Amazon.com

[DisFam95]

I've been wanting to get a light tent for awhile and was lokoing at Amazon. Can anyone recommend a good (or bad) brand..there seems to be quite a few. I do need lighting as well so a kit w/ lights woudl be fine until I can upgrade to better lighting. I hear the kit lights are crap sometimes.

btw I've already done the diy $10 light tent w/ the cardboard box. It's decent but I really need the collapsable kind due to lack of space right now. My box has gotten damaged w/ all the moving it around and cramming it in the closet at times.

Thanks!!!

 

[C&B Young]

I've got one very similar to this one here. The tent itself is pretty good, a little small at times, but as you indicated the lights that come with it are junk - they're not bright enough, and run very hot. Depending on what you're shooting, you might want to go with something that has compact fluorescent lighting, or go with strictly a light tent/box and pick up a couple cheap tabletop lamps to use with it. For macro work I actually use a couple of these halogen floodlights, they run hot but throw off a ridiculous amount of light.

 

[boBQuincy]

If you do use CFL (compact fluorescent) bulbs get ones that have a CRI (color rendering index) of at least 90. Most CFL produce poor color rendering that is difficult to correct even in post-processing.

If a CFL does not list the CRI it is usually because the manufacturer does not want us to know, keep looking. Terms such as "full spectrum" and "daylight" mean little. Even the CRI is not a great way to measure color but it is the best we have for now.

Ott-Lite and others have a CRI of 90+ and produce decent colors.