F&V K4000 anyone use?

No one? Well I take shipment of 6 tomorrow so I'll report back. Just got my AAdyntech Jab Daylight. Holys#%$ what an awesome light!
 
I'll be keen to hear your findings, especially output, and how well the diffusion filter works.
 
Looks good... I've been raving a bit about companies like LP being catched up by other partys, and this is nice to see. Monopoly is a bad thing....

Only thing I notice is that the F&V is a tad magenta in the soda can shot, but nothing a little filtering can't remedy along with post work.

So I'm really looking forward to see what your own judgement is over these! Price point for that 3-pack is very nice!
 
I wasn't crazy about the diffuser mount because...

1- It causes a stepped shadow where the light falls off

2- The diffusion filter is not quick to set up.

3- I can't pack the light unit with the filter attached for super quick setup.

So I bought some 4mm x 0.7mm x 8mm long galvanized bolts to attach the filter directly to the face of the light. This gets rid of the stepped shadow and the light is still fairly soft.

FV_K4000_1x1_LED_1.jpg
FV_K4000_1x1_LED_2.jpg
FV_K4000_1x1_LED_3.jpg
 
Ha, good one, TheDingo! Where did you buy those bolts? Somebody was claiming somewhere in one of the threads on these lights, that F&V is supposed to come out with barn doors that will fit these lights in April - which would be huge for me, because I felt like that was one thing that was immediately missing from these... plus, with barn doors you have something to clip gels to :)
 
OldCorpse said:
Where did you buy those bolts?
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I bought them at a local Canadian Tire. ( national hardware chain that's been around for 91 years )

I imagine you should be able to find them where you are, as long as you can find metric sizes. ( if not, PM me your address and I'll mail you some )
 
Thanks a ton, TheDingo - you had a great idea with this... I bought these lights and had some of the same concerns.
 
Using my Sekonic C-500 color meter in digital sensor mode shows a color temp of 5,650 Kelvin. The color meter won't account for LED spectrum spikes, but I was very happy with the overall color balance when shooting with my GH3 set to 5,800 Kelvin. ( slightly blue at 5,600, so I used 5,800 to compensate )
 
Thanks, TheDingo... that's close enough for me. These seem pretty darn versatile. I was thinking of picking up the bi-color ones. Too bad no barn doors but I can make that work.
 
hscully said:
These seem pretty darn versatile
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Yeah, especially given their low cost.

I avoided the bi-color model because it will be half as bright as the single color 5600K model when you are at 5600K or at 3200K and I want the extra stop of light. ( especially when I'm trying to balance with bright window light )

Supposedly barn-doors are in the works, though it might be a couple of months before these show up.

I am thinking of buying a couple of the $200 F&V R300 Ring lights to use as a hair-light or for background accent lights. ( hopefully they use the same LED emitters, so the color will match ) I will make sure to include an extra $25 for the milk-diffuser for the R300. ( necessary for clean reflections )

F&V R300 Ring Lights

New F&V LED Ring Light vs 600 LED Panel Comparison
 
TheDingo said:
I avoided the bi-color model because it will be half as bright as the single color 5600K model when you are at 5600K or at 3200K and I want the extra stop of light. ( especially when I'm trying to balance with bright window light )
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Well, here's what the specs say according to F&V:

For the daylight only K4000:

"Bulb: Power LEDLED Count: 400
Beam Angle: 60°
Illuminance: 2860 lx @ 1m
Power Variation: 0-100% (Stepless)
Color Rendering Index (Ra): ≥85%
Correlated Color Temperature (CCT): 5600K"

For the bi-color K4000S the specs are:

"Bulb: Power LED
LED Count: 400
Beam Angle: 60°
Illuminance: 2490 lx @ 1m
Power Variation: 0-100% (Stepless)
Color Rendering Index (Ra): ≥85%
Correlated Color Temperature (CCT): 3200K - 5600K"


I don't know how that works exactly, but I think it's different from the usual way, where they simply switch off half the LEDs, but I could be wrong - I don't have the bi-colors.

On that note, I bought the K4000 Daylight only 3-light kit for the very good price of $1050. Did you buy a single K4000 or also the 3-light kit? It is my idea to buy another 3-light kit, but I was debating whether it's worth going with the bi-colors this time... once they have the barn doors, do you think it makes more sense to get the daylight only K4000 and use gels if I need a different temperature, or is is better to go with the bi-colors? Apart from convenience, in which scenario do you think there would be more of a light drop-off - K4000S(bi-color) or K4000(daylight only) + gel?
 
OldCorpse said:
Well, here's what the specs say according to F&V

5600K Model : Illuminance: 2860 lx @ 1m

Bi-Color Model : Illuminance: 2490 lx @ 1m
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I suspect that the luminance rating for the Bi-Color model is when both the 5600K and the 3200K LED emitters are going full blast, so if you are using them for just daylight or just tungsten balance only half the LEDs will be on, which will cut the brightness by one full stop. I bought these for daylight work ( I have my Lowel lights for tungsten work ), so brightness is a big issue for me.

OldCorpse said:
Did you buy a single K4000 or also the 3-light kit?
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I bought just a single light to see what it was like. ( so I could dump it if I had to )

I am very happy with the results so far, and plan on picking up a couple of the R300 ring lights this weekend to see how they compare. ( there's one store in Town that stocks the F&V ring-light and the bi-color 1x1 model, so I will check out the bi-color unit while I am there ) I expect I will end up ordering some more of the 1x1 5600K models later this month. ( maybe the 3 light kit, as it's a total bargoon )

OldCorpse said:
Do you think it makes more sense to get the daylight only K4000 and use gels if I need a different temperature, or is is better to go with the bi-colors?
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The light spectrum from LED lights is pretty poor in the red part of the spectrum ( one reason why skin tones aren't the best ), so I think it would be better to go with 3200K lights when you need to balance to tungsten.

The bi-color might be useful when balancing to fluorescent office lights, which are usually in the 4000K - 4600K range, so I might end up getting a few of these too. ( I'm going to stick with the 5600K lights for now )
 
TheDingo said:
I suspect that the luminance rating for the Bi-Color model is when both the 5600K and the 3200K LED emitters are going full blast, so if you are using them for just daylight or just tungsten balance only half the LEDs will be on, which will cut the brightness by one full stop.
Click to expand...
I don't think it's possible to have both the tungsten and daylight LED's on full blast simultaneously. Looking at the photos, there's one dial for color temp and one that dims all of the LED's. If it works the same way that a Litepanel works (same control configuration), as you adjust the color temperature, one set will go up while the other goes down. When it's in the middle, both are on at around 50%, not full.
 
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