I broke down the other day and ordered a light kit. For those in the cult of You Tube there is a never ending chase to create higher quality videos. I started playing around with ChromaKey (also known as Green Screen) technology the magic stuff that allows the film maker to place themselves in a set or image that would be otherwise impossible or expensive. You've seen it.. weather people use it all the time.

The biggest problem with setting up green screen correctly is lighting the backdrop, because the process relies on a consistent color in the background. It turns out that the trick is to hit the screen with as much light as possible. Enough light to cause the screen to appear to 'glow'. Then place the subject far enough away from the screen that they don't cast a shadow and light them separately. Then even if they do cast a shadow the illumination on the screen is so bright that it overcomes any other light sources.

My search began on EBAY and the internet. I acquainted myself with the different types of lighting apparatus' and decided that I needed something called a softbox. These come in many different types with a large range in price and quality. I made the trip to the local camera supply shop looked at their prices, turned on my heel and exited stage left. So after much handwringing I decided to buy a kit that was offered on eBay. Since I wasn't really expecting too much, I was prepared to be disappointed when the kit arrived.

To my surprise it turned out to be better than I expected. 2 cheap aluminum stands, 2 Light fixtures (also cheap), 2 umbrellas (cheap) and 2 85 watt 5500* Kelvin fluorescent bulbs. The same bulbs that were being sold at the camera supply store for 35 dollars each. The fixtures were wired with zip cord and 2 prong plugs but I didn't see a reason to expect professional grade design. I assembled everything and fired up the lamp.

Yes I did say lamp.... one lamp. The second lamp emitted an anemic flicker and died.

**sigh** I guess it was to be expected.

So I sent an email to the company who had sold me the kit explaining my situation. They were very accommodating and immediately shipped me a new lamp. They didn't even ask for the faulty lamp to be returned.

I did say a question of ethics didn't I?

The company didn't ask for a return of the bad lamp. The assumption was that the item was bad and it was cheaper to let me dispose of it than to pay for return shipping. So being the curious person that I am, I decided to dig into the broken bulb to see if there was something that I could fix. I am a technician, it's what I do. As it turns out there was something I could fix, after disassembling the bulb I discovered that there was a very small electronic circuit board concealed in the base. I troubleshot the problem to a bad connection on one of the ballast transformers, I reassembled everything and now I have a spare working light bulb.

Now the question: I suspected when the lamp didn't work in the first place that this was what I would find, if I wanted to attempt to fix the bulb myself. But I felt that the seller was obligated to sell me functioning equipment, although I am perfectly able to fix these items. I was willing to wait for a replacement and didn't feel that I wanted to hazard an attempt to repair the bulb. There was a possibility that I might be blamed for damaging the bulb and wind up with nothing. And I was even willing to ship the damaged item back to the seller if they paid the freight.

So am I doing something unethical by keeping the now functional bulb?