What about the revolution in Lighting?

Hunabku

Hunabku

Member
Ah yes RED - mi amore. Even if they don't fully deliver the specs in their timeframe, they have established a new paradigm in extensibility and functionality. Those big dinosaurs in their puedo-oligopoly (Sony, Panasonic, etc.) who have carefully milked us for years, better evolve quickly.

This brings me to my point – the trend in RED is like the other advances in making gear more portable while increasing performance. In lighting, I feel like LED technology compliments RED. OK, to reduce flamage right off - I know that LED is currently underpowered for lots of cinema applications.

In particular I'm interested in creating a highly portable system for docudrama fieldwork (flying on planes a lot). Most of the shots I would use the system for are interviews and some in remote places where power is minimal or none existent – hence low power draw and battery power a plus.

I was wondering if any of you at NAB had your eyes on configuring a full kit based on LEDs. Any new developments there? I'm thinking that a good system will be at least $3000?

Thanks
 
Brought up this thread again, it should´nt get lost. Anybody listening? Anybody knows about news about lighting (r)evolution on the NAB?
 
i actually saw the litepanels 1x1 in action for the first time at NAB.. they are pretty impressive, and very bright.

I did start to notice a interesting problem though.. they are very bright at the source, and not that soft, so if you look at them you need to squint. the light falls onto the talent very softly, but i wouldnt be pointing one down the barrel of their eyesight.

something else to look for is the flolights.. i bought a couple, and they are revolutionary as far as my wallet is concerned. $349 for a 2 light dimmable flo including bulbs is pretty incredible.
 
something else to look for is the flolights.. i bought a couple, and they are revolutionary as far as my wallet is concerned. $349 for a 2 light dimmable flo including bulbs is pretty incredible.
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Thats awesome... can you direct me to a website?

Edit - dont worry - found it... Jarred how are they ?
 
Hi all:

Another lighting related product that was shown at NAB but is not brand new, but newer is thhe Reflecmedia green/blue screen system. We rented one last week to shoot some tests. Problem is, that green LED ringlight that is staring right down on the talent is very bright. We used someone who works with us at the office here as our guinea pig and she has extensive experience with bright lighting in her face in her years of doing commercials and stand-up comedy and even she said that the green LED ringlight that the Reflecmedia uses is uncomfortably bright, would be unbearable for most non-pro talent and is tough even for pros.

Oh well, the search continues for a cool, powerful and easy on the eyes light source.

Dan
 
Yes let's get photometrics and dollars on the Zylights. And Litepanels 1x1 too which I understand are to ship late April. Prices start at $1995 list. So maybe what $1695 street price?

To address Jarred and puredrifting's observations of finding LED lighting easier on the eyes – I wonder how Litepanels can be fitted with a scrim. Ideally of course someone should design an LED that is easy on the eyes to start with, but I wonder how 1x1 would perform with a scrim seeing as they were probably designed to operate optimally without one.

In Zylights Web site one of their lights is fitted with a Chimera Micro Light Bank (softbox) - 5x7" – One of these could be positioned close to a subject as a key– but I imagine that the coverage is pretty narrow compared to the 1x1. I also wonder how the color adjustments on the Zylight perform being on the "other side" of the scrim?
 
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i think you meant LED not easy on the eyes.

But im sure it will work with a scrim. The lightpanel mini's, which is one of my favorite new tools, comes with an opal type diffusion sheet cut to the front. I imagine the 1x1 will as well... but the 1x1 have some odd feature of " look through" where you are supposed to look through little holes on the light to see the talent.. not sure what thats all about but a scrim would kill that feature.
 
paradox

paradox

puredrifting said:
Hi all:

Oh well, the search continues for a cool, powerful and easy on the eyes light source.

Dan
Click to expand...

Powerful and easy on the eyes are mutually exclusive qualities. There's this thing called physics that we have to deal with, and this other thing called the inverse square law... j/k.

I liked the litepanels. The 3x3 was particularly pleasing and had a lot of throw. I'd put some opal in front of it, though. I love the little camera mounted babies. Perfect for ENG. They'd also come in handy for a little kicker or rim just off camera.

The Reflecmedia wasn't that bad. I stood in front of it myself and wasn't blinded. Pro talent will deal with whatever you throw at them, as long as they're union and you're paying scale. My worries would be how to mount it and prompter at the same time.
 
Jarred, you did identify a phenomena with LED lighting, and I think the reason for this is the fact that the light source is originating from a TINY surface area.
Most of the 5mm (T1¾) LEDs have a die that is little more than 1mm², but output quite an amazing amount of light.

I've used our most powerful lights with and without diffusion, but we now do send out each light inclusive of a "Light Tough Rolux" sheet, just for cases where diffusion is required or desired.

Personally, anything bigger than a small, portable light, I'd prefer to go fluorescent anyway.

The flolights are very reasonably priced, and offer much more light output than a bank of LEDs.

We're experimenting right now with stand-alone flo lights, that include the battery. Our first test unit used a 15W flo daylight bulb that produces about a 45W halogen equivalent light output. We ran it for more than 5 hours. The following pics show this prototype unit. It includes the battery, inverter, battery protection, and LCD for display of remaining battery power.

150a.jpg

150d.jpg
 
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So we seem to have agreement that eyestrain with LED's can be handled with some sort of diffusion and that of course cuts down on the output - which is already a concern with LEDs. Perhaps an ideal system, geared for portability and lower power draw/heat, would be a hybrid of LEDs and a fluorescent. LEDs for lower output applications (rim, eye, background and perhaps fill) and one fluorescent as a primary key light. What do you guys think?

Vidled, I really like what you did with the stand-alone flolight. You call it a prototype – are you planning on selling em?

And I wonder which mini Jarred is using (spot or flood, 3200K or 5600K) and for what applications?
 
I also made my own battery-powered portable daylight-balanced fluorescents for travelling. I'm surprised nobody is making these professionally, because they work great and are very, very convenient.
 
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