Drop in LED Fresnel upgrade

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DvxHerb

Well-known member
Screenshot 2015-10-30 13.01.59.jpg

http://visionsmith.com/led-egt/?v=35b5282113b8

I stumbled across this the other day. It's $750 and replaces a 1K bulb. What do you think? I showed it to someone and both he and I think it might be a little pricey.
I know the Hexolux lights have gotten some good reviews, so I thought it might be worth a look. Fits most 6" fresnels. Not sure about my janky Colortrans.

As an aside I just bought two LightStorm LS-1S. I would like something to compliment them. Don't know if this is it. What would you get to go with these panels?
 
Do they think people are idiots? That's crazy pricing, and totally out of the right bracket. For that money there are plenty of light sources that are cheaper for the entire fixture. Sure, sticking it in a Mole is good - BUT - it's no longer a Mole, it's a Fresnel lens in front of a LED engine. All the rest of the the fixture just contributes nothing.

You should also be concerned about spending crazy money on a lamp. I now have plenty of LED fixtures, as I have a hire stock for theatrical use - so I have floods, washes, Fresnels and things that can project really decent gobos. So far this year I have had one LED cluster die. Two power supplies, a handful of individual LEDs go in a few panels and that's probably a decent proportion of the stock. Colleagues report price of the fixture has little to do with it as cheap Chinese ones and expensive big name ones all last nowhere near the thousands of hours claimed. I can live with an LED cluster that costs may $90 as a spare but $750 for something that could be wiped out instantly is ridiculous.
 
Tell us how you really feel ;) Point taken. Wise words.

What would be a cheaper better alternative? I'm looking for something to augment my new LS1s.
 
Lordy. $750 and up? Get a used 575 HMI.

I was in the same boat, shooting soft daylight using Kinos and scrims. Moved up to 400 HID moguls in Photoflex Starlites, so I get way more power and can use all my soft boxes.

For hard light, I looked at chinese HMI, ended up getting a used Source 4 575 Daylight Par. That thing's just overkill for actually hitting someone's hair/shoulders with a hard light. Ended up doing a 150 fresnel conversion for about $100, daylight equivalent is about a 500 fresnel, but no gels needed. And I even have to scrim that at times.

There are cheaper ways to go if you want a daylight fresnel - I think Cool Lights still sells their 150 HID.
 
Michael,

I'm watching a couple of 575 Source Four Pars on eBay right now. Looks like a lot of light for cheap.

While they use considerbly less power than my Colortran 1K, they still generate a lot of heat. I was looking for something cooler an maybe battery capable.
 
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DvxHerb said:
Tell us how you really feel ;) Point taken. Wise words.

What would be a cheaper better alternative? I'm looking for something to augment my new LS1s.
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Just get a couple more Ls 1S. It's output is approximately 1K.

If the LED retro fit was $250 to $350 I might bite.
 
Different type of fixture, no Eric? Though I agree the price has to be lower to make worthwhile for most. For what it's worth, I sat in on a Mole LED discussion held at a rental/larger scale entity. They want stuff that travels well and correlates with established industry vernacular..baby etc. but making use of lower electrical infrastructure.
That aint me, btw..but I got a different perspective from that. However, established old school gear tends to have better range of integrated modifiers etc. I would love to LED my baby soft lights with their egg crates if it was cost effective.
 
Gotta tell you guys, no matter what you may think of them, these LED replacement engines are selling in HUGE volume. I know a local dealer that is selling them in volume. They're so easy -- pull out the bulb and drop in the LED unit.
 
Looks like the Tungsten version is 98 CRI while the daylight version is 95 CRI.
And at 1.2 amps draw, you could run 8 of these lights with the same draw as a single 1K Mole.

At $1284 for the Mole Richardson 150w LED retrofit, The EGT 150w LED kit at $845 is $439 cheaper than the Mole kit.

