Came-TV Boltzen 55 watt fresnels?

puredrifting

puredrifting

Major Contributor
These look mighty interesting. I have been looking for something that could supplement my travel kit and now that I am shooting with two of the Aputure LS 1S for a key and fill source, it seems a pair of these could function pretty well as a hairlight and as a background light. These are new and not even shipping yet but I am intrigued. $588.00 for a pair of them in a small case, nice setup. They are, like everything else coming out, COB technology. They have a fan but in the video below, it seems to be pretty quiet so I could make it work for location interviews. These are true fresnels, supposedly the CRI is even better than my LS 1S, which are very good. Can also be powered not only by AC or a V-mount battery, but can also be powered by a Sony 970 or similar small battery. Sweet! I may spring for a pair of these. I've never owned a Came-TV product but supposedly the quality, for Chinese, is decent, just like the Aputures.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwzovAABz7s
 
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Nice price, but these units top off at 55W & are not bi-color.

The Practilite 602 is a bicolor 90W LED Fresnel, & can run up to 140W at 4500k, though this causes the fan to become audible. Also there's an SmartPhone app that connects via Bluetooth & can control up to six Practilites, plus a 20% sale off list right now at Kinotehnik's US distributor, Manios Digital (in Burbank), which makes them about $800 USD.

https://maniosdigital.com/brochure/kinotehnik-2/

EDIT: Kinotehnik updated the Practilite's barndoors so there's no longer the risk of them getting knocked off.
 
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True, a different instrument at less than half the cost. I checked out the Practilite 602 after I saw your previous post, looks very cool, especially nice for a travel kit. For me, bi-color has never appealed. Many lower end cameras have a lot less noise when ran in daylight mode and I freely mix in tungsten with my daylight LED panels so needing to run LEDs at 3200k has never been a big appeal to me. 90W/140W is an appeal though, I know you can never have too much power and with LEDs, it's so easy to dim the power down to what you need. Have you used the Practilite through some kind of softbox as a key for interviews for instance? I was thinking of the Boltzen above more as a replacement for my Arri 150 fresnels when I travel. It's a PITA to have to always remove the bulbs when I travel and it is expensive to buy the 240V bulbs for overseas. Mostly to use as a hair/rim and or to paint some patterns on the back ground, not as a main light, I have a couple of the Aputure LS 1S for that.

BTW, how are you using your Aladdin 1x2, do you use it as is or diffuse it or? Mounting it?
 
A 55W LED Fresnel would likely work fine as a replacement for an Arri 150W.

Bi-Color has become an important feature to me, & imagine the 602 will be my smallest LED Fresnel, picking up brighter units as they become available. While I've been mostly happy with Arri's LED Fresnels they're just too bulky for my travels, & I'm very interested in Dedolight's DLED9 Bi Turbo, but am waiting on full specs.

Never diffused the Practilite 602 yet & mostly use the Aladdin Bi-Flex when I want a softer source, either stacked end-to-end to form a 1x4', side-by-side as a 2x2', or on their own as a 1x2'. The Aladdin kits come with a diffuser that sits about an inch away from the LEDs & works well in most circumstances. Just received the parts to build a ultralight double-header, & the diminutive MERF stand supports both Flex panels plus the controllers, & AC bricks, just fine.

The Aladdins are so easy to move about, & rig, that we use them even when we have multi-ton lighting trucks available. Shot a doc short last week at a bustling NIH lab, & powered the Aladdin's exclusively by battery, which helped allow us to remain nimble.
 
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Would love to see anything you have lit with these two lights Bern, if you aren't restricted by NDA? I know how it is, I shoot so many cool projects and I can't post stills, it's frustrating.
 
Hi is anyone been using this light?
It seem perfect for me as a wedding videographer.
The most important part is that use np battery. That made it so portable.


I would like to dig more review before I pulk the trigger haha.
 
Just remember that running a 55W light with a small camcorder battery will result in very minimal run times at full power, it will dim quickly. If you want it to run an hour or more for those Catholic ceremonies, better step up to some 190Wh V-mounts.
 
yea If I want to run longer time I will definitely get a V mount, it can powered by d-tap also (its just so portable haha)
I only plan to use it on certain shoots (by using the wireless control on my phone to switch it on or off) some NP batteries will serve me well i think.

originally I have my eyes on dedolight, but its too expensive and only powered by wall AC and have a huge control panel and wiring and need a heavy stand :(
 
puredrifting said:
For me, bi-color has never appealed. Many lower end cameras have a lot less noise when ran in daylight mode and I freely mix in tungsten with my daylight LED panels so needing to run LEDs at 3200k has never been a big appeal to me.
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It's interesting to hear different people's LED requirements. I wasn't before but at this point I'm really interested in bi-colour units. For me, the point of LEDs (output and decent enough quality assumed) are ease of lighting and dedicated K temp units begin to go against this mindset. I've used (can't remember which one) a small LED hair light that was bi-colour and it was great for adding some precise warmth in moments... I don't own the light and of course will continue to use my Dedo DLH4 for these purposes but moving forward with LEDs I think bi-colour is now a requirement for me.

