CowboyStudio Light Set for Portable Video, Portriat and Product Photography, tent light

Pros - Easy to unfold and fold - Very good quality - Good accessories includedCons - No instructionsI bought this light tent because the one I had was difficult to use and practically impossible to fold. When it arrived I was very pleasantly surprised... after I figured out how to set it up. There is little question that the absence of instructions is annoying, even though the setup is simple when all is said and done. Looking at the photo of the light box on the Amazon page should be quite helpful, but I forgot to do that. Nevertheless, after 5 minutes of complaining and fuddling around, the tent was set up.A couple of comments in the customer reviews worried me, but I found them to be without substance: - "The lamps become very hot." Several people said that, and I envisioned a safety hazard. But the heat from the lamps is modest by incandescent standards. To confirm that I turned on the light tent lamps and also a 60 watt lightbulb and left them on for 10 minutes. Then I turned them off and measured the surface temperatures with an infrared thermometer. The hottest I could record for the light box lamps was 262 degrees F, and that was right on the bulb itself (behind the protective glass shield). The surface of the 60 watt bulb was 272 degrees F. - "The stand is unstable and won't support a 35 mm SLR." On the contrary, it is nearly impossible to tip the stand if it is set up correctly. Look at the photo - assuming the shaft that holds the camera is tilted toward the front, the weight would have to overcome the long support base arms and flip the stand forward. If you put enough weight on the shaft it is more likely that something would bend before the stand tipped, and that would take the weight of many SLRs.I purchased the light tent almost exclusively for the tent itself (at a very reasonable price), thinking that I would use lights and tripods that I already have. But the lights in most cases do a better job that those that came with my other light tent, and the stand has very useful features - you can tilt it forward and take a photo looking down at your object, for example.I am very pleased with the purchase.

I have had the CowboyStudio Table Top Photo Studio Light Tent Kit in a Box for about 5 months it has done the job well.Pros: Easy to Assemble and well made. Just about everything you need is included. It does a nice job with the making the item being photo'd look great. Once you are done everything packs up nicely in a single style case!Cons: The lights get hot. Very, very hot if on for any length of time. So use caution when making adjustment and the light remains hot for quite some time after they are turned off. Now this ties into the other problem. Once the lights go on the emit a smell. Well a smell like plastic getting hot. It can get to be nauseating. I though that the smell would of gone away after some use. But it did not.Verdict: It's nice for the price. And I am glad I bought it. But if I new that the lights get hot that quickly and smelled like they do. I would have said no thank you.Again these are my thoughts and others may agree or disagree.

I am very much a newbie photographer. I puchased this kit because I wanted to experiment with photographing small objects against solid backgrounds and to experiment with lighting while doing so. As a beginner I knew nothing about how to set up a table top "studio" so this kit, with it's good reviews and reasonable price, seemed perfect.The kit includes the tent, several different backdrops in good colors - white, red, blue and black, two small spotlights and a tripod, all of which are stowed in the carrying case. The tent material is a decent quality. You could very easily add additional backdrops with pieces of fabric and stick on velcro. The little lights may not be the best quality, but I felt that they were quite adequate for lighting small objects in the tent. They are easy to manipulate, have quick on/off switches but they do get very hot very quickly. The tripod was a throw-away for me - too difficult to use and I already had a good table-top tripod. The whole kit is easy to set up (once you figure it out) and having it all fold up and tuck away into the carrying case is terrific.On the downside, the kit comes with no instructions at all - not even a picture or diagram. Not being familiar with the set up, I needed some help. There are no instructions available for tent set up or for the specific lights on the manufacturers site. However, there are several videos on YouTube (search on Cowboy Table Top) that were very helpful. While I was there I also found a few videos with lighting tips for a light tent just like this one.Overall, you'd be hard pressed to find such a nice kit for the money.

I do a lot of macro photography on miniature flowers, small heirloom items, and even some small pets. That means good lighting, affordable price and absolutely portable.This fits the bill in the best way possible. The halogen lamps get hot, but that's halogen, if you want cool lighting get a couple of cheap lamps from Walmart, your pictures will show it.These work extremely well on a large number of different subjects and if you want to carry more lenses for the camera instead other gear, this is the lighting for you.