Hey, like most of you out there I am not made out of money,
and photography and filmmaking is not a cheap hobby,
especially when you start getting really serious into it - kind of like like cocaine!
Chances are, when you're first starting out you'll get some uber-cheap lights and
those generally come with those really flimsy aluminum and plastic stands. Don't get me wrong,
these do have their place, and they can be pretty useful - but as your lighting demands increase
you might find yourself needing something with a little more KHRAM!
I picked up a pair of Neewer c-stands, I know, not exactly a name that screams quality - but
they do have some good offerings. For instance... these,
and I got a pair of them off amazon, on sal,e for about $260 CAD.
So, what is a c-stand? Well, according to my research,
the 'C' stands for 'century' what that means, I don't know... because I didn't really look any
further into it... because I don't care. What I can tell you is that they are not these...
They come with detachable turtle bases. Some higher end stands have a quick release for opening
up the base - these do not. Spread the feet into place, they'll all sit into these little notches.
You shove the post into the base and tighten it down. I actually kind of forgot to
measure them before doing this video, so the minimum height of these stands is... this much,
and fully extended... that much. They are spring-loaded so when you loosen the extension
its descent will be dampened, and not just come crashing all the way down. They also
have these foam grips on the main post. I'm not too sure how well these will hold up over time.
The pair I picked up also came with grip arms, or boom arms, or extension arms,
or whatever you want to call them... often these arms will come with a grip head, or a gobo
permanently attached to one end of the rod.
Yes everything seems to have multiple names, it must be a regional dialect.
Uh, what region?
Oh, upstate New York. Really?
Anyway, these do not. It has a 50" long rod with two separate grip heads. Let's go throw
some lights on them, and I'll show you the basics. I have a pair of Godox SL60W fixtures.
Please check out the video I did on these.
Note: Best practice is to wear gloves when working with these
because they're metal and they have a lot of like pinchy areas in them.
You can throw a light right on the top
for more flexibility, pop on an extension arm, and attach your fixture to that. Now
you can point it in all kinds of strange new directions - like all of the directions.
Remember to have the load pulling down in the same direction that the grip head
tightens. Also, point the tallest leg in the direction of the load. It's recommended you
put a sandbag on this leg to help stabilize, especially when extending the boom outward.
Another cool thing about this type of base is that you can place multiple stands right
next to each other, so one can hold a light and another can hold a flag or
something to that effect. These aren't pro stands, but they're pretty good.
They're all steel and weigh in at about 20 pounds each,
which is no more than two or three squirrels.
For anyone who wants to move past those el cheapo aluminum stands,
these are considerably more capable and versatile, and a great place to start.
Thank you so much for watching, I hope you enjoyed this video. I hope it was helpful. If you liked it
hit like, hit subscribe if you want to see more, if you have any questions or comments
leave them below, and i'll see you in the next one.