Good LED light kit for interview & photo shoots

bboyswoosh87

bboyswoosh87

Member
I don't know anything about lights i've been working with lots of photographers & production companies. I've been learning a lot on set about lighting although I still dont know how to wrap cable lol and I've been working mostly with Arri lights and Mole Richardson lights. My question is are there any LED lights which could be used both on set and for a photo shoot like a basic kit with not too much green tint. Since i'm ususally a one man team would be a happy camper if everything was a light setup not carrying heavy equipment.
 
I am selling a few on ebay right now:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/201070432744?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649
http://www.ebay.com/itm/201070432744?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Litepanels are pretty great if you're trying to get high-quality for mid-budget. There is no green tint (although I think they compensate for that with a little extra magenta on the SOLA series). The INCA is very close to tungsten, and is a good choice if you want to use it alongside other tungsten features. Otherwise, the 1x1 is the way to go, as it doesn't do a bad job matching sunlight.

I have a few more SOLA I could sell you if you want to PM me.
 
It's going to be hard to find a good LED 3-point kit for less than $3k at this time. I have one of these: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/860840-REG/Litepanels_906_1030_Sola_ENG_Flight_Kit.html
Which is really cool, but it's definitely at the bare minimum for a pro kit. Compared to a much cheaper tungsten open-faced kit like the Lowell Omnis, it offers increased flexibility, versatility, and portability at the expense of sheer light output and a lot of cash.

To narrow down your options, you might consider what color temperature is most important for you (or if you really need fixtures that do both--more $). Any fixture can be filtered, of course, but at a loss of brightness. Litepanels Daylight 1x1 fixtures, spot or flood, are selling on a massive NAB discount right now.

If you were looking at Litepanels within your budget and didn't want the ENG kit, a more powerful 3-point setup could be (3) 1x1 panels: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/973873-REG/litepanels_903_6002_1_x_1_ls.html
But you won't really be able to shape or focus the light.
For 5-point, add a 6"-9" fresnel and an ENG fresnel to this kit and you're all set.

If you do chroma-keying, whatever you get, you'll want to add at least 2 panels like the 1x1 to your kit.
 
I am very happy with the F&V K4000 Daylight 1x1 lights. Brighter than the Litepanels equivalent, 5400 K color temp, with no color cast, 3 lights with case for $1,050.

CheesyCam : F&V K4000 Studio LED Light Panels

Stay away from the F&V Bi-Color 1x1 lights, they are much dimmer and will require a filter-pack to match the color temp you set. ( for tungsten I use a Lowel kit )
 
bboyswoosh87 said:
I don't know anything about lights i've been working with lots of photographers & production companies. I've been learning a lot on set about lighting although I still dont know how to wrap cable lol and I've been working mostly with Arri lights and Mole Richardson lights. My question is are there any LED lights which could be used both on set and for a photo shoot like a basic kit with not too much green tint. Since i'm ususally a one man team would be a happy camper if everything was a light setup not carrying heavy equipment.
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Since you have been using Arri and Mole units, are you looking for equivalent light output as those ?
The K4000 1X1 panel puts out 2860 lux at 1 meter distance with 60 degrees spread. Converting that to lumens is LESS than 2500 lumens which makes it like a 200 watt filament. Add a corrective color gell to use as 3200K and them lumens drop to around 100 watt light bulb equivalent. Compare to an Arri 650 watter ?????
 
I'm having trouble understanding the interest in LEDs. If I had to do tons of run & gun location stuff with zero setup time and no guarantee of power, I'd be into a battery powered set. To me, they're for battery-only scenarios.

But look at the OP for this thread, wanting something for stills and interviews? And almost every new thread in DVX-Lighting seems to be LED questions. It seems like - as far as color rendering, shaping and overall beauty of light - LEDs are still about the last thing to consider (unless there's been some huge leaps in the tech I haven't heard of??) Dollars to lumens, value-wise they don't seem like the best choice either.

