Flora fluorescent light system test - William Hogan
The Flora lighting kit by Linco outshines its competition both figuratively and literally. When shopping for lights in this price range you will see that the market is littered with cheap lights that are not designed with photographers and videographers in mind. The Linco lights however seem to have taken every shortfall of its competitors and addressed it in an effective way. Lets start from the ground up. The rubber feet are nice and usually only found on much more expensive light stands. These rubber feet are a must for ensuring your clients floor's do not become damaged. The build quality of the light stands is very solid and sturdy. The legs open very wide and ensure the stand doesn't easily topple over potentially causing harm to your lights or even worse your client or their property. The light stands operate with a knob which is far superior to the competitions lever lock. Lever locks often become unfastened causing your lights to fall to the floor. The cross bar for the background support is also designed with safety in mind. The ends of the bar lock into the tops of the light stands ensuring that your background support does not fall on your client. This crossbar also folds into a size similar to the light stand. This makes transport very easy.
The light fixtures seem to be made more solid than any of those I have tested before. The screw which holds it to the light stand is solid and when mounted to the stand feels like a solid piece. The bulbs used for these lights are bright enough for photography and videography. The pictures included with this article were shot at ISO 400, 1/100 sec., and f6.3. These pictures were taken with the main light on only half power and a considerable distance from the model. I would not assume you could shoot at ISO 100 at apertures smaller than f8 unless you were photographing products and had the lights very close. This may limit some types of still photography like action shots that would be frozen by the flash from a strobe. Don't think for a second that these lights are dim though. My model had some difficulty when trying to keep from squinting from the brightness of the lights. I myself did not want to sit in front of them on full power for too long. This is a testament to how bright they are. These lights seem perfectly suited for video work. The lights are not overbearingly hot so the subject of the video would be comfortable. The lights are very bright and could probably be used at half power for most video applications and then turned back on full power for still photography.
If you are new to photography you will love how easy it is to get great light from these units. The assembly is easy and the learning curve is very small when using constant light sources. I would recommend these lights to the person who likes to do both photo and video. I would also recommend these lights to people who want to set up a studio in their home or office for eclectic use. Most professional photographers will use strobes and videographers who travel a lot will use hot lights but if you do both and don't have a need to transport your lights every day then these are your best bet. It's quite simple, these lights are made better and work better than anything of similar price and just as well as more expensive priced items.
by William Hogan
Visit www.lincostore.com for more information.