As the owner of around 30 Mole Richardson Tungsten lights, I will probably try one of these. But I also agree that the price could be better by $200 or so. I also imagine we will see more of this type product in the future covering more lights and costing less. I have a few Mole 2K Junior Fresnels that I would love to convert, but the Mole 400w LED retrofit kit is $2900 and I just refuse to pay that much.
 
I think a company manufacturing something along these lines but for 30-50% lower cost would be on to something. That $800 just seems pretty steep to me.

Especially if they took a system approach - make a speed ring/small diffuser dome setup to use the thing with all the standard softboxes you already own; china ball adapter; space light/ceiling pancake setup… and so on. If you get 1k worth of light for 1.2 amps and the heat you'd expect for under 2 amps - you could do some crazy things with this.
 
You are absolutely correct. Great potential here. Could you imagine a modular setup where you could install up to 20 of these into a single frame to light a 20x20.

I sure hope somebody comes out with a much better priced unit soon.
 
Michael Carter said:
I think a company manufacturing something along these lines but for 30-50% lower cost would be on to something. That $800 just seems pretty steep to me.

Especially if they took a system approach - make a speed ring/small diffuser dome setup to use the thing with all the standard softboxes you already own; china ball adapter; space light/ceiling pancake setup… and so on. If you get 1k worth of light for 1.2 amps and the heat you'd expect for under 2 amps - you could do some crazy things with this.
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Tha adaptability is why I've been eyeing http://www.alzovideo.com/alzo-3200-low-noise-high-power-led.htm
A quiet LED block that fits all my existing bowens modifiers. Also lots of cheap photo rental options. 200w aint bad. I have the older version with the loud fan and lower CRI LED. Its a good amount of light for the buck but its just too loud for daily interview use with an octobox.
 
David W. Jones said:
Loud fans like that would be a deal breaker for much of what I shoot.
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The new one is supposed to be larger fans running slower RPM. The old is loud as hell and pretty unusable. I just want an affordable bright LED that can take lots of existing modifiers not specialty ones.

I think all modern high power LEDs need fans. I have a Lightstorm LS1 and even with the balast off the light head those aluminum fins get pretty damn warm. Love the light out of it but wish I could mount softboxes and dishes to it.
 
I saw that Alzo unit, it's interesting. It seems like it could be used with standard strobe softboxes (vs. high-heat which are pricey and heavier) which is a budget plus, too. You can get a cheap softbox for fifty bucks these days and almost consider it disposable, and the Fotodiox Pro stuff has improved to beat Photoflex strobe box quality - got some reallys olid stuff from them in the last year. Wonder if it would support an x-large (or my 6'x12" strip light??) The Bowens mount is ubiquitous and there are tons of aftermarket modifiers.

A bit pricey, and Alzo is often a little, umm, "optimistic" about their output. And it seems they should do a battery version of this one - that's the most compelling thing about LEDs for me right now.
 
Michael Carter said:
A bit pricey, and Alzo is often a little, umm, "optimistic" about their output.
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This is what has held me off purchase to try it out. I do own a similar monoblock light to the old version of the Alzo3200 and it needed some minus green but the fan on it is way way too loud. It is very handy to be able to use photo softboxes and I have a bowens mount speed ring I'd used on it very well. If this Alzo new version adds the same versitility with a higher CRI and lower fan noise it might be the ticket for me. But again I am usually disappointed by Alzo claims in terms of noise and colour.
 
Hey, I still have those Alzo 150 bulb and ballast combos and a couple of the self-ballasted fixtures. Those are gorgeous daylight. But sometimes they're like "piss off, we don't feel like striking today".

If these LED bulb retrofits were in the $400-$500 range with a killer warranty, I might really consider one. But a fresnel works in large part due to the interaction of globe and mirror and lens, so curious how nice they'd look. And putting one in a source four par or leko requires a globe - these things look like a block with an opening??

Still, getting that much light from a tiny spot is promising.
 
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