Are Litepanels still the best LEDs?

berlinfool

berlinfool

Well-known member
I'm thinking about buying the Litepanel Mini for an on-camera light and for other stuff.
Is there any new stuff out there that's better?
I'm worried about the short throw and also that I lose strength after balancing it to tungsten with gel.
Should I just stay away from LEDs? What's the alternative?
I want to use it for interviews and red carpet stuff, but also for more creative filmmaking.
 
I have a friend that swares by his. He does mainly Videography. I do more feature work and you'll need much more than an on-camera lite panel to do any "real" type of lighting. but for videography it's great.
 
i have the micro and love it. no heavy belt/battery pack to carry, and it does the job. (i use it for event work).

kind of flimsy construction, but treat it nice and you won't have any problems.
 
Zylights are cool, you can "dial" in the color temperature on the fly by adjusting a knob...
 
as well as dialing in the actual color of the light as well should you wish. The bluetooth syncing is pretty cool although I dont ever use it in the real world as I usually have my lights at different settings. I've got two z90's and they get used quite a bit. Pricey, but worth it IMO.
 
Should we start a design thread for the ultimate on-camera light?

Last time we covered the big panel this time it would be great to get ideas for the best on camera light. For instance--plastic or aluminum construction (knowing aluminum will be heavier but more sturdy). Maximum it should weigh? How many LEDs? How much power draw? What color temperature (for instance if 8000K got you more lumen output would you be willing to use an included plastic filter to bring it down to 5600K)? Should have battery built in, draw from camera or a separate supply? Hot shoe mount or some other kind? Etc. These are all good starting points. Anyway if people are up for it, I'll start the thread and put a questionnaire including some of the above questions to get it going.
 
My ideal mini light panels would be about 5x10 inches. They could be clamped anywhere, not just on camera. These could be used as accent and rim lights. daylight temp. They could also have a rim to clamp gels onto. If you sell them for cheap I will buy them up :)
 
berlinfool said:
I'm thinking about buying the Litepanel Mini for an on-camera light and for other stuff. Is there any new stuff out there that's better? I'm worried about the short throw and also that I lose strength after balancing it to tungsten with gel. Should I just stay away from LEDs? What's the alternative? I want to use it for interviews and red carpet stuff, but also for more creative filmmaking.
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Had the LitePanel mini for 2 years. Tried others (own a Rosco Litepad, great for car interiors) but keep going back to the LitePanel b/c it's battery operated, dimmable, and has several mounting options. The newer version is supposedly 40% brighter than the original version I have. The output of the 5600k version is suitable as a fill light even after you add some diffusion to soften it up a bit. I have used it on spots and music videos to great effect. And, for fill-in work shooting nightclubs and bars, the output is sufficiently bright enough to add 3.2k color correction and 216 diffusion gel and still get reasonable exposure (maybe with +3 gain) shooting indoors in a dark club setting. It's easy to get group shots of people hanging out and stuff up to 7 or 8 feet away from camera, especially if you're shooting with a slow shutter, i.e. 1/24th of second. With the newer, brighter LitePanel models perhaps you could shoot with a 1/48th and not lose any exposure at all? How does that answer your question?
 
I love my little mini LitePanel! Not sure if it will be bright enough for red carpet stuff, I mainly use mine to put a sparkel in the talents eyes. I have been thinking about buying a 60 cm hot shoe adapter or and one more mini lite panel so I can have the option of using the other one at a different angle or both together for really bright stuff.
 
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