LED lighting

<p>I am a still photographer that is starting to shoot some video with my DSLR, I am looking for a reasonably priced LED light. Working off a nicad battery is a plus and being able to change color temp is also a plus, gel filters would work. - I saw this on B&H <a href="http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/996875-REG/genaray_sp_e_240d_spectroled_essential_240_daylight.html" target="_blank">http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/996875-REG/genaray_sp_e_240d_spectroled_essential_240_daylight.html</a><br />I would like to hear someone's opinion that has experience with LED lights<br />Thanks<br />Dave</p>

<p>That puts out about the same amount of light as a 100W household light bulb. But does it on 20W of battery power.<br>

Not terribly bright, but sips power.</p>

 

<p>Based on its specs, it puts out enough light for a TV news-style interview up close, but that's about it. You're not going to light up a room with one of these. The big problem with LED is that good units that put out a lot of light are expensive while units that are affordable don't put out much light. This one sounds like it's at a reasonable compromise point between quality and price provided that you use it within the range of what it's meant for.<br /><br />If you're just getting into video lighting, before you buy anything go look at <a href="http://lowel.tiffen.com/">http://lowel.tiffen.com/</a> Lowel is probably the most popular maker of affordable video lighting euipment. They've been around since the 1960s and do everything from classic hot lights like the Omni and Tota to LED. They have a lot of tutorials and specs online and since they sell both traditional hotlights and LED give you honest information about both.<br /><br />Bottom line is you can put together a full kit of Lowel hot lights for the cost of one professional quality LED light. A new tota is about the same as the unit you're looking at, but it takes up to a 1000 watt bulb and will definitely light up a room. And if you buy them used (they are on ebay for about $50 for a Tota and there is very little to wear out or break so they are safe to buy used) you can get them for even less. They also have small camera top lights like this.<br /><br />The big sell of LED is the low power consumption and low heat. No arguing with the heat issue. But think about the power consumption -- you can run a $125 Lowel Pro Light for half an hour on a $100 Bescor battery just fine. Of you can pay $500 plus for the equivalent professional LED light. And if you're putting lights on stands and plugging them into the wall, power consumption is not an issue.</p>

<p>ENG/EFP fluorescent, LED lighting packages:</p>

<p>The source you linked is simply too small, unless all you want is an on-board light for ENG-style, run-and-gun interviews. We do use some LED units, but generally only as supplementary fills (I light/shoot for a major-network broadcast television show). Among the most popular lights for EFP-style television interviews are the KinoFlo DivaLite 200/400s. These are fluorescent-based units with internal ballasts, and have both good output and best-in-class color rendition (bulbs are available in 2,900K, 3,200K, and 5,500K). Though expensive, they're very lightweight, and very well designed. We also have an assortment of honeycomb grids for the Divas in each package, which really cuts down on flare and spill. Here's the standard lighting kit we currently use in all of our field packages:</p>

<p>• x1 KinoFlo DivaLite 200 (primary key).<br /> • x1 KinoFLo Barfly (backlight).<br /> • x1 LitePanel 1' x 1' bi-color LED panel, flood (fill).</p>

<p>Only the LitePanel is DC-powerable by an Anton-Bauer brick. In a pinch (zero set-up time, no power, etc.), sometimes we'll only light with a single LitePanel, but a single 1' x 1' source just doesn't make for the prettiest light. Each van also has an array of Arri Fresnels (x2 Arri 650s, x2 Arri 300s, x2 Arri 200s) for more elaborate two-camera set-ups (for backgrounds, cookies, specials, etc.), plus K5600 Joker 400W/800W HMIs.</p>

<p>For a less expensive Diva-like option, I've seen some crews using FloLights in the field, a company which make units similar to KinoFlo's product line, but are only about half the price. Then there's the plethora of import brands also being sold, but unless I were able to check the color rendition in-person, I wouldn't risk using them untested on a paying gig. Off-brand makers of both fluorescent and LED units can output some pretty weird spectrums.</p>

<p>For LED panels, the new Manfrotto Spectra 1' x 1' LED panels look interesting, and have a nice build quality to them (integrated lens, nicely designed yoke, etc.), but they're only slightly less expensive than LitePanels, so FloLight may still be your best bet (FloLight makes LitePanel clones as well).</p>

<p>If I were to key with LEDs only, I would choose, at minimum, a two-panel 1' x 1' array for the key (for an overall, 1' x 2' source), plus two additional 1' x 1' panels for fill (about $4,000, total!). Ideally, the key would be an even larger array (e.g., 2' x 4' array, requiring eight LitePanels!). This is what I told the people where I work I wanted next (don't think <em>that's</em> happening!). As you can see, quality LED instruments can get extremely expensive pretty quickly. My recommendation is, see what you like/can afford from FloLight (they're sold at B+H), since they seem to be of decent quality, and appear to offer the most bang for the buck in both LEDs and fluroescents. Good luck!</p>

<p>thanks Ralph, your post was very helpful. I've heard good reviews of Came-tv lights http://www.came-tv.com/batteries-508-led-video-light-panel-studio-film-light-p-250.html have you any experience with them?</p>

<p>Ralph's post is very informative. LED is, in fact, being used more often by network crews I work with in my day job here in Washington. You can see them on TV when 60 Minutes, for example, shows a wide shot of an interview stup. But, as he confirms, the good stuff isn't cheap, and even then you still sometimes have to go to the hot lights. If I were just starting to get my feet wet with video lighting, I would start with the hot lights -- you can do for a few hundred dollars what it would take several thousand to do with LED, and you eventually are still going to need them anyhow.</p>

