In the current economy, us lesser affluent individuals barely have enough cash-money to get by, let alone to purchase cool new film-making toys. One of the most exorbitantly priced parts of any production, and any Director of Photography’s arsenal, is the lighting. Sure, you may have an expensive camera and an array of overly-priced accessories that you floss around like it was on a TV show hosted by Xzibit, but none of that comes anywhere near to how much you will have to spend, or have already spent, on a half decent lighting kit for anything other than your basic interview setup… Unless you’re renting, that is. But who rents, anyway? Renting’s for n00bz.

In come Cinelight, a Hong Kong based company with a European supplier in Romania, who make affordable / inexpensive alternatives to most of our favourite light fixtures. Yes, I know… As soon as you read “Hong Kong”, you may feel like you want to turn in the other direction. A simple Google search for “Chinese cinematography lights” will unearth a whole bunch of threads on various forums urging people not to buy them for various reasons. But before you get too lodged up your own ass, inflexible to the idea of anything coming close to the likes of Arri, Dedolight, Lowel, Ianiro, Cosmolight or whoever, hear me out, because any of you with any sense will want to read the rest of this review.