Alzo 300 LED light

Darren Levine said:
can't figure if this was sarcastic or not
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No, not sarcastic actually. (though reading it again it may as well be I admit)
I thought the light was useless for me. Now I'll be looking into sound absorbing sheets and materials ect. to make a custom shape. It's a workaround, involving putting on and off that thing for takes, but 20 minutes is much more than I had imagined the fan could be covered by some dampening fabric.

I just hope the next generation of these kind of units will be silent.
 
stip said:
I've been asked to record the sound 1 foot from the side of the unit. I also recorded the light 6 feet to the right from the camera, pointing to an imaginative talent.
All I have here that can record sound is a GH1, so this video is recorded with it's crappy stereo mic. Make sure your computer doesn't make noise itself when watching :)

https://copy.com/DvLYW6WfRNIu

I hope this can give a rough impression and BrownCowVideo and dusty may give their opinion about it.

I can see shotgun mics helping especially for interview work but anything with stereo or ambient sound recordings, more so with decent mics, I'm not sure how to manage that.
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stip-

thanks for taking the time to make the recording.

as a key light for interviews, for me the fan noise would be obtrusive.

darn!

ymmv

be well.

rob
smalltalk productions/nyc
 
For ambient shooting, I would agree that the fan noise might be picked-up. Since I use mine for a kicker, hairlight, snoot, etc. for talking-heads interviews and from 6' away, the lav mic (or properly-aimed hyper) would never pick up the fan noise. Even if used as a key with a softbox, I'm pretty sure that the softbox itself would dampen the noise. Personally, I bought the light as a hard(ish) source, so I won't probably use it in that capacity. IMHO, there are better light solutions to insert into a softbox.

Since it throws out so much directional light, I can put it a good ways from the talent. I ordered an eBay $20 Bowens S-mount snoot that should arrive tomorrow that should extend that even further out, and I'll run it through the paces.

On my next interview, I'll grab some A/B with the 3000 on and off and post results here.
 
I have an RPS studio version of this light (confirmed to be identical according to another member) for sale if anybody is interested. Send me a PM!
 
If noise is reason for selling check the updated first post of this thread for a cheap modification to make the light silent.
 
Darren Levine said:
oh come now, due tell your reasons for selling Pultzar :)
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I got a good price on the SkyLux LED which I slightly prefer, mostly due to the smaller size of the head and the detachable power cord making it easier to pack. It was a tough decision since the SkyLux is way more expensive.

The fan noise of the RPS doesn't bother me for what I do. The SkyLux actually has fan noise too.
 
Pultzar said:
I got a good price on the SkyLux LED which I slightly prefer, mostly due to the smaller size of the head and the detachable power cord making it easier to pack. It was a tough decision since the SkyLux is way more expensive.

The fan noise of the RPS doesn't bother me for what I do. The SkyLux actually has fan noise too.
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The Skylux is also dead on 5550-5600k whereas the Alzo is a tiny bit warmer. However they are close by eye.
 
Call me crazy but I liek the Flou rendetion of the color swatches best . What gives? Metal Halide should be as good but Chroma50 Flou are nearly flawless ( as they are used in color quality checking booths at printers)
 
There must be a way to couple these with a fresnel lens and get a similar light to a Hexolux. Those look very cool with sharp focusing and a tilt-shift lens to even the beam field at an angle, but the price for a 100W unit is a bit high. These aren't that different from Hexolux's light engine, we'd just need to add the fresnel section. Otherwise it's hard to compare these with anything else besides fixed lens led arrays since even openface/fresnel fixtures have variable flood-spot.

I'm a little weirded out by the design that seems to take the light from the big SMD LED and diffuse it into a weird cone shape just so it can get reflected by an oversized reflector. Seems like there must be a better way that wastes less light? What is the weird cylinder in front of the LED emitter? Can it be removed?

Maybe put it in something like this? http://www.thestudiooutfitters.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=194

This guy seems to have tried it with a similar light: http://www.lightingrumours.com/jinbei-ef-100-sunlight-review-led-lighting-system-3068#.Uxrgd_ldV8E
 
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dustylense said:
Hey guys.

Back to chime in more of the light. I actually ordered two more of these lights but get this... I ordered that RPS Studio version because I saw them at Samys camera. Between the RPS and the ALZO there is ZERO difference in the light itself other than the mounting yoke and the handle on top of the Alzo. Also, the dish in the RPS that I got is smooth silver where as the Alzo is dimpled texture (which works a bit better in evenness of the light throw). Being the light is the same, the dimmer is in "clicks" of what they say are 1/2 stops (I haven't measured that as when I light with continuous source it's all by eye baby).

Are the lights top quality? They are what they are. $300 lights. But I'll say that next to my $2800 Sola 6 and my $1000 Skylux units I'm not seeing anything I'm remotely concerned with about the RPS or the Alzo. But lights throw light differently to other lights in all forms. My Arri tungsten fresnesl throw differently than my Moles do. That is why one learns to work with different brands.


Yes, they are Chinese. But what isn't these days? At $289 lowest price I suggest you buy one and see if you can work with it or not. I now have 4 of them.

Paul F. Yes, Bowen mount works with the units. I have some bowens moonlights and the accessories fit the LED units of mention.

Here is a still I took with some LED's.
View attachment 78963
Conclusion... I bought 4 of them. They work. Should you buy them? That is for you to decide. Oh by the way, they are very light in weight.
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Dusty-
Hope you see this. Thanks so much for this. Is this RPS? I saw you were getting the Alzos, and were going to do tests, but all I saw was the architorture, I must have tuned out of the thread and missed this shot.

So many people put nice still lifes together, but you get no sense of skin rendition, so THANK YOU!!!

For this shot, what light modification/ diffusion did you use, and what distance from light to subject?

What hair light?

What camera, mkIII?

What WB method?

Any minus green?

Much CC?

Noticeable audio noise had you been doing an interview at this distance?

How do you think the results would have differed with a 1x1?

Thanks buddy...

PS- she has beautiful skin-
 
Rename.Still001.jpg
I got another Alzo in for testing and I must say it works pretty well for skin tones. This is before any color correction.

However the fan is noiser than I would like. Perhaps if I buy this one I will put a better fan in it.
noise.jpg
 
craigo81 said:
I just ordered two of them. My ASMP discount took $20 off the price of each...very good price. I'll report my thoughts when they arrive. I'll be using them for applications without sound most of the time.
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craigo81,

maybe you find the time to remove the casing and try to read the name of the fan of the 200W unit, maybe there's a possibility to replace that fan with a more silent one too.
 
Is anyone using minus green on their Alzo lights? I'm glad we have these powerful, cheap, rebranded Chinese LEDs available, but the green spike in the Alzo was pretty bad compared to the Fotodiox and Skylux.
 
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