FloLight LED500 Light Review

Gopher_Greene said:
Mark,

Any update on this issue? I'm interested in both the 500 and the 1000 but need to ne certain they are going to be the same color temp.

Gopher
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As I mentioned before, they returned THE SAME LED500 I sent them, which had a 4300k temperature.

In my book, that is hardly "we take all quality issues including color temperature seriously".
 
mcgeedigital said:
As I mentioned before, they returned THE SAME LED500 I sent them, which had a 4300k temperature.

In my book, that is hardly "we take all quality issues including color temperature seriously".
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I'd stay away from this light based on several reports of incorrect color temp. The capper for me is the report that they sent back the same light with the same problem. I was going to get this light until I read reports from people here about the quality issue. And it isn't just this one story. Even Barry said he saw the same problem when the light was at a trade show.

Wait. There will be better lights for less money soon.
 
What I saw at the trade show was that the LED1000 was way, way green. I asked the FloLights guy about it and he said "all our lights are perfectly 5600k." I pointed out that whether they were 5600k or not, I'd need at least a sheet of 1/2 minusgreen, if not full minusgreen, in order to make that light look acceptable. He looked like he had no clue what I was talking about.
 
I think what he didn't understand is the issue of CRI. Regardless of color temperature, a bias toward green (or anything else) indicates a problem with CRI. Its pretty easy to find daylight LEDs that have CRI issues of various kinds (which means its not so easy to find good ones). This is why you will see so many panels that avoid the issue by simply going to 8000K or above. Good CRI seems to be easier to obtain in the 3200K range and the 8000K and above range.
 
My solution is to only use the FLolights (my boss bought two of them) for lighting greenscreens. They work great for that. Don't like them on talent anyway, they don't compare to my tungsten and Chimera.

Dan
 
Led500 led1000

Led500 led1000

I contacted the manufacturer of these lights in China. I pointed out this thread, and I got this response.
>>
[FONT=宋体]Would you pls specify where people talk about the color temperature and green color.[/FONT]
[FONT=宋体]I only find they are worrying about it before getting one.[/FONT]
[FONT=宋体] [/FONT]
[FONT=宋体]And i can tell you that we test the light color temperature with color meter brand Minolta.[/FONT]
[FONT=宋体]We test it within 5300-5900K,no 4300K. I am a little puzzled about this.[/FONT]
[FONT=宋体]>>>[/FONT]


[FONT=宋体]So, can the people who used this light please specify exactly how they measured the color temperature and the green tinge ? Preferably in a way that can be replicated in independent testing.[/FONT]
[FONT=宋体]It is a promising product, and I hope that I can get the manufacturer to fix any issues. Flolight seems to be just the distributor.
[/FONT]
 
I looked at the lights at NAB at the FloLight booth and said "dang, those look green." No special meters necessary, they looked like they'd need (ballpark estimate) a sheet of full MinusGreen to deliver proper color rendition.

A green tint isn't related to color temperature anyway. When you use a color temperature meter you'll get two readings, one is what the color temp is, and the other is what color correction factor you'll need to employ to get rid of a green or magenta tint. So you could have a pure 5600k light that's green as all get-out.
 
They'd need to evaluate the light with a spectrophotometer.

I have one here but don't know if I can get the software to run it anymore. That device was great when comparing clean sunlight to other light sources. You'd see exactly where the spectrum of a light source deviated from sunlight, and you could easily evaluate the effectiveness of various filters, too.

That's how I was able to nail down a green cast from some daylight fluorescent lights.
 
Those comments are right from both Barry and Dean. Color Temperature and CRI are two different things. CRI more tells the story about something like a green bias. And it cannot be CRI 90 if it has a green bias like that.

All lesser expensive daylight 5mm LEDs have some green bias. If you want to use such a panel, you have to live with it. If you use these panels by themselves in controlled environments, you can white balance it out with digital mediums. Controlled as in not mixing with full spectrum light sources as much as possible.

LED manufacturers are where fluorescent manufacturers were 10 years ago, so there is some advancement still not only to be done in the color rendering capabilities of daylight LEDs but also in their sensitivity to even believing its a big deal or should be solved. Most of them are making LEDs for street lamps or building lighting and CRI is not important in these environments.

I wrote the first in a series of articles on LEDs for my blog and you can see it here where we talk about not only the appropriate ways to measure LED strength but also talk some about the other capabilities and shortcomings.

http://www.coollights.biz/wordpress/archives/72
 
Can't wait to get my Coollight 5600k LEDs, Richard.

I already know that YOUR customer service is better than Prompter Peoples.
 
Thanks for that Matt. Processing through the backlog right now and hope to be all caught up by Friday.

More good things coming this year too in bigger LED fixtures as well as a bigger CDM model.
 
Looking forward to receiving Richard's LED lights as well.... and I'll be posting a review shortly after receiving.
 
Just to let you all know that I purchased a 500LED from prompter people here in the UK on the understanding that if it was green I would return the unit.

Great design and build quality but unfortunately when I fired the unit up it had that horrible green tinge to the output. Used my Colour meter on it and got a reading of 4300k and to correct it with 1/2 colour correction green.

Needless to say, I packed it back up and shipped it back for a full refund. Shame really as the form factor was really good. Ideal (if the colour was acceptable) if your travelling a lot and need something really light and compact.

Lets wait and see what Richard has to offer. Anyone received their Cool Lights LED Panel yet?
 
steadicamsteel said:
Just to let you all know that I purchased a 500LED from prompter people here in the UK on the understanding that if it was green I would return the unit.

Great design and build quality but unfortunately when I fired the unit up it had that horrible green tinge to the output. Used my Colour meter on it and got a reading of 4300k and to correct it with 1/2 colour correction green.
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This is my shocked face.

Well, at least they gave you a refund, which is more than they did for me.
 
Spartacus said:
Anything for on-camera use in the pipeline, Richard?:beer:

VidLeds is still "recovering", Litepanels are still too expensive...
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Yes. You know we had those spot versions of the 600 panels and they're already sold out in pre-sales but during all that I was thinking actually that it would make so much more sense to have a smaller fixture for the spot--for all the uses we like a spot for. I'm sure that would be in an on camera form factor. Maybe 100 LEDs or so of the 40 degree, "blinding" kind. I am interested to see what people say about the spot. Dan Brockett is one of the first customers and he's building a softbox/speedring setup for his fixtures, even before I have a chance to do our own. He indicated that even though there was quite a hot spot with the softbox / spot fixture combo he did try that the results were pretty good.
 
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