Interesting to a degree, no question. Super affordable. However, no matter how affordable, it will miss the boat if it doesn't hit selling points - you'd be better off bumping the price up and hitting selling points. Battery power is the #1 requirement, IMHO. Because there are plenty of varying quality fresnel/par LEDs that are AC powered already, though usually for a lot of $. What most of us want is battery powered LED fresnels. That is a key differentiating requirement. However, it is not the only one. The second one, sadly, is output. It would be great if this pushed out the equivalent of 1K tungsten fresnel, rather than 500W. If you had something like that - battery operated, 1K equivalent, dimmable, flicker-free, around 95 CRI, and sold it for under $800, I think you'd have buyers line up around the block. Also, by battery powered, I don't mean lugging a battery that's the size of a small car and that costs as much. Basically, what the OP needs - the ability to shoot night exteriors with battery powered LEDs.
Good battery-powered nighttime lighting solution
- Thread starter jthabel
- Start date
Interesting to a degree, no question. Super affordable. However, no matter how affordable, it will miss the boat if it doesn't hit selling points - you'd be better off bumping the price up and hitting selling points. Battery power is the #1 requirement, IMHO. Because there are plenty of varying quality fresnel/par LEDs that are AC powered already, though usually for a lot of $. What most of us want is battery powered LED fresnels. That is a key differentiating requirement. However, it is not the only one. The second one, sadly, is output. It would be great if this pushed out the equivalent of 1K tungsten fresnel, rather than 500W. If you had something like that - battery operated, 1K equivalent, dimmable, flicker-free, around 95 CRI, and sold it for under $800, I think you'd have buyers line up around the block. Also, by battery powered, I don't mean lugging a battery that's the size of a small car and that costs as much. Basically, what the OP needs - the ability to shoot night exteriors with battery powered LEDs.
Stephen Mick
Totally Usable
What the OP needs to do is talk to Toby at Gear/MP&E or Keith at Austin Movie Gear. They'll help him get set up with whatever he needs.
Samuel H
Major Contributor
Thanks a lot. Main issue: higher power LEDs are less efficient (more power use) and require a different power unit than what I'm currently using, making everything more complex and expensive. These things are about the size and weight of a stills flash, so I don't think having two together will be a big issue. In any case I do have a 130W LED at home that might come close to 1K tungsten, but I haven't played with it yet.
To avoid hijacking the thread, we can go on with PMs.
Grug
Veteran
A little 2.5-3kw portable gennie only costs $50/day to rent. So there's really no sensible reason not to have at least one of them on a night exterior shoot. Lets you run a 2kw blondie and some LEDs/Kinos, or a 1.2/1.8kw HMI and an LED or two.
It also lets you charge your batteries, and have a kettle to keep the tea and coffee flowing on-set (which is hugely important on night shoots).
It also lets you charge your batteries, and have a kettle to keep the tea and coffee flowing on-set (which is hugely important on night shoots).
Thanks for all the feedback here, guys.
Someone on the thread above asked what ISO I'd be shooting with. 850 is always desirable, but we frequently go up to 1600 or even a little higher with the C100 in low-light situations.
I've got an experienced DP for this shoot, and the both of us are on pretty good terms with the guys at Gear and Austin Movie Gear here in Austin. They have many of the options discussed above. We plan extensive location scouting beforehand, but the run-n-gun nature of this project is going to require mostly quick, simplified setups.
Someone on the thread above asked what ISO I'd be shooting with. 850 is always desirable, but we frequently go up to 1600 or even a little higher with the C100 in low-light situations.
I've got an experienced DP for this shoot, and the both of us are on pretty good terms with the guys at Gear and Austin Movie Gear here in Austin. They have many of the options discussed above. We plan extensive location scouting beforehand, but the run-n-gun nature of this project is going to require mostly quick, simplified setups.
CharlesPapert
Director of Photography
I try not to post from an ivory tower, i.e. suggest that everyone should have big crews and lots of gear. The package I suggested was three small heads and about $75 of grip gear. I would be able to manage that with one extra pair of hands if I had to. Yes, it's possible to use less and it's possible to use homemade lights and that's great. I've done all of the low-rent versions of shooting myself, lighting with hardware store units and old Lowel-lights etc. and if that's all you have, that's all you can do. But once you've used better gear, you know how much more flexible and faster it is to have the right tools. As David Jones pointed out, renting was on the table so why wouldn't I approach it from that standpoint.
The bigger picture of the point I was trying to make is that it's very hard to recommend a lighting package without knowing the budget, the style of the shoot, the logistics, the size of crew, and the expectations involved. That's why I wrote that sticky.
I don't really know how crowd-sourcing this sort of information works, anyway. How do you know whose advice to take?
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