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Pros: No Cons

Cons: None

Best Uses: Any photo and video usage

Describe Yourself: Photo/Video Enthusiast

Bottom Line: Yes, I would recommend this to a friend

Lightweight, portable, durable, good finish, easy to work with. Light truly stays cool with strong consistent light output and no flickering. The complete light set up; bulbs, frame, stands, extension cord, optional diffuse panel or grid is done in less then 5minutes. A very good quality light set up with a great product value, in comparison to other brands this light seems to be the best.

Pros: see below

Cons: see below

Best Uses: Interviews & Movies

Describe Yourself: Semi-Pro Videographer

Bottom Line: Yes, I would recommend this to a friend

To be frank I wanted the Kino Flo Diva 400 but couldn't afford it. Can't recall how I found the ALZO site but after visiting their site and reading the specs I decided to take a chance and I purchased the dimmable 4 lamp Pan-L-Lite. Several weeks alter I purchased the manual 4 lamp Pan-L-Lite. I also purchased extra 3200K and 5600K lamps. We used them to shoot movies and music videos. The lites worked as advertised and we had well lit shoots. The colors were great and shadows minimal (although sometimes you want shadows). We used less electricity and the actors never complained about heat. We also have several Lowel Omni lights in our arsenal for hard lighting. Of course when used together with the Pan-L lites we used CTB on the tungsten lights. We also have the option to change the lamps in the Pan-l-Lites to 3200K.

I recommend using a heavy duty stand with the 4 lamp Pan-L-Lites because they are too heavy for light weight stands. We use heavy duty C-Stands. I was a little disappointed in the dimmable lite- it doesn't have the range I expected and was the reason I later purchased the manual model. I don't see any advantage in the more expensive dimmer model. You can basically get the same effect by turning off one set of the lights. I expected to have a dimmer range from zero to maximum. Yeah, I know you'd never go to zero (defeats the purpose) but since we mostly shoot movies and not interviews we'd like the option of using lights at different levels to create a mood. The 4 lamp Pan-L-Lites are either half or full. I also have some concern about the construction materials: While the body of the lites feel sturdy, the plastic "locks" used to hold the lamps in place don't appear to be sturdy. Equipment can take a beating during shoots...some gaffers know what to do and others aren't very careful. Movie equipment needs to be able to stand up to the constant setup and tear down that goes on when you move from location to location. Since we have the ability to change color temp lamps I have a concern the plastic "locks" may not hold up so I plan to buy some backup locks. Nothing spoils a shoot faster than broken equipment and no backup. I don't know that this will happen but it's a concern of ours. The eggcrate also falls into this concern. Be careful when removing and replacing the eggcrate because the eggcrate material bends easily as we learned. Our best advice is to avoid touching the eggcrate itself...use the frame. We also had a little trouble with the locking handle. We had to fuss with it to get it in the right position to where it locks. More specifically, the body of the Pan Lite blocks the locking handle. After playing with it for more time than we wanted we got it to lock securely. When locked it is very sturdy which you need if you're going to tilt the lites at 2 o'clock on your actor from 8-10' ! high. We like the option of mounting the lites in different positions...nice feature. A piece of advice for manufacturers of movie equipment: make it sturdy and versatile (and not too expensive...we're not Hollywood).

My bottom line is: for the price these lites work very well and if you take care with these potential problem areas they should meet your needs for interviews and movies. I suppose the best endorsement I can give is to say I plan to buy another manual lite.

Check out Mat's detailed written review or video review on his blog.

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