Are bi-colour led's worth it?

A

andrew00

Well-known member
Hey,

I'm thinking of picking up a Litepanels 1x1 or equivalent and there's the option of a Daylight/Tungsten or Bi-Colour panel.

I was wondering if anyone uses led panels and has anything positive or negative to say about the Bi-Colour question.

Do you find it's a worthwhile investment, do you wish you had've bought a Bi one, or the opposite - is it easily replicated with a gel and a nice 500 bucks saved etc?

Cheers.
 
I gel mine - do yourself a favor and buy the LP 1x1 plastics gels so they easily slide in rather then having to tape Rosco or Lee to the casing).
 
David W. Jones said:
Bi-color has a much lower output than a full daylight or full studio balanced LED.
Click to expand...
So true. The only time a bi-color is at its full brightness is when both yellow and blue LEDs are on, in the seldom-needed color temp of ~4000K. I have a small LED 312 bi-color that I use for a hairlight, happy to give up some brightness for the ability to dial-in a gel temp without messing with actual gels. But I wouldn't choose a bi-color for key or fill when I'd be paying good $ for LEDs in the array that I would rarely use.
 
as ive said here (and in other forums) more than i care to remember...

another thing with LEDs is a lot of companies offer "dual-color" or "bi-color" units. this can be cool. because you can dial in the color temperature in the range from daylight to tungsten. the BIG downside to this is its achieved by making half the emitters one color and half the other. then dimming one set relative to the other to "mix" the color. so the only time you get the ADVERTISED POWER of the light is right in the middle when all of them are on. so if you are wanting all the light you can get for you money - its FAR SMARTER to buy a single daylight unit then a stack of graduated CTO gels.

and i agree with browncow above. i too have a couple small bi-color units for smaller, specific situations. but i would NEVER consider buying bi-color as my key/primary lights. it's a waste of your money.
 
I dunno, I think bicolor is quite worth it. You're already probably sacrificing a lot of output and CRI compared to tungsten or HMI or fluorescent anyway for the convenience of LED, so why not sacrifice a little more for the convenience of being able to dial in any color temp you want. I also find you get even more green when gelling daylight LEDs, so I'd avoid doing that unless you don't mind also re-correcting for green spike or know your particular LEDs can handle your particular CTO without making the green worse.

It depends on what you shoot, though. I mostly only use LEDs in situations where I'm short-handed and need to work quick and light, so the added benefit of not having to carry and find and apply gels is quite nice. I use the YN300II bicolor LED panel and its nice to be able to remotely choose my color temp to eye whenever I want while at the camera even when I can't have someone manning the light. If you wanted to do that on a non-bicolor LED you'd have to run back and forth with different strength gels hoping you have one that looks the way you want.
 
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