Daylight only or Bi-Color LED's?

[Speedster159]

I'm looking for on-camera lights and sofar the best candidate is the Yongnuo YN-300 III and it comes in two flavors, a Bi-Color 3200-5500 and daylight only 5500.

What I was thinking is the Tungsten Filtered Daylight only would still produce more light than using the Bi-Color in Tungsten only? Could anybody confirm that? I'd be surely shooting in both Tungsten and Daylight lighting.

What I'm aiming for is maximum range and brightness without going beyond 300 LED's +/-20. I think anything more than 300 +/-20 would look and feel ridiculous on the small X1000.

 

[Tolin]

Go with the bi-colored one. Half of the LEDs are devoted to tungsten and the other half to daylight, and CTO cuts your light output by 2/3 stops. Whilst daylight only would give you more light output unfiltered, the benefits of being able to adjust the temperature through the dial as opposed to dealing with filters far outweigh any small gain in tungsten output.

 

[David W. Jones]

As inexpensive as that light is, why not get both. Which gives you more versatility.

 

[David W. Richardson]

As inexpensive as that light is, why not get both. Which gives you more versatility.

Brilliant!

 

[Speedster159]

Go with the bi-colored one. Half of the LEDs are devoted to tungsten and the other half to daylight, and CTO cuts your light output by 2/3 stops. Whilst daylight only would give you more light output unfiltered, the benefits of being able to adjust the temperature through the dial as opposed to dealing with filters far outweigh any small gain in tungsten output.

So putting on the CTO ( 5500 > 3200? ) would cut abit more than half of the light output? So the 2200LM would go to about 1000LM?

What I want is for the Tungsten is to be no darker than the Tungsten bank on the Bi-Color.

As inexpensive as that light is, why not get both. Which gives you more versatility.

Need to save for other accessories and equipment.

 

[David W. Jones]

Of course you are correct. If you only need single point lighting then that $59.00 would be better spent somewhere else.

 

[Tolin]

So putting on the CTO ( 5500 > 3200? ) would cut abit more than half of the light output? So the 2200LM would go to about 1000LM?

Pretty much. The Daylight version would hence be weaker in Tungsten (filtered) but stronger in Daylight (native), whilst the bi-colored would have an equal output on both albeit less intensity in 5500k since it only uses half of the LEDs.

 

[roxics]

Personally, unless there are other indoor lights I have to match with, I will default to daylight even indoors. This is not like film where you have to filter the camera, you can change your white balance on digital. Plus you can match the daylight better with open windows if you plan to use natural light as well.

 

[CharlesPapert]

Personally, unless there are other indoor lights I have to match with, I will default to daylight even indoors. This is not like film where you have to filter the camera, you can change your white balance on digital. Plus you can match the daylight better with open windows if you plan to use natural light as well.

I hear this a lot and it always interests me. I find it rare that I would shoot an interior without turning on a single practical fixture or built-in lighting at some point. LED's are slowly equalizing the playing field between daylight and tungsten units, but if one is working with a package that goes beyond three or four lights (such as an interview setup) it shuts out a wide arsenal of tungsten units that are usually cheaper and more versatile (i.e. dimmable) than daylight units. There was a minute where we saw sensors that "prefered" 5600 (the REDOne for instance) but we seemed to have moved passed that awkward phase.

Back to the OP--usually a bicolor has around half the output when all the way at one end or the other of its range (3200 or 5600) compared to a singe color temp version, because only half of the LED's are engaged. So that is 1/3 of a stop less efficient than gelling a 5600 unit down to 3200, which as stated before is 2/3 of a stop loss.

 

[Grug]

One point to consider might be the usefulness of a light that can output 4500k. A lot of interior spaces feature mixed light sources, daylight from windows blending with mixed daylight/tungstem overhead fluorescents etc. and in those situations, balancing for 4500k can be an ideal way to minimise nasty extremes of colour contrast. And if your on-camera light is acting as the key, then your talent will look fine anyway.

 

[Speedster159]

I hear this a lot and it always interests me. I find it rare that I would shoot an interior without turning on a single practical fixture or built-in lighting at some point. LED's are slowly equalizing the playing field between daylight and tungsten units, but if one is working with a package that goes beyond three or four lights (such as an interview setup) it shuts out a wide arsenal of tungsten units that are usually cheaper and more versatile (i.e. dimmable) than daylight units. There was a minute where we saw sensors that "prefered" 5600 (the REDOne for instance) but we seemed to have moved passed that awkward phase.

Back to the OP--usually a bicolor has around half the output when all the way at one end or the other of its range (3200 or 5600) compared to a singe color temp version, because only half of the LED's are engaged. So that is 1/3 of a stop less efficient than gelling a 5600 unit down to 3200, which as stated before is 2/3 of a stop loss.

So comparing the Tungsten from the Bi-Color and Single, the Single would be 1/3 darker?

 

[nyvz]

Keep in mind that I find the yongnuo lights daylight to be about 5000k and tungsten about 3000k so normally to match tungsten lights I dim up the daylight LEDs a bit which makes it a bit brighter. Also you generally get worse color from gelled LEDs since the gels usually cut intensity somewhat evenly but leave any green spike in. I recall testing this and finding the yongnuo weren't so bad on this but I always play it safe and don't gel if I can avoid it. I own a bunch of yongnuo LEDs in daylight and bicolor and the bicolor get the most use. The flexibility of bicolor almost always outweighs any 0-1stop (depending on color temp) brightness deficiency. Also for matching office fluorescent lighting ~4000k which I find myself doing a lot, bicolor is the brightest.