Blackmagic Forum

Hi.

I wonder what lights people are planing to get in their setup ?

I i'm considering new set of led lights for soft and hard lights.

Found some here:

http://www.creativevideo.co.uk/index.ph ... ka6006-ddl

http://www.creativevideo.co.uk/index.ph ... d_daylight

I consider led as they are a lot cooler and power is not issue on most of the locations as
they run on relative low amperage.

Any ideas, feelings, experience?

LED's are fine for small areas, interviews. The kind that can change color temp are great for run-and-gun. I wouldn't get anything smaller than a 500w hot light equivalent, tho, and be sure you get them with a CRI higher than 90 and a decent battery power kit or you defeat the purpose of having such a mobile-friendly light. They suck for shaping as barndoors/cutters are both ineffective and create weird falloff or catchlights. They have a better throw than flos. They lose a lot of light when softened. Good ones are expensive.

Kinoflos are better at being already soft for interviews or beauty CU shots, but they don't have as good a throw as LED. They can change color temp by switching bulbs, but bulbs will break easily when changing. Smaller units can be battery operated. Needs high CRI, expensive, soft light can't be focused or shaped.

Personally I like big, punchy sources so if I can, I'll do open face tungsten or HMI book lights, direct fresnel or something like that. Unless you have the cash, cheap LED's are worthless for video because of the low CRI. The ones you link to don't look too good for anything but CU fill. If I were you I'd rather invest in a nice open-face two light kit...maybe an Arrilite kit with two 750 or 1000w heads. You can get one for the same price as the LED you pointed at, and you can do lots more with it and it'll last forever.

One of them had light output of 1200 w hmi on paper?

I work mostly with tv spots and talking head stuff so there i got my consideration
of led. Generally mobility would not be a problem as we could power them from regular
household gasoline generator i think rather easy.

Alternative is to build my own units but it will take more time and cost a fraction
of store ones. Ofcourse will take more r&d time. Ideally if it would work out fine i'd make product out of those
and offer to others also. We will see.

In light intensity wise it should be pretty easy to get 1 kw or 2 kw tungsten equivalent
light source with up to 200 w energy use. Other question is like you say optics
and barn doors etc.

Cri 95 should be doable but have to wait for some testing.

Led seems good for super soft light even if decays faster.

Picture this: you have really tiny space and you need to have super soft light.
Big tungsten soft-box would not fit in and would generate extreme heat.

Instead of that you could have super flat (5 cm thick source not bigger than 1 sq meters)
with intensity of 10 kw of tungsten.
Dimmable of course.

But sure cheap led are bad, have greenish tint etc. I agree on that.

Certainly. If you're in a tight space and have a large enough source, you can definitely go LED. But, a flat Litepanel type would be better (the first link)...i think the big head linked second is meant to have a softbox attached, but I'm sure you can bounce it. I like lots of small sources, but one big source is faster.

Typically, I love big hot sources punching through windows and down hallways, but I also love having a nice flo kit for already-soft quickness. I think there's also these Rosco litepads that can be clicked together to make infinitely large walls of light that run on AA batteries. But, I've also made a CDM (same principal as HMI) book light for a tight kitchen interior punctuated with an overhead skirted Diva but, I mean, there's lots of ways to do it. I'm not saying LED's are wrong but they have limitations, as every other type of light does, as well. Depends on budget, experience, time, etc... but i'd love to see what you come up with. Less heat = more comfort for talent = less stress/sweat/touch-ups = "easier"/faster/less takes, etc. You're on the right track.

I want to see what you build!

WIll see what i come up with.

Tech stuff is a bit hazy now still but we will see.

Specially if i find good options to measure all kind of parameters including cri and rgb balance.
Will talk to some university guys on that.

With camera sensitivity going up so much, I'd lean towards small, flexible lights rather than any of the high power guys these days. I have a pretty large light collection with Arris, big LEDs (Flolight), Chimeras - but I tend to use my Dedolights the most. They have the most control, still put out a ton of light for their size, and are very compact. You can run some of them from batteries if you get the right adapters. They're more pricey than some, but you can find some good used deals (like I did). The bulbs and maintenance costs are much lower than some other lights. The latest halogen lights run at 24v - and when you combine that to their unique lens/reflector system, it is equivalent to about 500-600w of output with only 150w draw.

I've gone through a few LEDs, I've found they tend to be a bit fragile. I still have two since they're portable, but only pull them out where I'm in the field and need to be mobile/battery powered. And I second the high CRI value comment (above 90) - it really makes a big difference.

Also, I noticed you mentioned that the LEDs would be "super soft." Most LEDs are in spot, which is about a 30° beam angle. This makes for a further throw, but a harsher light. When you direct that light onto a subject, it creates a strange shadow pattern. It's essentially 1000 mini spotlights on the subject, all coming from slight different angles. So you'll get "stepping" in the shadows. I've found that even when you soften it with diffusion, the shadows still have this problem a bit. Some LED manufacturers create softer versions, which don't have the same through but have a 60° beam that's a bit better. Still needs diffusion though. I haven't tried an LED with a large diffusion panel and c-stand. That might help a bit more with the spot angle LED lights.

LED fixtures although not perfect, But They tend have some rather cool advantages including: portability small form factor. Power, some of them use pro power or DV batteries. Be Cool, it's nice not to bake talent to a crisp. As for color accuracy, the lights light color and output varies by manufacturer i have seen them spike usually on the green channel(easily correctable with 1/4th CTO). other than that there are lights that are bi-color or multi-color that allow you to change temp Eg: ikan's Multi-K
http://ikancorp.com/productdetail.php?id=219 and or the bicolor models they carry as well such as the IB-500 http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/8 ... R_LED.html