebay 5 years ago, and I'm embarrassed to say that I can't remember the brand of the tripod. The kit came with the camera, a Geronar lens, a polaroid film holder, and the big tripod. Does anyone know what was the standard kit tripod that might have come with it? I'll post an image of the top of it if I can find it. It was in a picture recently, but the logo isn't visible.<br>

Does anyone still sell this kind of thing as a kit still? I looked online but couldn't find anything.<br>

Thanks!</p>

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