Trying To Make A 3,000 or Under Battery Powered Light Kit Away From An Outlet

[Robertofish]

I am looking into purchasing potentially 3,000$ worth of LED or Battery Powered lights in one form or another I would just want a standard 4 point kit, hair light, fill, key, etc, what do you suggest I have looked at batteries4broadcast.com they have an excellent bi-color led with power consumption rated at 50 watts and batteries up to 190WH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I also would like if possible to have the outlet powering option available in the battery powered lights just in case we are actually near an outlet, what do you suggest? They would need to be bright enough to light outside when it is dark for a night scene, for those of you who are about to suggest powering regular lights via a generator I looked into generators and even the Honda Inverter Series EU2000 Watt is way to loud for the boom mics I use since they are very sensitive there is no possible way that it would work, plus I really like the idea of powering everything via battery and not via fossil fuel, what do you think? It could be more then 4 lights if need be and also could be a little over 3,000$ as I understand that LED lights and battery powered lights do get quite expensive overall.
Thanks!

[David W. Jones]

First thing... There is no such thing as a standard 4 point light kit. Lighting instrument use differs depending on the situation. Sit down single person interview, double person interview, dark ally single suspect being chased by detective, restaurant scene with couple sitting at table, birthday party with a dozen kids and their parents, different scenes need different style lighting, and the number of lights used can be different as well. Sometimes 2 lights work for the scene, other times you might need 8.

Second, IMO those low cost LED lights are not anywhere near powerful enough for illuminating night scenes. If you have never worked with LED lights before, I suggest you beg, steal, or borrow one for testing before you purchase an entire kit made up of LED lights. All those multiple LEDs cast multiple shadows. The barn doors are generally worthless as they make the multiple shadows more apparent, so you will then need to purchase C-stands and flags to adjust your lighting pattern. The other option is to add diffusion to the light to get rid of the multiple shadows which works well, but drops the light output way down.

Third, 190wh batteries sound like a lot of power, until you do the math with your 50w per hour draw. You would also have a much longer charge time on the larger IDX batteries and would need an expensive charger to charge your multiple batteries needed.

As far as your generator issues, we use a pair of Honda EU2000i generators for light duty work without issues. We run them 100' away from location in the back of the van with the doors open for ventilation, but with the van wall blocking the sound output. We use some of the best microphones and audio gear made without issues. And as far as your fossil fuel issues go, you will burn much much more fuel driving your vehicles to and from location than the couple of gallons your generator will burn during your shoot.

I know this is not what you wanted to hear, but I'm just keeping it real.

Good Luck!

Dave

[Robertofish]

Well I don't have the option of a van 100 feet away, and from what I have heard there is also the potential for surges when using a generator, what it comes down to is I have done my research of the pros and cons for each method, battery power and generator, and right now I am looking at the battery powered option and just that, I know what I would need for the most part in order to do the generator option but I want to look more into the battery powered option to compare pricing, benefits, pros and cons etc. So that said ignoring the fact that there is a generator option to power lights, what battery powered lights would you or other people recommend in order to light up a scene away from an outlet for around 3 grand?

[David W. Jones]

How long a shooting day do you need your batteries to last for?
Do you have funds for an extra set of batteries for while your primaries are being charged, or how many off hours between shoots do you have to allow your single set of batteries to fully charge?

[David W. Jones]

OK, going over the data from that site you listed, it looks like for your budget range you could get a 12x12 LED kit for $1025, and a 9x9 LED kit for $800, along with a 90wh V-mount battery package for $1400, which only gives you two lights, a charger and 4 batteries for a total of $3225. So you are $225 over budget with two lights and no light stands to hold them.

[Robertofish]

Are there any other options for battery powered lights because you are right looking at that, thats a pretty expensive kit, as for how many hours in a day to light up a full night scene they would only need to last 4-6 but if I were to use them all day which I might use one or two all day then around 12 hours is a good bet to make on how long I will need them to last.