I've got simply a TON of lights, but I've been lighting interviews the last year or so with some combo of primarily this stuff:
a quad biax through diffusion draped over a stand arm;
a dual biax for hair/cheekbone ridge;
an Alzo bulb & ballast + 18" or 24" china ball (often 2 bulbs in one ball);
a 300 watt cool-lights tungsten fresnel;
a 750 or 500 watt Altman theatrical fresnel with 1/2 or 3/4 CTB.

I mean, I BRING more stuff but generally, the above is quick and pretty standard interview stuff. (I don't do "3 point" or whatever, I just light). That list is about $1200 of lights, if that.

With dual and quad biax flo units cheaper than ever, all the very useable Arri tungsten knockoffs, used tungsten, (the really super-useful) Alzo bulb & ballast, even used HMI, dropping $2k for a couple 1' LED panels seems off to me. Is it just the newness of the tech, or is it younger people just starting out that have heard they're the latest & greatest?

Recent setups:
DSC_7599.jpg
I think this one included a softbox:
DSC_0900b.jpg
 
The interest of the LED's is their low heat and power consumption which makes them well suited for use with batteries which leads tp portability and the cutting of the umbilical cord ( AC power socket) which allows freedom to go where no filament has gone before. Really opens up possibilities. Noisy generators are already giving way to battery operated LEDs with high lumen outputs. Untill they come up with a 750 watt/hour 14 volt battery that weighs LESS than a few pounds and capable of powering a 375 watt filament for a couple of hours, LEDS will remain popular as long as no other alternative can fit the above requirements. LEP ( llight emitting plasma) is far from becoming mainstream soon. RP ( remote phosphor) is mucho $$$$.
Battery only scenarios ? to many, that is the only scenario possible or desired when no other powering source is available or allowed.
 
Yep, as I wrote, if I were doing a remote gig or something where batteries were the only possibility, it's a no brainer.

But flos and HMIs give you reduced heat and power consumption, very very nice daylight and the dollars-to-lumens value if off the charts. If most of your business consists of, say, corporate interviews, commercial stuff, editorial/shorts, would LED be your first buy? I've been shooting corporate motion for close to a decade and have yet to say "wish I had a battery out here". Plenty of times I've wished for more lumens though.
 
Leds do have a lot of lumens. It is a simple matter of adding more of them in a fixture. I am talking about the lighting class series of LED emitters that can emit well over 110 lumens of light for every watt consumed. That is like a 100 watt filament equivalent using only 2 of these leds that consume 10 watts each. Because the high output units out there are really expensive, I made a few myself to see how much lumens I can squeeze out by using 24 and 12 of them leds on a small as possible fixtures. The 12 led unit with a 14 volt battery attached achieved a 750 watt equivalent in a fixture measuring only 6X5 inches.
I can fit 3 of these units in a standard carry-on with room for 3 light stands and 3 batteries. The 24 led version is a 1.5K equivalent and is twice the length of the smaller version. When I compared even my small unit to others that claim a 1000 watt equivalent ( just can't ever figure how they measure them), my unit is much brighter and smaller as well as lighter (only 2.5 lbs).
 
How are you finding the quality of the light? CRI is often a misleading number, but is the color working out well? A lot of LED footage I've seen has something missing, there's sort of a sallow feel to skin tones.
 
I am looking to add a Quad biax flow unit to my lowel kit to replace a broken Omni. I'm kinda sick of the heat from the bigger tungsten so I figured Kino knockoffs would be my first choice. Looking at all the bigger name flos like Alzo, Cool Lights, Flo Lights vs Fotodiox, Cowboy studio stuff is there much of a difference between the ballasts? I plan on buying Kino bulbs anyway. Do these different Kino-knockoff balasts drive the bulbs differently from each other? If not then I'll go for the cheapest option as I can get a 4 bulb unit of the chinese brands for the same price as a 2 bulb unit from Alzo/FloLight/cool lights etc.
 
