Ikan ID 500 3-light kit good enough???

N

Nicholas Natteau

Veteran
I have a Panasonic AF100, and for indoor talking head interviews, I was thinking of getting a second Litepanels 1x1 until I spoke to someone from B&H who recommended instead this 3-light kit from Ikan:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/709555-REG/Ikan_ID500_KIT_ID_500_LED_3_Light.html

Can anyone who has used the Ikan ID 500 light comment here and tell me how it fares against the Litepanels 1x1??? I mean the Ikan 3-light kit sells for less than the price of a single Litepanels 1x1.

Is it too good to be true??? Or am I paying much more for the name "Litepanels"

Thanks in advance for any feedback.
 
The lights from Amazon look similar to the Ikans but don't appear to have the dimmer and its corresponding knob on the back. There's also no mention of the remote control (although I wouldn't pay extra for that, myself). The dimmer is useful, but not essential, since you also have the switches to turn separate columns of LEDs on and off.

I have the Ikan kit and find it a decent value for the price, but I can't answer the OP's question because I have never used the Litepanels. I'd like to hear an informed comparison myself.

- GDS
 
Hi Dwelter and Greg and thank you both for your feedback. Greg, are you using the Ikan kit for the three point lighting setup? And how have they performed for you? Are you happy? Any draw backs? Pros and cons??? Thanks again.
 
I have the lights from ePhoto found on Amazon, except mine has the dimmer switch.
I have to say, they are pretty good for the price and portability. And the best part?? They never get hot!
Only thing I didn't like was the slight greenish tint to the light, but you can correct that with the white balance or in post. In a completely dark room, 2 of these light panels were able to light up the entire room.
Highly recommend this one.
 
Nicholas Natteau said:
Hi Dwelter and Greg and thank you both for your feedback. Greg, are you using the Ikan kit for the three point lighting setup? And how have they performed for you? Are you happy? Any draw backs? Pros and cons??? Thanks again.
Click to expand...

I have had the Ikan kit just a couple of weeks and have only done test setups, but no real shoots with it yet. So this is a *very* early impression. I would use it for key and backlight in a small interview setup, say in an office or something similar. I have a Lowel Rifa 55 fitted out with fluorescent bulbs that I would probably prefer to use for fill most of the time. I'm not seeing any serious green spike on my HMC80, but I have minus-green gels ready in my kit just in case. The light pattern appears quite even, although perhaps not as wide as I expected. The Ikan lights aren't powerful enough to fill a large room, but I think they're going to be just the thing for the kind of interviews and product demo type shooting that I do a lot of.

I think a typical setup might wind up being two of the Ikans on the same stand for key, one for a backlight, the Lowel for fill on the subject, and some Cool Lights 4-tube flos I have for set lighting, if needed. But every location is different, so that's just a rough starting point.

I sure do love that the LEDs run so cool and that there is little risk of blowing a breaker on location when using them. The Ikans probably wouldn't hold up to daily rental-house type abuse but for me, as a one-man band with sometimes a student helper or two, they will probably last a good long time. The build quality and finish are good, not superb, but consistent with the price range and nothing to be ashamed of. I'm a little more worried about the external power supply bricks than the lights themselves; those look like cheap generic Chinese switchers that often aren't terribly reliable. But the lights have a standard 4-pin XLR on the back for power, so I can substitute a better power supply (or a battery) easily if the originals fail.

- GDS
 
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Hi everyone,

I went ahead and purchased Ikan's ID 500 3 light kit and just received it yesterday. I only had a few minutes to experiment with it because I had to leave for an appointment.

So far, it looks great (sold build!). But just a question for those of you who have used it: Any idea why the dimmer delays for 2 seconds as you dim up or down? The LED lights take 1-2 seconds to dim as you turn the dimmer. Is something wrong with my unit?
 
On my Ikan lights, the dimmer turns UP quickly but there is a noticeable lag in going DOWN. I presume a capacitor inside is discharging slowly when you dial down the dimmer.

Just takes a little getting used to turning the dial slowly when setting up -- not even an inconvenience in the big scheme of things. (I assume you're not actually planning to adjust the dimmer during a shot.)

