Alzo 300 LED light

After shooting with Lekos 750w and 525w, the head is very reasonable in weight and size. The PSU adds the slight majority of the weight but even both together seems to be more portable than a leko. The noise levels confirms that this light is only good for outdoor use, through a window, as a fill in large spaces, or any other application where noise from the light won't be a big concern. I wouldn't use this light as a closeup key light since it will be loud and you will make you subject pretty uncomfortable due to the brightness of the light even when diffused.

You won't burn your hand touching the housing of the light, you might start burning your fingers if you actually touched the frosted dome of the light for more than a second or two. The website states "great care must be taken when applying gels to the light as the front of the PAR reflector can not be covered blocking air circulation on the front of the LED" I don't think a gel will burn if left in front of the lights reflector but I can't speak for the well being of the light (I would personally take the risk as it didn't seem to get too hot).

Something to keep in mind is that the light is still very bright even when fully dimmed.
 
I had the Alzo 3300 and sent it back after a brief test. The green cast was just too much me me and gelling it would be a pain especially since the front requires ventilation. Compared to my Skylux the color issues were not worth the increased output.

That being said I am also selling my Skylux if anybody is interested. I'm into other things now and won't be using the Skylux very often.
 
DvxHerb said:
Pultzar,

What other things are you into? Other lights?
Click to expand...

In the process of building some DIY lights... which is taking a lot more time and money than I anticipated :)

Once one views the color clarity of the Skylux then it is hard to go back to the Alzo. I also had a Hexolux light for awhile and could not determine the difference in color quality between it and the Skylux.
 
Ok, I got my Skylux in today so I did some quick tests of my own comparing the Alzo 3300, Wetscott Skylux, and a Lowel Tota (750w lamp). I tested using a BMPCC, Metabones Speedbooster, Sigma 35 1.4 art lens. I left the camera at 180 shutter angle and left the aperture at f9.5 for all of the shots. You can download the RAW DNGs here and play with them in Lightroom or Camera RAW.

Rather than testing with barebulb or using the supplied reflectors (which vary in coverage and efficiency), I used the same 90 degree reflector for both LED lights. The Tota has a built in reflector that probably covers more like 120 degrees so please keep that in mind when comparing output amounts (i.e. the tota isn't outputting as much as it could if it has an equivalent reflector)

As a side note, the Alzo has wider coverage when used barebulb (more than 180 degree) due to its protruding frosted dome. The skylux is closer to 120-160 degrees due to its flat face design. This actually threw off the test a little bit since the skylux doesn't utilize the reflector as much as the Alzo. This is evident when comparing the reflector images as you can see the Alzo is a more diffused than the skylux even though they are using the same reflector. This also means that when shooting in a confined space, barebulb, the Alzo is going to create a larger and more diffused bounce pattern. When aimed directly at a subject both lights will create strong shadow edges, however, the Alzo has more chance of those edges being softened by stray light bouncing off walls.

In the images below, I've set the Tota color temperature to 3200K, the skylux to 5600K and the Alzo to 5300K which is the listed white balances for all the lights. I left the Tint at 0 for all lights.


Lowel Tota with built in 120 degree Reflector
Lowel_Tota.JPG


Skylux with 90 Degree Reflector
Skylux_Reflector.JPG


Alzo 3300 with 90 Degree Reflector
Alzo3300_Reflector.JPG


Skylux with 90 Degree Reflector - Fully Dimmed
Skylux_Reflector_Dimmed.JPG


Alzo 3300 with 90 Degree Reflector - Fully Dimmed
Alzo3300_Reflector_Dimmed.JPG


Skylux with 28" Fotodiox Beauty Dish with diffusion sock
Skylux_Beauty_Dish.JPG


Alzo 3300 with 28" Fotodiox Beauty Dish with diffusion sock
Alzo3300_Beauty_Dish.JPG


Conclusions

Light Output:
It should come as no surprise that the Alzo 3300 is the brightest of them all. I measured the Alzo as 1.8 stops brighter than the Skylux. When Comparing the Skylux and Tota, these appear to be very similar in brightness. The Skylux was .25 of a stop brighter but the Tota was more diffused so I would call it even and say the Skylux is equivalent to a 750w Tota light which would put the Alzo at around 2.7K.

The Alzo step Dims by 1.25 stops and the Skylux smoothly dims to 2.2 stops of its maximum brightness.

Noise:
As previously reported the Alzo is about as loud as my desktop computer with a fan in the PSU (which can be muffled if you don't mind it getting a little warm) and a fan in the head which you can't muffle (and definitely shouldn't be due to it's heat.) The Skylux is very quit and can only be heard when bring you ear close to it. Just be careful not to put your mic right next to it and you should be good.

Heat:
The Alzo body gets arm and the face gets hot to the touch but nothing that will burn you if you don't keep your hand on it for more than a second. The skylux can be handled and touched no problem but there is a metal ring around the glass cover that actually gets hots to the touch. Both LEDs cool off super quickly.

Color:
Please note that these tests where not done in a vacuum so there's bound to be some color influence whether it be from the walls, the reflectors or from the diffusion on the beauty dish.
From the results I'm seeing in Camera Raw, the manufacturers stated white balances of these lights are not very accurate. Using the white balance tool, Camera Raw would put the Alzo at 4850K with a tint of +51 in the magenta, the Skylux is 4950K and +35 in the magenta and the Tota is 3200 with +11 in the magenta. Since even the Tota had a green in it, I imagine that perhaps my walls or maybe even my lens or camera sensor were introducing some green into the shots. What I can tell you for certain is that at the same color temperature, the Alzo has a lot more green than than the Skylux. I welcome all of you to download the Raw files and play around yourselves.
 
