Are the VIDLEDs really that good? Rant...

MikeWilkinson

MikeWilkinson

Veteran
I'm sorry to disagree with the majority here, but I am just not sold on the VIDleds.

For the price of ONE with a battery pack, (MOST PEOPLE SAY TO GET TWO AND MOST EXAMPLES SHOW THE USE OF TWO = $800+) you can get
a real light like people have been using for years, plus power supply.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/66924-REG/NRG_56004_56004_Varalux_Pro_DC.html
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/114963-REG/NRG_51044_51044_Anchor_10_Anchor.html

I use something very similar to this, and it absolutely blasts light out.

I know the VIDleds don't get hot and don't weigh much, but to me the deciding factor how it performs. I did get a cheap LED light once and HATED the results.

Looking at the VIDleds specs page, I'm not impressed. An indoor balanced (which for the majority of times I need the light) source with a VIDled will only give you about 40 lux @ 6 feet. With a daylight balanced light with warming gel, you'll get the same results.

There are also options available to get spot/flood focusable on camera lights, so you're not bound by having harsh, non-diffused light. Sometimes you do want it though. And sometimes you need a strong hotspot when your talent is 20 ft away.

I guess if i was shooting outdoors on a bright, sunny day, I could use a VIDled. Oh wait, I already use a bounce card which works great since it's so sunny, and they don't get that alien-looking blue cast all over their face.

Well how about at night? Since the majority of outdoor lights have a strong orange tint to them at 5.6 preset, using a VIDled would look fine on talent but all other BG lights would be crazy orange I bet.

If someone wants to loan me one and I'll run some real tests, feel free. I'm just struggling to understand how people liek these so much. Has anyone used these as well as standard 100W on camera source? Your thoughts?
 
Absolutely love the VIDLED.

If you don't, then don't buy it, but not really understanding your approach to "questioning."

It sounds as if you have the workflow down without the VIDLED.
 
I use the Vidleds with HVX batterys, they run forever...
Only improvement would be REAL daylight balanced Leds for me (if I recall the daylight Vidleds use a combination of warmish and blueish Leds to mix daylight temperature, maybe Marius can say more...)
Otherwise they are light, cold, longlasting and mostly used OFF camera in my case...
 
The argument is akin to saying "I don't know why anyone would want to use a Kino Flo; a 650w fresnel puts out more light and is a lot cheaper."

Well, yeah, but... if you don't see the difference, there's not much that can be said. There's a reason that Kinos and their knockoffs are enormously popular.
 
spartacus - the daylight balanced vidled is a combo of 8000K and 3200K leds (I think), but it definitely puts out a daylight balanced 5600K light. If the vidled is my main source I just use the 5.6K preset and its dead on for white balance.

I also use mine off camera more than I had intended on and its just a great little fill here and there with run and gun interviews. That and just about an entire days worth of power out of an HVX battery is fantastic. And no giant belt/bag/vest to mess with. The only complaint I would have is that they are really bright when you look at them. More stinging than a conventional tungsten light. When its mounted on cam I usually toss a frost filter over it to make it easier to look at. Still more than enough light to work with though.
 
I purchased the VidLED light (8000k) not too long ago and I'm VERY happy with the unit. In my case, I purchased the light with the 12V card adapter, rather than the battery. I have several 12 volt batteries that are already converted to a 12 volt outlet, so in my case the car plug made a lot of sense.

Compared to the older 12 volt light I used to use, the VidLED light is a pleasure to use. No more worrying about dealing with a HOT light or having to defuse the light to get rid of hot spots in the light.

The only time I video tape weddings is for friends and family. I used the VidLED at the last wedding I shot for a friend. You can see part of the video here on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXL3zdB1YlM


The first part of the reception we still had lots of sunlight, BUT after sunset, the lighting was next to nothing. Even the person taking stills asked me to turn the light back on so she could frame her shots. If you look in the background of the night shots, you'll see that once we get beyond the range of the light, there's little light to capture.

The bottom line is that the VidLED did exactly what I wanted it to do and I'm very happy with it. However, this is a free country, if you don't like the VidLED, you are free to buy something else.


Bob Diaz
 
The question is, "Has anybody used a LitePanel LED unit AND a VidLED unit and compared them?" That's what I want to know. How do these very similar lighting tools differ?
 
I had two litepanels. They were heavier, more fragile, and much more expensive. I sold them and bought 6 VidLeds.

The only thing I liked better on the litepanels was the way they attached the gels.
 
Just finished working on a PBS kids show over the summer. We had 2 Vidleds on set as well as 2 Litepanels. The Vidleds were used all the time. I had a week away from the show on a different job. I took the Vidled with me. The guy filling in for me was bummed he had to use the Litepanels. We found it to be a great light that could be worked hard and it wouldn't let you down. The Litepanels spent the majority of the summer in their case.
 
I'd say the same too. The VidLEDs are much better in design and value.. and it was so funny when they came out and on this site and they were slammed for quality and what.. and then that guy made the video bouncing it off the wall. No questions of quality after that..or build. The only question is how and why the litepanels can justify their over inflated prices... Kudos to the vidLED people...
 
I have used both the VidLEDs and the LitePanels, and must say that there are two things that I like about the LitePanels more:

1. It handled dimming much better than my VidLED. Basically you can dim them alot more before they turn off. This is important when you are using them for very very subtle fill light and do not want to overpower. Now don't misinterpret: the VidLEDs were very dimable, whoever the low end range near the off position does not have the same amount of sensitivity as the LitePanel.

2. It just seems alot easier to attach gels. Specially because I have the VidLED with an HVX battery attached on top, so gelling the light can get a bit annoying since I use the daylight VidLED and often attach both a diffiusion and color correcting gel.

That being said, if I had the money to buy a LitePanel I'd probably get another VidLED and go to the bar ;)

Wonderful little lights, I personally recomend the black ones if you own an HVX, it looks very professional.

Now if they ever come out with a plastic diffuser, like the one still camera flashes often have, that you could quickly snap on....well that would be AMAZING.
 
Over the summer I used a coolled and a warmled together as an on camera variable color light, and using the vidled batteries it was great! Especially at dusk when the color temp was changing every few minutes. Also, not having to worry about heavy batteries charging all the time was a new freedom that I hadn't known in my bescor/frezzi days!
 
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