OFF TOPIC: Everyone is collecting LEDs (including me) but I am still slowly and gladly adding classic tungsten units to the package!
 
ph2003 said:
originally I have my eyes on dedolight, but its too expensive and only powered by wall AC and have a huge control panel and wiring and need a heavy stand :(
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The DLED series can be powered by AC or DC but require different ballasts.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/sear...Search=yes&sts=ma&typedValue=&Top+Nav-Search=

I'd likely have gone for the DLED7 Turbo Bi-color, but couldn't afford the weight penalty incurred by transporting dual ballasts. Too bad as Dedolight's optics are far superior to fresnels.
 
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Jaime Valles said:
Anyone gotten these yet? They seem surprisingly bright for the wattage. Do you think this might work for a small, portable interview kit with 3 of these and some softboxes? Love the fact that they run off of NP-F batteries or AC power, and a 3-light kit comes out to less than $800:

https://cametvgear.com/collections/...tv-boltzen-55w-fresnel-focusable-led-daylight

I'm personally not interested in bi-color, only in daylight sources. Any reviews out there?
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There's the Cheesycam review in the original post:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwzovAABz7s
 
DPStewart said:
There's the Cheesycam review in the original post:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwzovAABz7s
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Yes, I saw that one. I felt that was more an unboxing and running through the features than a review. Towards the end he uses the lights for a hot second to light up the studio, which was great to see, but it was way too short. I'd like to see more tests with the lights themselves, and am curious if there are more reviews out there that show the lights in action. Maybe comparing them to other lights in the price range.

I'm thinking of the 3-light kit for daylight interior narrative setups (small rooms) along with a Chinese paper ball lantern to raise the exposure overall. Do you think these Boltzen 55w lights might work in that scenario?
 
Personally i would feel underpowered with only three 55 watt lights in anything but a dark room. I too often shoot in small NY rooms with window light. I would get at least one more powerful light as your key source. Remember, punching these not very powerful lights though a softbox is reducing the already relatively low power. I'd add an Aputure Lightstorm LS 1S as a key source, and two of these as fill and rim/hair.
 
Jaime Valles said:
Yes, I saw that one. I felt that was more an unboxing and running through the features than a review. Towards the end he uses the lights for a hot second to light up the studio, which was great to see, but it was way too short. I'd like to see more tests with the lights themselves, and am curious if there are more reviews out there that show the lights in action. Maybe comparing them to other lights in the price range.

I'm thinking of the 3-light kit for daylight interior narrative setups (small rooms) along with a Chinese paper ball lantern to raise the exposure overall. Do you think these Boltzen 55w lights might work in that scenario?
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To me this light looks GREAT - but it looks like a shaping light, not a key light.
I will always want one powerful light to go through a diffusor as the main key light. And this isn't that light. It just won't be strong enough. It will be close... but that kinda bugs me, ya know?

But for fills and shapes and flavor these lights look REALLY nice. The technology is coming along.
 
Good call, DPStewart and puredrifting. So I'm looking at the Aputure LS1S as the key light through a big softbox or scrim, plus a couple of the Boltzen 55w lights for fill and rim lights. The only bummer about the LS1S is it uses V-Mount batteries, and I don't have any of those. I have a ton of Sony NP-F970 batteries, which is what makes the Boltzen lights so appealing to me. There's no way to run the LS1S off of NP-F970 batteries, right?

Thanks for the great info!
 
If you're looking for an LS1s, check out this deal on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Aputure-Dayl...&qid=1479400869&sr=8-12&keywords=aputure+ls1s

$1150 for an LS1s + 3 672 lights. Normally that would be about $1450 or more.

I do want to get one of these Boltzen lights though, and I am curious about the power after being diffused. The compact size plus the bowens mount accessories makes it very compelling. However, the Tom Antos video shows that the Yoke can't support the Aputure light Dome softbox, so it already has some limits with regard to the bowens mount as a Key light. That makes me wonder if it's better to just get the 30w version and stick to rim/back, accents, etc. No fan. No Sammy Hagar "I Can't Drive 55" red stripe. All is well.
 
I would reserve these lights as small replacements for a light like an Arri 150, great as a hero or accent light, not as a basic building block though, too little output. The new Aputure COB 120 d would be ideal for that. Twice the money but a lot better light as a key source.
 
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