*Table talk

Table Manners by Salt Lake City-based Photokinesis promises ‘small tools for big lighting problems’ with its lightweight grip gear, especially in tabletop photography. An existing problem in close quarters tabletop had been the dearth of options for holding small gear in place. The Table Manners products are designed to make tabletop work easier, integrating with production equipment for stills, eng and commercial and long-form shoots.

Table Manners equipment supports HMI Mini Pars, Inkies, Dedos, Mini Kino, Syne-Flos, Dots & Fingers, Postage Stamps, 10×20 Flags/Nets/Silks and other gear. The gear comes in a Single Stand assembly and in other pro kit configurations and is stocked by Toronto’s Acme Power & Lights.

*Dimming solution from Kinoflo

California-based Kinoflo has teamed with Hollywood rental shop Ottonemenz to create the Kinoflo Ring Light. The Ring Light is a 12-inch fluorescent tube which mounts in front of the Ottonemenz matte box as a dimming fixture. The light is available in both daylight or 3200 tungsten and features a small camera light that provides soft up-close light or acts as an eye light.

Kinoflo is currently working on getting production units out, and Toronto’s Cinequip plans to have the product in stock in several weeks.

*Lightning strikes

From Tek Lighting, the Striker lightning system provides an alternative for lightning effects. Striker operates off ac voltage converted to dc voltage.

‘Natural lightning is a direct current and now we take the lightning effect to the same natural type of current that God produces,’ says Morris Mashburn, president of Tek. Mashburn says the Strikers offer more light with less power and more dependability in each flash.

The original Striker 1 package uses 120-volt ac and pulses at 300 amps using a rectified circuit of 340 volts dc. Striker 2 operates on 208/240-volt ac pulsing at 300 amps per leg, generating more than 60 amps dc current, while Striker 3 provides 300,000 watts of power from three-phase ac.