H9004SB2 2400 Watt Large Photography Softbox Continuous Photo Lighting Kit 16" x 24" + Boom Arm Hairlight with Sandbag H9004SB2 by Kaezi

I bought this lighting kit for for teaching online classes and instructional videos for my business. The lighting system exceeds my expectations for both brightness and quality. The tripod bases on this kit aren't heavy duty and if set up in a multitude of locations or on uneven ground, I can imagine they wouldn't last a long time. For my needs and uses this isn't a huge issue. The boom arm of the overhead light is especially tricky and seems fragile due to both hand cranks and gears moving when I'm trying to adjust one side. I have to hold the boom arm with one hand so it doesn't fall and steady one hand crank in place with my chin, then tighten or loosen the other hand crank. It's awkward and cumbersome and I can imagine I will need to replace the tripod if I adjust the angle of the overhead light often. While recording videos from a distance, I tend to use the full brightness of the lighting kit. While seated at a desk recording online classes, I use half the brightness on each light to produce a crisp and professional video. Set up took a little more time than anticipated. The directions are not entirely helpful and seem to skip over important details that would make set up a breeze. It was helpful to read past reviews, which clearly explain how to set these light boxes up with ease. During the set up process, I discovered one light bulb was damaged and not functional. I emailed customer service right away and was pleasantly surprised by their swift response, willingness to trouble shoot, and expedited delivery of a replacement bulb. In my experience, customer service is top notch. It feels good to know that if I run into problems in the future, I can rely on them to trouble shoot and assist me with acquiring replacement parts if needed. Overall I highly recommend this lighting kit for amateur or professional use in an indoor set up.

You're on a budget. You're looking to spend the minimum amount of money, for the maximum amount of performance. Enter StudioFX. No silly logos, all function. I'll admit, the clasping mechanisms are considerably cheap. The stands are cheap feeling, but hear me out: It'll do exactly what you want. It'll deliver light exactly where you want it and keep it there. My rating is a combination of the fact that it does exactly what I want it to do, and includes compromises I'm willing to take when shopping in this extremely low budget realm of shoddy chinese stands and equipment. I'm willing to deal with a boom light that I have to sandbag multiple times to ensure it doesn't topple over. I'm willing to deal with the annoying assembly process. I'm willing to put up with a bag that I'll never be able to fit everything back into (But it did fit!), because it's so ridiculously inexpensive. What it does do very well is deliver light. It delivers light exactly where I want it and it works without a hitch. If you're looking for a full three-point lighting system for pennies on the dollar, this is a valid and valuable choice. For the price, you have next to nothing to lose. The results will be as professional as someone who spent ten times as much, and that's the killer value that can't be ignored.

So these are fantastic lights... The two power settings make it really easy to use a 3 light set up. There are some great videos on youtube for anyone who isn't completely sure how to set up and use studio lighting. Its honestly pretty incredible how much drama these lights can add to your photos. I would suggest buying a muslin for a back drop as well. I shot a hand full of interviews as well as some awesome new profile pics for some friends. My only complaint is with the boom light: The stand that holds the hair light cant really hang any higher than 6ft or its starts to strain heavily on the base and starts to bend the vertical portion of the stand. It also cant be turned to hang off axis at all, it only wants to hang straight up and down... It is still largely functional but not what I think it could have been. In all they are great lights and these will make a huge difference for anyone who properly implements them. 4 stars because they are functional, but lack some of the build quality I would have liked to see. Great lights... Great price... Not prefect... Best bang for your buck.

I am a sculptor and need to take clear photos of my work. This set of lights is excellent for my purposes. It is durable enough for my studio usage (perhaps if used for daily traveling, constant set up and take down, it might be too lightweight; I don't know, just speculating, but at this price...). It comes with 2 sandbags for the boom light, one as a counterweight and another to wrap around the base. The sandbags are plastic lined and double zippered to prevent sand from escaping (but as a sculptor, I always have some heavy scrap around, so I didn't use sand). The setup makes gorgeous, clear, diffused light. The boom light is especially appreciated. It is fully adjustable, and the two sandbags make it possible to use with the arm fully extended. Each light uses 4 bulbs and has 2 switches so that you can use all four bulbs at once, or only two. The lights do not dim, if that is important to you. There is an inner diffuser and an outer diffuser for each light. Setup was easy after doing the first one, following the instructions. At first I didn't see how it would work, but it does--just follow the instructions carefully. I recommend saving the bulb boxes if you plan to do setup and take down. Just throw the boxes in the carry bag. The carry bag is ample in size. In fact, it comes packaged in the bag, so you know it will hold everything. Each light has its own individual bag, too. Unfortunately one of the florescent bulbs did not work. This was not the fault of the company--after all, they don't make the bulbs--but with one quick email, their support sent me a replacement with no questions. And they followed up with me to make sure that I got the bulb and that all is well. Excellent support which is what one hopes for when buying "blind". Highly recommended.