- GDS
 
I'm pretty sure it's because...
with LCD lights, because it uses way less power than standard tungsten lights, it takes longer to discharge the energy...
but with turning the dimmer up, all the light has to do is feed it more power, and it's almost instantaneous.

I think the power XLR cable is too loose... when plugged into an AC outlet...
sometimes it disconnects when I move it around, for a split second... but it comes right back on...
But all you need to do is get an Anton Bauer battery and the Gold Mount...

Other than that it's a great starter kit.
 
Thanks AaronC. Actually I purchased the V-mount battery instead. Did I make a mistake? Should I have instead purchased Anton Bauer? Is there anything the AB battery have that the v-mount does not?
 
It doesn't really matter, if it powers up the lights, you'll be fine.

I just said AB batteries, because i think they are the most common in the industry...
 
As somebody said here in another thread, Anton Bauer versus V-mount batteries is like Coke vs. Pepsi or Canon vs. Nikon -- they both work equally well, but once you become financially committed to one system or the other, you have an incentive to not want to mix them. I started with mostly Ikegami cameras back in the '80s, and they came with A-B mounts as standard equipment, so I began buying Anton Bauer batteries and chargers, and have owned many over the years. Other people have equally good (or bad) reasons for having chosen V-mount (probably, mostly current or former Sony users). But either one will work just fine for your lights, it's just easier if you stay consistent with the other equipment you use.

- Greg
 
Thanks for this thread!

Thanks for this thread!

I'm exactly one day into my career as an independent contractor, fascinated with LED lights, really excited about the (relatively) inexpensive Ikans.

This thread's answered a lot of questions, so thanks!
 
I like the idea of the LEDs for their size, and that compared to flo's they seem (possibly) more durable.

But what's the output like? I got 3 twin-tube biax flo's for about $200 a pop - they easily keep up with a 500 watt tungsten. I also recently got a 4-tube for about $290 and it's the best buy I've found all year.

I really, really like having a lot of punch on hand. I've read all the "tungsten equivalent" claims, but anyone compared these to the kino-style units (with 2, 4 or 6 55w biax tubes)? I've become a big fan of the quality of light with the biax units.
 
Just curious if you guys have had any more experience with the Ikan lights or those cheap ePhoto lights. I was leaning towards buying the 3 Ikan 500 light kit, but if those ePhoto lights on Amazon are really the same lights without the case and remote, I don't see why I'd want to pay the extra 1k for the IKAN.
 
i've had a bit of experience with the ikan lights, as well as the cheap-o's. the best i can recommend pointing you to a blog i wrote about a month back, addressing this issue:http://www.ikancorp.com/blog/wp/?p=1110

and some more food for thought:
we build our units to be used with 12v power that will allow them to powered in the field by assorted battery systems via 4 pin XLR power connection . in addition to the battery power the lights also have mounting brackets built into the light to support mounting a pro style Sony Mount or Anton Bauer battery kit. The e-photo uses a 120v AC computer cord limiting its use with battery systems.

study and research will near always give you what you expect to receive. Hope that helps!
 
Funny. I just came across this thread, almost a year later, and I still haven't purchased a light kit yet. I decided to just push through with my old Lowel kit and wait and see what else pops up in the LED market. As it stands, after a year, it seems like prices have stayed relatively the same with the exception of the fact that the lower cost lights have added bi-color dimming options to their bottom line.

Fancierstudio 500 LED Bi-Color with V-Mount - $210.00 with free shipping

ePhoto 500 LED Bi-Color with V-Mount - $220.00 with free shipping

Ikan 500 LED BiColor with V-Mount - $550 for Light + $150 for V-Mount Adapter + $20 shipping = $720

I am going to pull the trigger on some LED lights in the next week as I have a shoot on June 25th that I need them for. Anybody else out there know of any other options other than these? I have a friend that purchased the Fancierstudio lights and he likes them a lot. He uses them with his Anton Bauer batteries and loves, loves, loves the fact that he doesn't need to rely on cords anymore. He's only had them for a month so they haven't been battle tested yet.
 
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