Yeah I found that if I white balanced the Alzo, there was a green tint especially with skin tones. Skylux was much much better in that regard.
 
Revisiting the noise levels of the skylux, I am noticing now then when attaching certain modifiers the noise level increases. My metal beauty dish doens't really pair for sound purposes. Pultzar (an other skylux owners), do you think it would be a bad idea to disable the internal fan? The fans don't seem to push out too much hot air so I'm wondering if the light will fair ok without them.
 
egproductions said:
Revisiting the noise levels of the skylux, I am noticing now then when attaching certain modifiers the noise level increases. My metal beauty dish doens't really pair for sound purposes. Pultzar (an other skylux owners), do you think it would be a bad idea to disable the internal fan? The fans don't seem to push out too much hot air so I'm wondering if the light will fair ok without them.
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I wouldn't risk it personally
 
DvxHerb said:
Pultzar,

The Skylux AND the Hexolux? Awesome. You said the colors were similar, how about the output?
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The color temperatures were different but after white balancing they were close enough to my eyes where I couldn't find a consistent difference. The Hexolux is about a stop brighter unless one removes the diffusion cover from the Skylux and forgoes the bowens mount.

Hexolux is better for battery powering and the Fresnel lens attachment if you care about those things. It is also 99.99% silent and backed by a great company. $$$ though!
 
@egproductions

Thanks for the write up. I have been curious about the 3300s. Ultimately, the warning on the website about blocking air circulation steered me towards the 3200s because I figured I'd usually be using them with minus green 1/8. You reminded me that I should probably offer up the native color temperature of the light coming out of the 3200s as well, so I did a quick gray card test this evening in ACR in case anyone wants to know:

Alzo 3200 (naked): 5250K (+2 Tint)
Alzo 3200 (minus green 1/8 gel): 5050K (-17 Tint)
 
Quickhit, I'd love to see your test files if you have them. Its surprising that camera raw barley wants to alter the naked Alzo.

A small update. I've opened up my skylux. The fan is super easy to disconnect and can be reconnected anytime. The frosted cover of the light is actually a thin film of something with a white powder substance on it, so be careful not to wipe that away (although it can probably be replaced pretty easily). Without the diffusion film, the LED achieves about .25 stop extra output. Not sure its worth removing it unless you really need that extra light and don't care about an even spread.

Here's to hoping my light doesn't burn out without the fan!
 
QuickHitRecord said:
This weekend I shot a short film for a competition similar to the 48H Film Festival. Since the stakes were low, it seemed like a good opportunity to experiment so I brought along my brand new 3200s. My gaffer and I lit the whole thing with the pair of them. It was his first time working with them and he told me that he liked them. We had a tungsten kit there too, but those lights never came out. When we needed tungsten light to match the practicals for the evening shots, we gelled them and they still provided plenty of punch. No complaints from the audio guy either about the fan noise (though, he was not a pro soundie, so I would take that with a grain of salt).
Click to expand...
Would love to see some shots from the film that the 3200 where used in
 
ReelFilmGeek said:
Would love to see some shots from the film that the 3200 where used in
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Alright, here's a scene from the film:

https://vimeo.com/112354910
PW: alzo

There is no music, grading, or even a sound effect for the door closing. My guess is that the editor ran out of time, but it's better for those interested in seeing the Alzo lights in action.

Everything was lit by two Alzo 3200s with 1/8 minus green gels. In the opening shot, we put one in the bedroom right next to the door (you can catch the foot of the stand if you look carefully) and ceiling-bounced it. We bounced the other one off of the ceiling above the couch. Then we moved the first light and bounced it off the living room ceiling as a keylight for her. The mics (1x hypercardioid and 1x shotgun) were placed about 8-12 feet from the lights. There's something weird going on with the audio at the very end. Makes me wonder if someone cracked a window without my noticing. But otherwise, I don't think that it's too noticeable.

Camera was a Canon C100, Wide DR, color balance at around 5300K.
 
egproductions said:
...

Here's to hoping my light doesn't burn out without the fan!
Click to expand...

That is hope against hope. While the LED may not fail quickly, you will certainly accelerate the color shift and brightness of the LED. Assuming there is no thermal probe to shut down the LED, it is an interesting experiment to see what happens over time.
 
Paul F said:
That is hope against hope. While the LED may not fail quickly, you will certainly accelerate the color shift and brightness of the LED. Assuming there is no thermal probe to shut down the LED, it is an interesting experiment to see what happens over time.
Click to expand...

The fan is there for good reason. I wouldn't run without it for about a minute or so assuming a cold start.

From my research on LED heat sinks, many will dissipate ~30-40 watts without a fan and 100-150 watts with a fan. Big difference.
 
Had my first shoot with the Skylux. Really liking it. Had it running without the fan for about 1.5-2 hours. Everything seems ok so far.

One thing i forgot to mention in my comparison is that the Alzo would flicker or have banding at the 90 degree shutter angle or below (1/100th and above on my dslr). The skylux was completely flicker free.
 
If anybody is interested I have dropped the price of my Skylux to $575 + shipping, which is a pretty great deal. I need to fund my DIY activities that are turning out more expensive than I expected.
 
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