CRI figures don't tell the whole story/ I have seen CRI leds in the lower 80's that looked far better on skintones that the claimed 90+ on many el cheapo units. They seem to throw inflated specs around like frisbees. Some even claim to have a 1000w hotlight equivalent led unit that consumes less than 100 watts. Yeah right, unless the leds are on steroids or brought down by aliens I do not see that being possible having a 10:1 conversion efficiency of lumens to power draw ratio. Leds at best offer a 5:1 factor advantage over the filaments. Flo's perhaps 3:1 and HMI's like less than 2:1 or so.
That off tint sallow look by leds is due to a few factors that taken together conspire to throw the rendering off. The discontinuous spectrum of leds, the quality control from mfr to mfr, the native ( bluish) color temperature of the led filtered to match ambient or otherwise, 3200K gels and correction panels not accurately matched to the leds, etc. etc.
Just as an example the Nichia 219 leds, mostly in the neutral 4000K native CT give excellent high CRI (90+) and great skin color rendering. Ideal for video, but are in the 5W class and are not as efficient as the lighting class ones that I use. Sure, I can use them on my next designs, but the custom led drivers and the sheer quantity of emitters needed may necessitate a much larger housing. It is possible but the cost of components and assembly time will be substantial.
 
RatLabProductions said:
I am looking to add a Quad biax flow unit to my lowel kit to replace a broken Omni. I'm kinda sick of the heat from the bigger tungsten so I figured Kino knockoffs would be my first choice. Looking at all the bigger name flos like Alzo, Cool Lights, Flo Lights vs Fotodiox, Cowboy studio stuff is there much of a difference between the ballasts? I plan on buying Kino bulbs anyway. Do these different Kino-knockoff balasts drive the bulbs differently from each other? If not then I'll go for the cheapest option as I can get a 4 bulb unit of the chinese brands for the same price as a 2 bulb unit from Alzo/FloLight/cool lights etc.
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I've got some flolight and generic chinese stuff. I did pretty extensive testing for color and gel combos. In my experience, the #1 thing to look for is the style of yoke! Those Flolights with the gooseneck? Ack. Ok, one or two are handy because they're insanely lightweight for a dual biax and can be hung from a suspended ceiling x-clamp.

If you can find duals and quads with a real, steel, u-shaped yoke, that's worth a few extra bucks. People have mentioned replacing their cool-lights lollipops numerous times. I haven't used units that have what seems to be an adapted flash bracket, but they look weak.

My understanding: the Kino bulbs are treated to be more color accurate, but it kills their output somewhat. My chinese stuff have osram tubes and need like 1/8 minus green plus 1/4 CTB (they have a slight yellow cast and really need magenta-purple - all of 'em). But it's subtle and you can just color balance to 'em.

In my experience, the expense of Kinobulbs doesn't seem worth it.

The hardest thing to deal with for quads seems to be finding a decent case to transport them. I've looked at mixer cases, all kinds of stuff. Got the Cool Lights roller case - the handle and feet didn't last more than a few months though. If you don't overload it or check it it may be OK.
 
bboyswoosh87 said:
What If I had no budget for a three point LED lighting setup i hear good things about the Alzo 3000 except for the Noise
Click to expand...

You said you had a $2K or so budget. Has this changed?

Does your budget include everything else you are going to need, like stands and stingers for example, or is your intended budget just for lighting instruments?

Do you need a daylight balanced light kit, or studio balanced lights?
 
Check out the other thread on the Alzo 3000 (It's up to 17 pages I believe). Long story short, I got the 3200 last month. Only used it for 2 setups so far (about a dozen interviews). First time was with the stock fan (I also found it a bit distracting). Second time was with a very-low RPM,but larger 100mm fan. It was dead silent, but got too hot for my comfort. I just installed a new fan that is a decent compromise between noise and airflow. It's very quiet, but not dead silent. Shouldn't be an issue in 95% of my interview situtations. As for color rendition, I'm fairly pleased with the skin tones. I'm not sure that it's on par with tungsten, but I'm not getting zombie flesh tones like some of the cheaper LED's I've tried. I'm having trouble uploading photos to this reply, so I'll have to defer to the other post. It includes a cutaway of the giant heatsink unit that occupies about 60% of the unit.
 
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