VidLED DayLED footage

I spoke to Marius earlier today and there will be some delays with new orders due to a problem with the cases. Evidently the (3rd party) manufacturer lost the tooling!

Luckily I received my Dayled just before all of that happened, and it's great. I was pleased to find that with 5/8ths CTO (a 1/2 and a 1/8 combined) I could match my tungsten Lowel Pro Light's color temperature almost perfectly.

I wasn't as pleased with the Warmled however, which seemed to have a slight greenish cast to it. The dayled is about the same brightness when gelled with CTO as the warmled was without, so it really seems to be the ticket. It will do daylight and cover 3200K with gels just fine. Cool...
 
I just found out about the dealy on VidLEDs when I went to their site to order a light. Unfortunately, I leave for Copenhagen in 8 weeks, and they aren't expecting the new casings for "about 6 weeks" - WTF??!! I really need this light! If anyone has a used one they want to unload, please let me know.

In the meantime I already purchased a "DVX user special" 5600mah battery specifically for the VidLED.

Arrrgghhh!!

But thanks for quoting Joni Mitchell's "Chelsea Morning" in your signature, that actually did help, a bit.
 
Robert,
I'll try and get you something before you leave.
Further correspondence via your feedback...
 
Don't these lights use Nichia type .5W 5mm emitters? That's a bit passé in a Luxeon Rebel age isn't it? Well, maybe I should wait till VidLed actually send me the evaluation unit they promised. Who knows, maybe it'll show up with Rebels in it ;)
 
Interesting stuff. But why do they only have fixed color temperature and not variable ones like those zylight.com-lights?
 
Thanks, Vidled -

if I can't get a vidLED in time, though, I'm going to need to buy something else, and I'll need time to order that and receive it, so earliest heads up would be much appreciated.

Thanks again.

Robert
 
It is possible to construct ANY fixture to produce a range of variable color temp. I should know, the concept was based on my white paper. To add the circuit for nuancing output from what are really two banks of light is not a big deal. VidLED fixtures are expensive enought that they should already include this feature. Frankly, and not to sound like I'm flaming them, other solutions are a better return on end-user dollars. 5mm Nichia type emitters are totally passé at this stage. Look for something with Rebels in it.
 
I had to shoot a wedding for a fellow video buddy this past saturday... it was an african american wedding... and I used the Dayled with a half CTO plus a frost... "bubbled" out from the face of the light... so that the light could get proper diffusion of the individual LEDs, because I knew that I'd be right in front of people with this thing... and it worked incredibly well. It was amazing how far I could reach into the event... and I never had one person squinting into the camera.

How long have I been using these things now? I think it's going on nearly 3 years? The Vidleds have never ceased to impress me... I use them ALL the time... I mean ALL the time... and all the various features at this price point have been extremely valuable to me. I was dimming and adjusting the light constantly through the night.

Under those conditions the iris had to remain totally open, but because of the smooth dimming features of the Vidled I was able to constantly balance subjects with the illumination of the BG... so that if somebody was right on top of the cam, it worked great... or if I wanted to light up 6 people that were 10' away... it STILL worked great.

For the low cost and convenience of these things I'm surprised anybody would question the price : quality ratio.

I've had 4 now and I'm going to end up with hopefully 4 more...
 
Here's my old rig with a Stenlight S7 (Twin Luxeon III) mounted.
HV20_1.jpg

I've since replaced it with a much more expensive though way brighter Lupine Systems Wilma 6 that I modded a tiny bit.
Here are some alternatives...

http://www.digitalquest.co.jp/eus/dqi/dll630_e.html
http://litepanels.com/
http://www.flolight.com/miclight.htm
http://www.zylight.com/
http://www.bebob.de/international/lux-led-dv_cameralight_e.html
 
Thanks, but the zylight seems the only light which is dimmable and does allow multiple kelvin settings.
 
The Zylight is a GREAT light -we've always said that.
Jim and Co achieved a great feat with its development and execution.

Back in the day we also looked at doing something like that, using a RGB LED engine, but alas, it was too complicated for us and we gave up.
Originally the engine was a BL3000, but they switched to a Titan engine just recently with their new products (now shipping).
I'd definitely recommend the Zylight as it's got to be the most sophisticated product out there.

As far as our product is concerned, we chose the 5mm LEDs over the more powerful single-source LEDs, such as Luxeons. Our original design used those high-power LEDs but we soon realized that it wasn't simply a matter of brightness that counts, there were numerous other factors that determined whether a light was suitable as an on-camera light or not.
Maybe most notable was the difficulty with optics with the Luxeon/Rebel type LEDs. A company called FRAEN made/makes optics for them, but they are hardly what I'd consider high quality or very suitable for video.
With 5mm LEDs the optics are already built into each LED. We took a long time to choose the two LEDs that we now use, and we only settled for these particular ones after testing MANY MANY different ones, and we are very pleased and proud to have found and use the ones we do now. They are bright and offer a pleasing beam pattern.

So, we make no excuses for using 5mm LEDs, but I simply wanted to explain some of the reasons why.

By the way, we constantly buy different LEDs to see what's out there. If we ever find an acceptable alternative that somehow offers considerable advantages, we definitely will offer it in a on-cam video light - at a reasonable price and as sturdy as the one we offer now.

Happy shooting...
 
Looking over all the different kinds of LED lights, the vidled really seems like the best deal for the price. Any word on when they will be available again?
 
How do the zylights power up do they have a battery like the vidleds? or do they have the d-tap connector?
 
Jeez - I was thinking that the Digital Quest LED light was looking pretty good. Except that the Panasonic compatible version is sold out. Damn, why is it so difficult to spend some money?
 
I'm looking at the litepanels on-camera light now (they're actually in stock on B&H) I hadn't really wanted to spend over $800.00, but I really need a good, dimmable LED light for cold, dark, December Denmark. I want a light that I can attach a DVX battery to and not have to deal with XLR or D-tap cables. Anyone have an opinion on the litepanels? From the description on the Litepanels site, it looks like the battery adapter plate uses two camera batteries? Can it be powered with just one? Sorry, I know the topic of this thread was about VidLED, so this can be moved if need be.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top