So I am looking to purchase my first lighting kit and I am stuck. There are so many different types and brands its making my brain hurt.

I've used lowel lights before back in high school and they were pretty good, but I don't know if I should purchase some Lowel lights of my own, or go with another brand.

I just need a fairly inexpensive kit to use with my Canon XH-A1 and (when I can afford it) the G35...

I mainly shoot short films and music videos.

Historically the words inexpensive and Light kits did not live in the same sentence when in came to cine lighting, however there are many low cost light kits available today. I've never been a fan of tota lights as they are cheaply made and tend to melt down from time to time. I would look into some of the more readily available Fluorescent lighting kits for a daylight solution and a Spider-light. It's basically a Chimara Speed ring with a Mogul socket in the middle of it. Teamed up with a soft box you can have a really nice 1000 watt soft box for under $300

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/3 ... 120V_.html

There are also some really great LED solutions coming out now. It's a good time to be making films.

You will find that the easier to control the light coming from any specific lamp the more expensive it is.

Home depot work lights = $20
Arri Fresnel = $560

Thanks for all of the info.. I did some searching for some flourescent lights and I found these two kits.

http://www.pclightingsystems.com/dayflo-ez/2000/


http://www.pclightingsystems.com/dayflo-ez/1050/


http://www.pclightingsystems.com/tungsten/1600/


Basically the only difference between the first two is you get two more lights with the first one.

The third link is a tungsten kit.

Do you think that either one of these kits would be a good buy?