I rate at five, with the understanding that you are getting what you pay for. The quality of the kit is just fine but likely would not hold up over, say, a couple years of constant set up/tear down. One of the bulbs stopped working after just a few minutes use. Five stars for the vendor, who immediately sent two replacements. The other bulbs have been fine now for about 80 hours of use, but clearly, the bulb quality is low-end, per the price point ... obviously easy to replace per your preference. The brightness (45W x 12) is adequate for my use - hand-drawing animations on a white board. Though I had expected color temp (5500K) to be too cool, is actually just about right. Ultimately not a big deal anyway as you can/will adjust white balance on the camera and/or in post. Assembly/set up was fairly straight-forward, if you are at least somewhat mechanical; took me about 2.5 hours total for all three lights, and that was with no mistake/do over problems. One nice feature is the 'tunability' of the lights: each light has two separate removable fabric buffers - two layers of light dampening potential; each light contains four bulbs with two switches - turn on just two lights or four, per light box; you can, of course, replace the stock bulbs with diff color or brightness. Finally, there are two 'sandbags' for the tall/overhead light - you will need to use, and need to supply your own sand/rocks etc.

For the price, it's a very reasonable setup for my first lighting kit purchase. Provided the kind of light I was looking for for my videos. However, 4 light bulbs burned out within the 1st hour of use. Actually smelled burnt like they caught on fire, luckily they didn't. Not the easiest assembly to figure out how to put together if you're not somewhat mechanically savvy, instructions are worthless. It's a cheap, budget minded setup...but you get what you pay for.

I've been into photography for quite some time but always as a hobby and mostly landscape/nature pictures. I recently got into studio pictures and staged lighting and looked at a number of products that I can buy at a low cost to just get me into studio lighting. I ultimately decided to buy this product and I will say I am overall very satisfied and content with my purchase. I'll begin with the not-so-good parts first - The quality of the stands and fastening joints do leave something to be desired. The stands are made of light plastics as opposed to sturdy metal. One of my biggest fears is whether I will break the stands at the joints if I tighten it too much, which is what I want to do to assure that the lights remain stationary. And although the stands are sturdy enough to not move on its own, it does leave me worried that a slight bump or nudge can knock it over. Since the stands are not made of heavy material, it doesn't feel too sturdy. However, with that said, the lights and stands work exactly as you'd expect, especially if you're not planning to be carrying it around to many different place. I don't see myself putting these lights through much abuse and for the most part will remain assembled and left in the corner of my spare bedroom. This means I won't be moving it around constantly, disassembling the lights, and risking it breaking. But honestly, I would be comfortable carrying it to other locations, it'd just require careful assembly and such. And although the stands don't give the appearance and confidence of being sturdy, they stand right where you set them up (just avoid bumping into them). One of the major things talked about is assembly. It is a bit hard to assembly, but can be done quickly once you get the hang of it. Once assembled, I have no concerns that it will fall apart or something will pop out of place. I've already taken pictures with it and it has thus far been meeting my expectations. Again, I'm not a professional and am merely exploring studio lighting for now, but this set up has been amazing. You get 3 light units in total. You also get 2 light stands and a boom stand that you can configure into a light stand, essentially giving you a third light stand if you need it. Each lighting unit has 4 bulbs and you can have either 2 lights on or all 4 lights on. I did have one issue with one of the lighting units not working properly. I reached out to the seller to see if they can do anything to resolve the issue and they responded quickly and were extremely helpful. Their customer service is excellent. Overall, I would definitely recommend these lights if you're interested in exploring studio lighting but don't want to make the huge financial investment. I've been extremely satisfied with the lights and it's helped me explore more staged pictures.

I finally got around to unboxing these. I wasn't expecting the world because of the price but geez! Setup instructions are trash. When I finally got them assembled everything seemed pretty decent then... THE FUMES! I have a two car garage and the toxic fumes coming off these things was overwhelming (and I had door open!). I thought maybe they needed an intial burn off but my shoot lasted a couple hours and it just proceeded to get worse and worse. I thought maybe it was one light but after further inspection it was ALL of them! The lights get very hot. I decided maybe I would leave them on for a few hours and see if the fumes burned off and if they would get better. So I jumped on amazon reviews to see if anybody else mentioned the fumes and shockingly I didn't find any mention. But there was mentions of lights exploding and fire! I decided leaving them on unattended was a bad idea and the fumes were still literally making me sick. SO I THREW ALL THE BRAND NEW LIGHTS AWAY! My advice pay a little more and get some LEDS. I'm not one to write reviews either but gosh dammit. SMH