Prompter People MicroBeam

A

augenblick

Well-known member
Hi guys

I was at the broadcastlive exhibition in London yesterday and Prompter People showed their brand new MicroBeam 128LED on camera light which looked very very promising. I saw it side by side with the Litepanels Micro and the MicroBeam surpasses Litepanels in ever aspect!
It has a rugged aluminum casing that can take a beat or two.


The Prompter People UK website says:


"It's an On-Camera LED Light that operates for hours on standard LiOn camcorder batteries from Sony, Panasonic, Canon or JVC.

• 128 Ultra Bright 5600K LED's

• External DC input 7-18v DC

• Full dimming via dimmer knob on back of unit
• Runs for hours on standard Lion camera batteries

• Rugged aluminium case

• Slide in filter holder

• Colour correction/diffuser gels included

• Hotshoe swivel mount included
• Full filter pack including conversion to 3200K
• 12VDC, includes camera battery mounting plates for (your choice of one) JVC, Sony, Canon and Panasonic. Also accepts 12V DC directly
• Heavy duty anodised aluminium construction available in blue or red
• Brighter than units costing much more

TecSpecs:


Model: Flolight Microbeam 128 LED
Size: 4¾" x 2¾ x 1.5" (358W / 358H / 102D (mm))
Weight: Under 2 lbs


Hot Lights Equivalent: 100W equivalent output with low power consumption
Voltage: 12v DC, 100-240v AC 50/60hz

_______________________________




The MicroBeam goes for 329 Euro
That probably translates to 399$ But that's just my guess.


I had them in my hands and they are worth every penny imho.





Peter
 
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Did the actual unit have a green tinge to it? When you compared the unit side by side, was it literally side by side?
 
MicroBeam in my left hand, Litepanels in the right ... or vice versa. I don't remember correctly;-)
A friend of mine was standig about 2 meters away from me and I was pointing the Litepanels Micro at him with absolutely no impact. Then I used the Flolight MicroBeam and the guy was lit. He pressed his eyes together and was going "Woahh.. that's bright".

I don't have any numbers on the lumen output, but this little bastards are at least 2.5 times brighter than the litepanels Micro. I'd say they are comparable to the Litepanels Mini Plus for half the price.

And to my eyes no green tinge. Or not more or less then other LED lights at the exhibition incl. the litepanels 1x1 and the Led-Z Brute 9. But those have HighPower CreeQ5 in it.

Also the flolight 500 and 1000 looked very good to me and believe me, I am hard to impress.

Peter
 
All Chinese sourced 5400/5600k 5mm white leds are going to have a nice, prominent green spike today. The Prompter People LED500s do, my Cool Lights LED 600s do, they all do at this point. Nothing that some half minus green gel cannot tame but just beware that the CRI on all of these lights is very low, around 80-81.

Looks like a pretty cool new products from PrompterPeople.

Dan
 
Customer service contact notwithstanding, it appears to be an interesting light.

The guy (Chuck) at Prompter People who I sent a bunch of questions to seemed very busy getting ready for NAB, too busy to answer much of my questions. Said if I wanted to see it, I needed to go to NAB. So if you're at NAB, go check 'em out (I won't be there).

Salesmen...

Also of note, it looks like it will only be available direct, and there's a 10 day "like new" return period, and even still there's a 20% restocking fee. Seems pretty steep, since the LEDs aren't going to be burned out, and there's no battery pack or other consumable that would be 20% depreciated.

So I would say that until you have seen it or heard the loud praises coming down from heaven, there's no way to know if it's really great, or just really great on paper.

He did mention that they'll eventually be working with other vendors, but that if I wanted one now, I should go ahead and order it, because the price is going to go up soon, and they will be selling like hotcakes and they can't guarantee stock for long.

Salesmen...

EDIT - I would also add that there's another version coming soon that is a 200w equivalent (that's a lot of light) for around $559. These lights are stackable, however, so it might serve you better to just stack two of the other ones and have greater control of the lighting (although for slightly more mony than the 200w version alone). Battery life is estimated around 8 hours.
 
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I bought a "discounted" 2 bank flo a while back as a post NAB floor model. I was told it had a few minor scuffs from normal use. The "scuffs" turned out to be a bent barn door and two bent barndoor brackets. After disassembly and restraightening, everything is fine. In all fairness, it could have happened in shipping but I saw no indications of mishandling on the box. Later I found a 4 bank flo on ebay direct from the same factory (Steven Studios) for almost $100 less than what I paid Prompter People for the discounted 2 bank. These days I really need a teleprompter and an on camera light but after reading about the experience of others, not about to go there.
 
I sent a PM to Glidetrack and got this response.


Glidetrack said:
Bucknfl said:
Did you get your prompter people led and do you like it?
Click to expand...

Sorry....only just found your mail. Yes, I got it and it is VERY nice. Much more solid construction than the Litepanels Microbeam. The one i got was a pre production one with Sony battery mounts. Am now waiting on getting two with Canon battery mounts.

AB
Click to expand...
 
They've got a new page up...http://www.flolight.com/microbeam-128.html

Red one looks pretty...kind of like Zacuto made it.

The new videos are helpful, you can see how far away the camera is, and what kind of throw this thing has, and the intensity looks good even from about 10 feet away.

I'm mighty close to getting one of these things myself.
 
I would not recommend this light, poor quality workmanship, the intensity control knob get stuck 3/4 of the way but if you keep turning it will go all the way but the brightness doesn't get any brighter, I called support and they said that is the way it is, there is lump on the plastic knob and I need to grind it down or send it back to them and they will fix it, also they advertised it as equivalent to 100watts, that is not true at all, maybe 35 watts top, also there is a very bad green tint that you have to use the 1/2 -green filter and if you want it to be 3200K you need to put the 3200K filter on it and by this time the ouput is way down, this company is bad, they want 25% restocking fees, so you guys should stay away from them.:Drogar-Love(DBG):
 
I also have had bead experience with Prompter People - one of the worst companies I've ever dealt with. Also, when a company feels a need to charge a re-stocking fee, that sends up a red flag in my mind. They won't be getting my business.
 
well you all probably checked out the flo light micro beam 128, i bought one was looking for a lite panel micropro but somehow was talked into the flo light. i was told i would need to use the half minus green gels that came with it (there is a decent set of gels packaged with it). did a camparison with the lite panel micro and it was about twice as bright as, i read the LP micro pro is suppose to be twice as bright as the lp micro and the flo is about a $100 less. the flo uses camcorder batteries and you can get it with panasonic, canon or sony battery mounts (and i think JVC) I was told they last about 6 hours which is cooler than 6 AA batteries lasting only an hour (nickle and dime you to death) have to say i havent shot anything serious with it yet this week i will so i cant give you a complete impression but check back ill post some more later
 
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