CL-LED600 copy?

Upon further inspection, the lights don't look as well constructed as Richard's lights. Plus I'm sure the customer service is non existant.

I've read that Richard / Coollights is awesome when it comes to service.
 
Me too.

Battery plate came off my LED256 and Richard shipped me a new one. His staff here in the states talked me thru the installation while on the phone. Very trouble free repair.

Richard also turns up on the threads and gives advice and answers questions.
 
Looks more like a copy of a litepanels 1x1 than the Cool Lights (which is totally its own thing)...

Anyone own one of these Brando 600s? does it indeed have a V mount for battery and not an Anton Bauer Plate?
 
Hmm, a friend of mine works at a rental house and I think they bought a few of them and they are going out pretty often, so it might be good. However, I would go with Cool Light just to be sure that you have quality.
 
I second the cool lights notion. Richard makes great quality stuff. He has always been quick to fix any problems that arise (I only had 1 with a speedring and he replaced it right away). But the quality of his stuff is excellent and it's really not expensive. You can order the cheap junk, but over the next, lets say 5 years, you'll have to buy Richard's light once. Plan on buying 2-3 fixtures of the junk brand to last the same amount of time. How much is that going to cost you? and wait until one of your junk lights fails in the middle of production. Buy once, cry once. Everyone's always looking for a cheap alternative to everything. Richard is the less expensive option while maintaining quality.
 
I have that Brando light, though I ordered mine via ebay. Let me comment on the unit a bit with some actual experience.

The body is made out of metal. Probably aluminum. Interestingly, the U bracket is made out of some kind of composite plastic, feels sturdy enough anyway. No flex/give to speak of even with a battery attached.

Mine came with an Anton Bauer mount, which works fine.

It operates off of 14.5 volts.... this is potentially a big deal to some people. Most other panels run off of 12v. 14.5 volts is not easy to find batteries for outside of AB batteries.

Barn doors are kind of loose, the top and bottom ones don't always stay in place. Also, I don't see an obvious way of removing them outside of tiny screws.

The amount of light that comes out of it is fairly respectable. I can shoot f/4 with ISO400 at 1/50 shutter and get a good exposure with the light about 6 feet away from the subject. The panel is the only light source. This is on a 7D.

The "filters" that came with it are useless. Only the semi-frost is useful for holding in gels.

Speaking of gels, color rendition is quite poor. In order to get a good looking scene at 5400k, I have to add a 3/4 minus green gel installed. Ultimately, it looks fine with the gel, but don't expect to get 5300-5600k out of the box with no gels.

The dimmer does not change the color temperature significantly enough to be a concern. I have tested this thoroughly across the range over about 8 stops of light, starting with max brightness.

So here comes the million dollar question: is it worth it? Well, if your budget is $349, this is kind of hard to beat. Not even other ebay LED panels cost that little. That said, you will also spend more money on gels, depending on what you get, you could spend upwards of $50 on various tones and tints. So I'd say this thing actually costs about $400 when it's all said and done. Still pretty economical. Coollights are on sale right now for $449 a pop, but does not come with a battery plate, which costs $99 extra. So if you want AB or V mount, it's more like $549. Coollights are also going to need minus greens to get to 5400k, but they're included. They also comes with a soft case and removable barn doors and bank dimming... So really, if you can afford the extra bucks, I think coollights is a better choice. They provide more value corresponding to the higher cost, but if you can only spend $400 on a light, then... you know.

hope this helps.
 
meauounji said:
I have that Brando light, though I ordered mine via ebay. Let me comment on the unit a bit with some actual experience.
Click to expand...

So - is it more green out of the box than a coollights 600?

One thing I noticed with my coollights 600s is that the spot and flood were TOTALLY different color temperatures. Sold mine off on ebay - planning on trying either Richard's CDM's with some Higher color temperature Higher CRI bulbs or maybe one of these Brando 600s, a Coollights CDM 150, and a Coollights 4 bank Flo to have a variety pack...

Then again might do a 3 head kit of CDM 150s and a couple chimeras... Or maybe just save my dough...
 
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