I have been using the Impact Octacool-9 Kit for a while now and thought I’d share a quick review with you guys.
Quick take:
Pros: Soft light, adjustable light levels, not hot lights, well built.
Cons: Slight green hue, takes time to setup, no switch on the cord.
The Kit
The kit consists of 2 light units (9 bulbs each), a collapsible soft box for each light, an inner baffle for each light and 2 heavy-duty impact air cushioned light stands.
The over all build quality is very good with these lights. I actually assembled them and left them assembled for 3 weeks of continuous use without problems. This saves me tons of time rather than having to dismantle them every time I pack the car. All the parts are pretty tough, and the knobs are strong.
Accessing the bulbs and other parts of the light is easy and the assembly is self-explanatory.
I love how the bulbs can be turned on and off with 5 switches, this makes life so much easier.
For harsher light, just take off the soft box and put on the inner baffle:
I like using the inner baffle in conjunction with the soft box to get controlled, soft light.
There are two layers of diffusion giving you an extra soft light output. The inner layer is attached with little clips while the outer layer is attached with velcro.
The Bulbs
Each of the daylight-balanced 27 – 32W (depending on supply) lamps outputs 1,400 lumens of light for a total of 12,600 lumens measured at 3.3 feet.
Results
I LOVE the soft light from these octaboxes. In the review below you can see the lights in action (shots using the lights start at 0:56):
I did notice there was a slight green bias on the lights, but these are not Kino Flos and that shows in the price. Just make sure you set you white balance ahead of filming… Which you should be doing anyway.
The only other thing I didn’t like was how long it took to setup the lights. But you will get this with any soft box light kit… They take time to setup. I just leave them assembled and transport them that way. Saves me tons of time.
Conclusion
All in all, I think the Impact Octacool-9 Fluorescent Light Kit is a great purchase for the price. For just under $600 you are getting A LOT of gorgeous soft light with a good pair of light stands. This kit would be fantastic for anyone who does a lot of studio work or has room to transport the lights to shoots.
If you don’t need as much light, you might consider the Octacool-6 kit. Also check out other impact light kits and combos.