Cheapest Color Meter to Measure Green/Magenta Shift?

S

SDub

Well-known member
I'm planning on have a lighting setup that mixes LED lights with china balls that have CFL's installed in them for filling out a room with light. I know that even though I can dial in the color temp on my LED, the lights won't be identical so I've begun hunting around for a color meter to measure how much plusgreen or misgreen I'll need on my CFLs to match them to my LED. Baring the Lumu tool for iOS phones, I think the cheapest tool I've found that'll measure what I'm trying to measure is the "Kenko KCM-3100 Professional Color Meter": https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod..._KCM_3100_Professional_Color_Temperature.html

This product is about $800, and I was curious if there was a cheaper to try and figure out what I'm trying to figure out.
 
Even if you get a meter that gives you the "offset", I don't think any LED's that have +/- green control are in any way correlated/correspond to what the meter is going to tell you. It's still gonna be an "eyeballing it" on the monitor thing. But Hive did just release new firmware for their Hive's with +/- green ability, so maybe I should load it up and see. Not that I have a dedicated color or light meter...
 
If found this to be useful (along with the light dome): https://www.adamwilt.com/cinemeterii/

Cheapest way is to simply shoot a gray/white card and check the offset in post- it's also the most accurate since it takes into account the entire colorimetric pipeline: camera color science varies, so best to including it in the loop if trying to make your life easier in post. Lenses affect color too! (the MTF is also a color filter) :)
 
Run&Gun said:
Even if you get a meter that gives you the "offset", I don't think any LED's that have +/- green control are in any way correlated/correspond to what the meter is going to tell you. It's still gonna be an "eyeballing it" on the monitor thing. But Hive did just release new firmware for their Hive's with +/- green ability, so maybe I should load it up and see. Not that I have a dedicated color or light meter...
Click to expand...

I'm referring to gels that add/remove green tint, not a setting within the LED fixture.
 
jcs said:
If found this to be useful (along with the light dome): https://www.adamwilt.com/cinemeterii/

Cheapest way is to simply shoot a gray/white card and check the offset in post- it's also the most accurate since it takes into account the entire colorimetric pipeline: camera color science varies, so best to including it in the loop if trying to make your life easier in post. Lenses affect color too! (the MTF is also a color filter) :)
Click to expand...

Yeah, that was the "lumu" device I was referring to in the original post. I don't have an iPhone so I can't use it. Shooting a grey card and guessing and checking is a good idea though.
 
I'm just guessing, but based on the age of that Kenko meter, I am guessing that it isn't going to give you much of a good idea when measuring LED or flourescent. Those older color meters were designed for full spectrum analysis based on my research, so they don't give accurate readings on LED. The Sekonic C-800 was designed to give comparisons between various types of lights, but I haven't used it. I did have the older model, the C-700, but I quickly realized that the easiest and quickest way to match lights was to just shoot them against a white card and compare the image on the monitor, then add gels until they match the white point well. A color meter is mostly useful when trying to match or compare lights before they are on set and can't be compared directly.
 
A dslr?

I cant remember how far back they have RGB histograms but a nikon D70 is probably $100 now. Stop down shoot the light examine the colour.

I always like a DSLR on set. USually with a 18-70 cheapo zoom
-RGB meter
-Directors view finder - with meta data showing lens choice
-recce tool (also records TOD so you can see where the sun was)
-BTS tool

I use my nikon D600 with a cheapo 18-70 zoom.

===

Or what about a monitor with RGB waveform? Small HD can give you a full frame RGB WFM and Atomos (but less so)

===

Also always a grey card and probably a gretag card
 
Last edited:
SDub said:
I'm referring to gels that add/remove green tint, not a setting within the LED fixture.
Click to expand...

Ah. Ok. I thought you were referring to LED fixtures that had the function built-in, like Gemini's and SkyPanels.

On a side note, I did download the new firmware for my Hive 100-C's and 200-C's. They added a color correction section in the menu. Presets for +/- Green in 1/8, 1/4, 1/2 and full for Daylight and Tungsten. Also Straw in 1/8, 1/4, 1/2 and Full.

Side side note: Hive's firmware release notes suck. Not very in-depth as to what exactly you're getting.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top