<p>Thanks Craig as well, a video job I took for the end of the month is a violinist playing in a hospital lobby. Not sure I will be able to plug is easily to power so I thought one LED light balanced with the existing light would do the job. </p>

<p>One LED panel might do it, just not that one</p>

 

<p>if you're talking nighttime, that light might work as an on-camera ENG style light, not much more. If you're talking daytime in a lobby flooded with daylight, you most likely won't even be able to tell that it's turned on beyond maybe five feet.<br /><br />A hospital lobby is going to be full of electrical outlets, and if the hospital is your client they almost certainly have a staff electrician. Depending on the layout, I would put a couple of Tota Lights or Omnis or DP's (all Lowel) on high stands at 45 degree angles from the subject, up against a wall or column where they won't get bumped into, sandbags on the base of the stands, cables taped to the wall/floor so they don't get tripped on. Blue gels if there is strong daylight in the lobby.<br /><br />Beyond the lighting, have you thought about audio and how you're going to mike the violinist? Is this part of an event with somebody speaking (which what I was thinking of in the lighting I described above) or just the violinist playing background music? If somebody is speaking, you need to mike them also. And then what do you do with the footage once you've shot it? A video clip is not in and of itself a finished product the way a still photo can be.</p>

<p>David:</p>

<p>The only LEDs I've actually used are the LitePanels (plus some other exotic LED instruments used for daylight exteriors which are hideously expensive at about $7,000 each). A friend of mine who shoots for another show bought some cheap import-brand LitePanel copies, and they seem to be okay since he shoots for another broadcast show. I'll ask him for the specific brand the next time I see him (we shoot may of the same events, so I see him frequently). I'll report back here when I find out what they are and where you can buy them. I know they were quite a bit less expensive than the LitePanels. They're not bi-color, so he has to use a hard CTO gel to correct them to tungsten.</p>

<p>Also, note that the batteries used for most 1' x 1' LED panels are also quite expensive. Most are made to accommodate professional video camera batteries (called, "bricks) made by Anton Bauer. Where I work, we happen to have the highest-capacity Anton Bauer, 183 Watt-hour, Li-ion bricks, which cost about $900 each. These are probably overkill for powering a low-Wattage LED panel, but they allow our cameras to shoot entire events without changing bricks.</p>

<p>Cheaper, but still-good alternatives to Anton Bauers are IDX Li-ion V-mount batteries (but you may need an Anton Bauer-to-V-mount adapter). Note that there are two standards in professional video battery mounts: Anton Bauer Gold Mount, and Sony V-mount, with the Gold Mount being more prevalent. Again, most 1' x 1' LED panels have options to mount one or the other (usually, Gold Mount).</p>

<p>• <a href="http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/632842-REG/IDX_E_HL9S_E_HL9S_Lithium_Ion_V_Mount.html">IDX 88 Watt-hour V-mount battery $282</a></p>

<p>Other outlets use these IDX batteries, and they seem to perform fine (although they have a lot less power than the pricey high-capacity Anton Bauer Li-ions). Anton Bauer also makes slimmer, less costly Gold Mount bricks as well.</p>

<p>Craig makes some excellent, and affordable tungsten recommendations. Know that LEDs and fluorescents have absolutely no "throw." A focusable open-face light, such as a Lowel DP, or an even more-focusable Fresnel, such as an Arri 650, can throw light much further. The light will essentially be a point-source, so it will be a fairly hard, but at least you can project light across some distance (whereas an LED or KinoFlo will fall off to nothing after just a few feet). If you use two hard lights from either side (i.e., "cross-light"), the "hardness" becomes less objectionable.</p>

<p>Lowel Tota-lights are dirt-cheap used, and put out a lot of light, lamped at either 750 or 1,000 Watts. A few strategically placed Tota-lights, either bounced into a white ceiling, into some taped-up Foamcore, or into a Totabrella can easily light up a fairly large space. Note that open-faced lights are kinda dangerous. Their bulbs are completely exposed and are super f'ing hot (will cause third-degree burns on contact).</p>

<p>Bring adequate sandbags/shotbags, and be sure to gaff-tape all electrical cords ("stingers"). Tota-lights are small and lightweight enough to also consider hard-mounting to an existing structure using either a Cardellini, Mafer, or bar-clamp. Cardellinis, IMO, are the best (pricey, at about $70 each). Bar-clamps (i.e., furniture clamps with baby spuds) come in varying lengths, and are great for mounting to large beams. If hanging any instruments, be sure to use a steel safety cable to secure the light.</p>

<p>Also, be aware of causing any fire hazard by positioning any hot light too close to flammable material above the lamp (e.g., drop-ceiling tiles, etc.). And, very important, always be sure to check where the fire sprinklers are located in the ceiling! Good luck!</p>

<p>I said:</p>

 

<blockquote>

<p><em>A friend of mine who shoots for another show bought some cheap import-brand LitePanel copies, and they seem to be okay since he shoots for another broadcast show. I'll ask him for the specific brand the next time I see him (we shoot may of the same events, so I see him frequently) . . . They're not bi-color, so he has to use a hard CTO gel to correct them to tungsten.</em></p>

</blockquote>

<p>I asked my friend last night which LED panels he bought. He couldn't recall the brand, but they're essentially "brand-less," Chinese-import 1' x 1' panels. He bought three 1' x 1' panels for $1,000 from some eBay seller (he doesn't remember which one). He says the color temperature isn't perfect, and is slightly green. I believe I've seen him use CC10 magenta gels to correct, but I could be mistaken on the value.</p>

<p>wondering if anyone had used the lamp (chip style) LEDs such as https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1091263-REG/genaray_mb_100dwv_monobright_daylight_led_1200.html/prm/alsVwDtl<br>

how do they compare with a panel?</p>