Flo light or coolights

GRENCH

GRENCH

Well-known member
I need a set of lights for an on the road project where I will be traveling and staging interviews.
I recently came across this link by FLO LIGHTS and was curious about their product. I do like to portability aspect of this product but unfortunately I don't know alot about this company or it's product.

http://www.flolight.com/led-lighting/3-led-light-kit-2500w-equivalent.html


I just saw Richard's new Cool lights 1200 Bi-color unit and was blown away. Based on my needs what would you guys suggest.

http://www.coollights.biz/clled1200-1200-bicolor-panel-p-142.html

I would love to hear some Pros and Cons on both light units.

Thanks
 
Main question is when do you need something? The Cool lights LED1200 just got pushed back to the end of March.

I like Cool Lights and find the company very accessible. I have 3 LEDs and 2 portable fluorescents from them.
 
Thanks photonashville,

That is a very good question. Fortunately for me I have about 45 days to decide. Shipping on the Cool lights I hear can be costly, but for the price point and level of quality the unit delivers I do believe it's worth it. Still curious to hear some feed back on those Flo Lights.

Thanks again photonashville!
 
Well if customer service means anything to you, I would stay FAR away from "prompter people", aka flolights.

They do NOT stand behind their products like Richard from Cool Lights does.
 
Hmm, have you seen the bi-color coollights operating in person? Judging from their listed specs, it would achieve 1000w tungsten equivalent PAR output at 6500 K, so since you have to dial down the intensity of either the 3000 K or 10000 K bulbs to achieve a variable K output. Meaning that matching 5600 K would loose some intensity, and matching 3200 K would loose almost half intensity, correct?

I've used the Microbeam 128 from flolights and it was a great deal for the price. It did have a green cast, so I had to run one of the provided minus green gels.
 
mcgeedigital- Thanks. Richard at Cool light is definitely runs a tight ship. To me that is a very important attribute.

Saddler- That dial down was a concern I was having. Hopefully someone will chime in on the discussion who has actually used the Bi-Color units.
 
Ok, lets take a moment to address this fear, uncertainty and doubt. Two areas: availability and light loss while changing color temps.

1). Availability. LED 1200 is delayed only for people that want to buy from US stock (using Fedex Ground within the USA). Others have been buying it for a month, including a few US customers that couldn't wait and paid the higher shipping to get it now from China. Some in the USA have been pre-ordering as well to have shipped the moment they reach US stock. One US customer has already bought 6, taken delivery by express from China and loving them. I expect we'll see a big post over there on reduser sometime in the near future while shooting with his newly arrived "Epic" camera.

People in Europe, Australia, etc. have no reason to wait, there is not necessarily a cost advantage in sending it from the USA vs sending from China. Here's some comments so far from some in Europe and Greece:

http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=36727&page=39

2). Color Temperature and light loss. The LED 1200 bi-color is 6000K with everything on at full intensity (Saddler, where did you hear that the LED 1200 bi-color is 6500K at full intensity?). All HMI's that use Osram and Philips bulbs (the originals and most popular) are 6000K and some higher. LED 1200 and other powerful Cool Lights that will follow in the future are targeted as an HMI replacement for many of the uses that a similar output HMI could be used for--not all but most. People use 6000K HMIs everyday in large and small productions both knowingly and unknowingly without correction and that works fine for them. People that know about HMI bulbs being natively 6000K and are concerned about it use some filtering to bring it down to whatever they need like 5600K or they use custom white balance. There is light loss when you use filtering just like you'd lose some light if you turned down the dimmers on the 1200 by about 400K. But to my knowledge, most that use HMI's use them without correction. People that are knowledgeable about HMIs and use them often will do the same with the 1200 as they would with an HMI and get similar results color wise.

Other thoughts about who the bi-color type fixtures are targeted at.

I view the variable color temperature feature as a side bonus but not the main feature of the bi-color. I think the main feature is the higher CRI than an equivalent normal mono-color panel at around the same color temperature. A very nice quality of light without minus green filtering necessary. The bi-color is designed for the "mostly daylight and sometimes 3200K" people to give them the best quality of light in the range they use it the most often. Then they can tweak it down to whatever you want for those special cases. If you have a single color daylight panel and you use full CTO to bring it down to 3200K then you're also losing a lot of light. People that like HMIs and are comfortable with using them often will like the LED 1200 and this is the case with those that have already bought them. Some of those people already own our HMI fixtures as well.

If someone needs the full power of 1200 LEDs all at 3200K and they need that often, then they'd need a single color 3200K panel and that's what they'd buy because it makes most sense for how they work. If someone likes the single color daylight panels and has been using the smaller ones, they'll like the LED 1200 single color 5600K as it will give them more of what they're used to in terms of light output. Thus which type configuration you choose would be best chosen by deciding what you'll use most of the time and going that route.

The bi-color design is based on my experience with what is selling today, the overwhelming majority of people these days that are using non-tungsten fixtures are going for daylight range color temperature like an HMI, daylight flo or an LED 600 type fixture. Their camera's sensors like this too as most sensors today prefer daylight to be at their best.

The LED 1200 single color for those that aren't interested in the bi-color features:

http://www.coollights.biz/clled1200-1200-daylight-panel-p-141.html

No 3200K version today but there will be.

Hope this answers some of the questions raised.
 
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Awesome, thanks Richard. If I were to place an order tomorrow for 3 bi-colors to be delivered from China, roughly how long would it take to get the lights delivered, and what would the approximate shipping cost come out to?
 
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