BudgetLED Lighting Gear (documentary, run and gun, misc)

junct

junct

Active member
Hiya,

My main gig is directing and editing - i.e. i'm not DoP at all. But i've been trying to get back into doing more DIY stuff, for various reasons. No-budget music video, micro-crew documentary, run and gun kind of stuff.

For this reason I want to build up what would essentially be a small videography kit. I don't have the finances to invest loads, and it wouldn't make sense because for any bigger/budgeted projects I'll be working with professional cinematographers and renting equipment anyway.

So this is to be a budget kit.

Needs:
-Lightweight and easy to transport
-Affordable (my day job is in hospitality, so..)
-Operatable as a one-man band or tiny crew (minimal gear and fuss)

A few years ago, when i was still paying more attention to tech, LEDs hadn't really reached a breaking point of being a realistic option unless you had a decent bit of cash to throw at them. But they were developing fast, and they now seem to be a standard option among low budget filmmakers.

They're appealing for portability, lack of heat, being somewhat discrete, and especially the option to run on battery power.

They're still not the most budget friendly option for high quality light, but the above makes them way more practical for my purposes.

So, any recommendations for a small 2-3 kit I could put together, with relevant stands etc?

Are there any viable "hard" light LEDs? (I have a small bedroom project working with shadow puppet animation, so soft lights aren't useful here)

Thanks!
 
Thanks! My budget is really undefined at this point. That said my immediate project is this shadow puppet animation stuff, so I think I will start by dropping some money (hopefully less than $150) on a hard-ish panel that could be diffused for a key light in interviews to supplement practical lamp//daylight. Then slowly add in a couple more over the course of the next few months as finances allow.

I’m sort of just trying to figure out what’s possible at different price points. It’s always easy to spend more money, but I’m trying to find that sweet spot of value before spending twice as much only yields a 5% improvement, and where spending less could be seen as a bit stupid cheap.
 
I picked thes up

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Neewer-Dim...TF8&qid=1544879988&sr=8-4&keywords=neewer+led

Neewer LED '480'

I really like that they are proper metal to attach to a stand.
UNLIKE most of the leds mentioned in the above youtubes which have plastic hotshoes which last for less than one shoot

Unlike my bastard child Dled 4.0 (which is a good little hard light) they run on mains or battery simply

I use them for accents/hair on bigger shoots .

This week Im doing some vox pops in a shopping mall - it will be OMB shoot and I will take one of these lights to give a kick to the face of the subjects.

Last year I took my Dled.. so that says something about my confidence in them.

Of course they dont have the punch to light a big scene or work through a 4.4 diff like my Lupo panels do.





This week Im doing a
 
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Nice, thanks Morgan. Good to know about the build quality, that kind of important stuff is often left out of reviews.

I'm guessing they are quite a soft light given your uses for them?

Is there anything in the LED market with a harder light (I see you mentioned the Dedo LEDs)? Softer light will be more useful longer term as generic make-it-work in lots of scenarios, but I do want something a bit harder as well.
 
For hard light you want to look at COB (Chip On Board) lights. I haven't kept up with what's available, so can't point you at anything specific.
 
I went through some cheap led options seeing how they worked. The two I liked were the flexible led panels by fositan. They're bi-color and remote controlled. A 1x2 panel is around 150. They roll into a small bag and you can use the frames to connect two together. However they are 24v which makes trying to battery power them clunky. They are decently bright. The color is 'good enough' cri rated at 90+ they handle skintones pretty well, however you can notice some difference when compared to higher end lights like quasar science tubes. After a year the only issue is one panel had a diode pop off, but you can either replace it or just bridge the connection with some wire and solder.Altogether for the price, I think they are a good option and I use them constantly. Another nice cheap option is the 480LS from GVM. When I bought my panel they had no reviews and high specs for the price. The light is housed in the same housing as neewer or dracast 500. The difference is the diodes are all spot and it has a bi-color range of 2300k-6800k. Nice small footprint and with the spot diodes can put out some light. It claims to have a high 97+ cri rating. I don't know if that's accurate, but I think it is better and brighter than the neewer. It's easy to rig on a cardellini and hide out of frame for hairlights, accent light, etc. I have used it to key, but generally just use the flex panels for the larger source. I think there are a lot of cheap soft light led lights out there now, however the harder sources are still up there in price for good output. You could also spend a couple hundred dollars and buy four 2ft quasar daylight tubes great cri, but not as functional as bi-color just all depends on your run and gun style.
 
The above is good to know. I was unwilling to chance it on something like that with no reviews, so I have two older Litepanels daylight units and two Dracast LED1000 Kalas. Have not used the dracasts on a shoot but left em both on for an hour+ one day after I received them to make sure they worked.

Some of those lower cost brands might be fine but the names that keep coming up on here and with people I know personally are Aputure and Dracast...but then you’re into $200-$400 per light for the more powerful but still “cheap” units (unless they’re on sale at B&H or something...which they somewhat often are).

It’s amazing how much cheap stuff is out there that has zero info anywhere about it, except for maybe one review. And then you have to wonder is that review from a hobbyist/weekend warrior/college student who has no idea what they’re talking about or a 25+-year vet who does good work with some weight behind their opinion?
 
The cheapest led fresnel I see at B&H for $219.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1333753-REG/nanguang_cn_30f_led_fresnel_light.html

Many people like the Came-TV Boltzen lights but you're at $258. You can get a Bowens mount for these to add a small softbox.
https://www.came-tv.com/collections...1-pc-came-tv-boltzen-30w-fresnel-led-daylight

There's also the Aputure Mini20 at $230.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1383765-REG/aputure_lsmini20d_ls_mini_20d_daylight_head.html

For real cheap there' Good at $169. Not focusable but it's Bowens mount
https://www.amazon.com/Godox-SL-60W-Version-Controller-Reflector/dp/B07B7L7DQJ
 
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