Arri Locaster LED Kit for $2819... what do you guys think about this?

Y

yabyum

Well-known member
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/664981-REG/Arri_553952_Locaster_LED_Panel_AC.html

Me and another guy are looking to pick up light kits, we are both doing similar things for a company but in different locations. The shoots are not big, most always 1 person in the shot. We also have products in our shots sometimes, cell phones/tablets that kind of thing.

We both use DSLRs and are looking for something that is not difficult to use for 1 person, seeing as how we are each pretty much 1-man crews most of the time.

Any thoughts on this? Sound like a good buy? If not, any other reco's?

Ty as always everyone.
 
My 2c: $2800 for 70W worth of light is a bit steep.

I was at the Hollywood Post Alliance symposium a while back on reference displays, and Arri had setup an Alexa to film a model (the feed was being piped to a bunch of high-end reference monitors - Dolby, Sony OLED etc). For some reason they used those Locaster lights for the lighting. Everything looked sickly yellow and they had to compensate by setting the Alexa to 3200 ASA and adjusting the white balance to compensate.

It looked OK but kinda plastic on the Dolby monitor once you white balanced it out - but it was such a shame they didn't use a decent lighting setup. Would have been fun to see a well-lit scene, shot on an Alexa, piped into a $50K reference monitor. It would have been fascinating to look at the skintones and see how they translated, etc. But no, those lights just made it look like suck.

Umm... a Zylight Z90 two-pack costs the same and although maybe slightly dimmer (two 30W lights) has adjustable color which would be fun for product shots.

Or Cool Lights has a 50W light for $500... lots of other LED options IMHO.

If you want Arri, I personally think you could do better with an Arri L-7, a bounce board, plus any other cheap LED light for kicker!

Or am I being unnecessarily harsh? Maybe they just had them setup badly?

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com
 
No I love the harshness! This rec was given to me by the other guy anyways, and chances are he'll never see this :) (And even if he does, I don't think he has reason to be offended)

Thank you thank you. I agree 70W seems very low.

I was also thinking about Kino-Flos, or some similar type setup, vs LED. Just checking the prices on them the other day, they seemed more expensive unfortunately.
 
The only, only reason to spend that kind of coin for that low of wattage would be if they had some badass super-battery setup and you could shoot anywhere... and you'd still want more lumens.

That's just a ridiculous amount of money for two lights. You could get a wicked HMI for that money.

if you want daylight balanced light (I sure like it myself), hit cool lights. Get a few dual and quad biax fixtures. Get their 150 CDM Fresnel (cold start but it really ain't no thang considering you get a 650 equivalent fresnel with good daylight color) for some hard light. Heck, get their CDM ballast & bulb and convert an old fresnel or keep it handy for a badass china or lantern. Get on Amazon or eBay and look at the dozens of twin, quad, and six bank biax fixtures out there. That's a LOT of light and very versatile, especially since you're looking at dropping $3k on TWO SOFT LIGHTS. Why not get five or six soft (flo) fixtures and a couple hard lights. (Shooting even tabletop product with only soft light will get lame on you pretty fast - you really need a hard light or two in the mix). You might need stuff like stands, flags, panels, reflectors as well.

I've seen some cool LED fixtures, but thus far, the only benefit I see in their cost is the battery powered stuff - and even that's only going to give you a little fill in existing light or help you with your run & gun "nighttime reality interview" look, not free you from a generator to light a decent sized setup.
 
Hey guys--

Just finished a few days shooting with a couple of those in my lighting kit. They are their own beast and I don't think they compare to some of the other things being recommended. They are GREAT for:

Power consumption/coolness, matching any color (has a color temp and +- green that you can dial in), decent long throw/focus, running off car, small/super-portable, can also run off batteries (which you'd have to purchase separately adding to the already high cost), dimmable.

The cons are:
Expensive as hell, not a ton of output. Sure you can dial it in to daylight. But it's not going to do a ton against the sun.

For a small lightweight cool car-or-AC-powerable light that you can get an accent from very quickly and dial in the exact color you want, you can't beat them. They certainly wouldn't be the only thing I want in my kit though. And they are hella expensive. That said I'd love to have them on nearly every shoot so long as someone else is paying for them. :) I used at least one in just about every set-up.

It doesn't crank like an HMI (but it's way smaller, more adjustable, quicker) and it's a much harder source than the Divas, smaller surface area, and much harder light cause of the focused LEDs.
 
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I am adding my 2 cents to this late.
But it may help others who are looking to add LED fixtures to your kits. First the Ari locaster is awesom, it produces a nice soft dimmable light. It can be battery powered.
True photometricly it isn't that powerful, buy a bigger light if you need more power. What I really wanted to address is the price. They are more expensive than some of the knock offs, but they are better made and fully supported by the manufacturer. If your gear is used a lot, this is important.
I have several less expensive LED's sitting on the shelf waiting for parts- my locasters are all out there working for me.
 
I have used the Arri Locasters on several occasions. At first, I hated them. The colour was all off. On that first job with them, they went back into the case. On the second job, I was out in the woods with no other lights, and a trio of these were provided to me. And really, once you get used to fine-tuning the colour on them, they are very nice.

I would recommend trying to rent them for a few jobs, and see if they work for you. It takes a while to get good at balancing the colour though. IMO, they only really work well as a battery powered light where you have no plug-in power. Otherwise, I would agree, a cheaper Kino Flo would be just as good.
 
For the sort of work your doing I'd suggest something else; either a 4-bank Kino (or one of the new Cineo or BBS remote phosphor lights) i.e. a soft key light.

And then add a 150w Dedo for a hair/edge light.

It's a simple setup with good colour rendition, low-power requirements, and handsome results.
 
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