SkyPanel X

I've never heard of Claypaky. Looks like they have a lot of moving heads?

that logo with "an arri company" comes up on their splash page
 
chris_f said:
It can be a bit frustrating that most of the innovation of the more affordable brands is going into making lights bigger and brighter and heavier and heavier.

Fiilex has a new dedicated RGBW projection light called the G3 but it's only 90w. They have the dense matrix technology to keep the size of the COB down, so the optics are usually great on their lights. The Astera Leo and Pluto are also interesting in that they use 'light pipes' to improve the optical efficiency of the COB in the native fresnel and projector.

Have you seen the Cineo R15? I wonder if Cineo could take the water cooled Corncob style light engine from this fixture and turn it into something specific for softboxes?

Click to expand...

The Fiilex G3 looks interesting, other than the fact that it doesn't seem to be for sale yet in the US.

I'v been interested in the Dedo Neo light. I decided to watch the description video and found it pretty funny when the Dedo rep basically dismissed the usefulness of RGB LED lights for projection lenses at this point the video: https://youtu.be/a_6RIL6nw_8?si=NRWFZPuM3k2Ux2CK&t=473
 
ahalpert said:
I've never heard of Claypaky. Looks like they have a lot of moving heads?

that logo with "an arri company" comes up on their splash page
Click to expand...

Abe, do yourself a favour and check out some of their products - https://www.youtube.com/@ClaypakyOfficial/videos

Skylos as an example - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn4G3ZS8BYg

Event lighting obviously isn't held to the same standards of film lighting in terms of colour indices (indexes), but there are elements of it that feel far more ahead of film equipment.

From 01:28 onwards you can see Claypaky's sharpy at work (4 years old now!) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI2AuN4msoE, a million times cooler than any titan tubes or infinibars clearly in shot.

And yes, these would translate to mostly hard lighting applications, but I think if Arri rebadged a few of these, either still available as movable heads, or less expensive static heads, that they'd be pretty popular. I could be wrong?!
 
cpreston said:
The Fiilex G3 looks interesting, other than the fact that it doesn't seem to be for sale yet in the US.

I'v been interested in the Dedo Neo light. I decided to watch the description video and found it pretty funny when the Dedo rep basically dismissed the usefulness of RGB LED lights for projection lenses at this point the video: https://youtu.be/a_6RIL6nw_8?si=NRWFZPuM3k2Ux2CK&t=473
Click to expand...

It seems a strange thing to say when promoting a RGBACL product, but there is a lot of truth to it. It’s probably why Dedolight’s most powerful LED fixture is only 300watts and mono-color - the size of the chip still gives good optical performance at that size. And then HMI can take over. In interviews with Dedo himself, he does lament the fact that LED has taken over.

I think of it like different size film…. medium format sensors / film is much harder to design lenses for
and the whole system becomes bulkier and more expensive. A cropped sensor tends to have smaller, faster more affordable lenses.

The Arri Orbiter is another fixture that strikes a good balance for optical performance at the 400w power level. The projection attachments look great optically for that light.

One thing that is also often over looked is the sharpness of the shadows within the beam of the projector. With larger LED lights its still possible to create sharp cuts in gobos etc. but if objects / subjects are within the beam and casting their own shadow, there is often quite a difference in shadow sharpness vs the projected shadow.

I doubt these little details matter enough on most shoots (especially on fast paced ones) to sacrifice the convenience of Color tunability etc. But it is one of tge remaining challenges of higher powered LED fixtures.
 
rob norton said:
Abe, do yourself a favour and check out some of their products - https://www.youtube.com/@ClaypakyOfficial/videos

Skylos as an example - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn4G3ZS8BYg

Event lighting obviously isn't held to the same standards of film lighting in terms of colour indices (indexes), but there are elements of it that feel far more ahead of film equipment.

From 01:28 onwards you can see Claypaky's sharpy at work (4 years old now!) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI2AuN4msoE, a million times cooler than any titan tubes or infinibars clearly in shot.

And yes, these would translate to mostly hard lighting applications, but I think if Arri rebadged a few of these, either still available as movable heads, or less expensive static heads, that they'd be pretty popular. I could be wrong?!
Click to expand...

Hey, Astera was "just" an event/stage lighting company not that long ago.

I don't think it's too much of a coincidence that as cameras have gotten better and better(dynamic range, etc.) over the last several years that some people have been going back to harder and more dramatic lighting.
 
rob norton said:
That's funny Casey, pretty strong words from a Lighting Designer. Nothing wrong with gels!
Click to expand...

ive used gels on my ap600 on my current “feature”

Rigged with a 24in frame and a 3in airgap there is a lot of reflection and spill

movevthe (lee) gel closer and it melts.

lesson - id take rgb lights given the budget
 
morgan_moore said:
ive used gels on my ap600 on my current “feature”

Rigged with a 24in frame and a 3in airgap there is a lot of reflection and spill

movevthe (lee) gel closer and it melts.

lesson - id take rgb lights given the budget
Click to expand...

I should've said nothing wrong with gels, except for several things.
 
People got by with just gels for a long time. Will it melt it even if you have it on a reflector so there's a gap but no spill
 
ahalpert said:
People got by with just gels for a long time. Will it melt it even if you have it on a reflector so there's a gap but no spill
Click to expand...

I’ve used correction gels on the end of a Nanlite reflector (leaving an air gap) with the nanlite 720d light and never melted them. The gel lasted multiple shoots before fading too.
 
I don’t have any direct experience, but ran into a gaffer buddy several weeks ago on a shoot and one of his friends bought some and loves them. Said he’s on a movie with them right now and it’s already paid for them, because the DP wants them on standby all the time.
 
Run&Gun said:
I don’t have any direct experience, but ran into a gaffer buddy several weeks ago on a shoot and one of his friends bought some and loves them. Said he’s on a movie with them right now and it’s already paid for them, because the DP wants them on standby all the time.
Click to expand...
How did you get your account working again? Mine just crapped out similarly to your description so I started a new one
 
Alex emailed me about a week ago and said that the glitch had been taken care of. He didn’t know exactly what it was, as it was some admins that straightened it out, but said the forum software switch had broken a bunch of account permissions.

Knock on wood, so far, so good…
 
I have a Skypanel X. At this point, I've mostly used it as a keylight with a softbox rather than using it as a hard light or really testing its limits. If you are looking for a primary light that can do most anything and not too worried about size, this is the light. My main problem is that my Skypanel X kit is huge and heavy compared to my COB lights. I have the S60 adapter and most of the S60 accessories which is part of what makes it so adaptable. It is far more efficient in a softbox than a COB, it can be used as a decently powered 2x1 moderately diffuse source, and the hard light attachment puts COB intensifiers and fresnels to shame while still giving you the benefits of a 2x1 source. The only thing it can't do is act as a point source, although if you get it far enough away and use an intensifier it will mimic a point source extremely well. It is quiet enough and it is nice that you can use the control box as a remote, although I really wish that it was wireless. It is Arri quality and the built in ballast is great.

All that said, I don't like taking it on jobs because it can't really be carted around. I currently have the fixture and all of the accessories in a Pelican 1690 case with the yoke and stand traveling separately. This is far heavier and bulkier than a Prolycht 675 with fresnel and softbox that is my alternate. For most uses, the Skypanel X gives me at least a stop more light, but it is also twice as large.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top