Interesting new LED light: Flolight BladeLight

Very interesting. Do kino flourescent style lights still have a place or are LEDs quickly making them if not obsolete much less desirable? I see a tons of old gear going up for auction from rental companies slimming down or going out of business and I'm not sure how much of it I'd really want to own(at least at the prices they are still commanding). I'm trying to break myself of the gear whore mentality and concentrate on what makes sense and not let gear ego/hoarding get in the way. Sorry for rambling on.
 
Kinos are great, and they're still doing exactly the same great things now as they were 5 years ago before LEDs got up to par. These days though, they're not as flexible as LEDs. They can't dim from 1-100% with zero colour shift (which is a HUGE benefit to LEDs), and the fixtures can make spill a little hard to wrangle at times.

For my money, I'd be getting extra remote phosphor lights were I buying at the moment. The colour quality is better than Kino tubes, you get perfect dimming, there's no tubes to break in transport, you can change colour temperature in a matter of seconds rather than a minute or two, you can run smaller ones on batteries and still get more light output than a 4' 4-bank Kino.

Now again, those benefits don't make flos any worse, they just make them less versatile comparatively. For me, it's the speed of remote phosphor that makes it better - you can light faster, and that leaves you more time to shoot.
 
Grug said:
Now again, those benefits don't make flos any worse, they just make them less versatile comparatively. For me, it's the speed of remote phosphor that makes it better - you can light faster, and that leaves you more time to shoot.
Click to expand...

I dunno, I disagree about remote phosphor, the last time I saw Cineo lights on set, they turned up green compared to our tungsten key, and they are awfully bulky and not very versatile. They are like ziplights, maybe ok for studio work but they are just too small to be a naturalistic soft source on their own and too broad angle to be an efficient hard source. I'd rather have a highly efficient narrow beam light that I can soften to any degree I want or use hard with good punch. There is use for a broad beam soft source but what's the point if its harder and heavier and greener and more expensive than a kino?

The Westcott Flex lights look pretty interesting as far as having nice color and punch in a very portable package. I could see a 2x1' easily replacing a kino since the actual unit itself can be stuck anywhere since it's so light and still has a remote ballast.

As for kino, they do have Celeb LEDs which I've been seeing on set more and more.
 
Noah, between the Celebs and the Cineos I'd say the Cineos have more accurate color rendition. I haven't seen the green shift on the Cineos you were describing, but I do find Celebs tend to the magenta and I almost always have 1/8 green onboard them to correct.

As far as the Bladelight...I mentioned in another thread that I think a single one of these would make a fine backlight because it is so low profile in height and thus gives you maximum clearance with a low ceiling. The stackability is interesting--I rarely have need of a single tube fixture but being able to turn this into a double/triple/quadruple unit is smart (assuming that the barn doors can be re-attached to the outside edges of the subsequent assembly). Just using the single unit as a key source on faces is a quite limited concept, there's a bit of a strange effect to having a wide but short unit as it is soft in one direction and hard in another. You'd find that it wraps well sideways, so the nose shadow is soft, but the chin would throw a hard shadow. That could be desirable for avoiding a crepey neck for instance.

Is there an indication that each unit requires its own ballast or can they be ganged? If the former, that would make a stacked unit much less attractive as you'd have a pile of boxes to move around.
 
Unfortunately I have bad experiences with FloLight.... or... that is... I hope they have gotten better at making their stuff.
I own two lights; the AW330 and the AW110 and while the light is just fine, especially if you put Kino Flo tubes in them, the casing is rubbish. Don't expect the barndoors to remain sturdy or firm for very long, meaning that the barndoor that is below, will start to hang at some point, rendering it useless.
Mine rarely get any use anymore, and I know that a lot of retailers in the UK (if not every single one) cut off Prompter People (Flo Light) some years ago due to bad cooperation.

So make sure you get to see the light up close before buying it, for your own sake.
 
legrevedotcom said:
Unfortunately I have bad experiences with FloLight.... or... that is... I hope they have gotten better at making their stuff.
I own two lights; the AW330 and the AW110 and while the light is just fine, especially if you put Kino Flo tubes in them, the casing is rubbish. Don't expect the barndoors to remain sturdy or firm for very long, meaning that the barndoor that is below, will start to hang at some point, rendering it useless.
Mine rarely get any use anymore, and I know that a lot of retailers in the UK (if not every single one) cut off Prompter People (Flo Light) some years ago due to bad cooperation.

So make sure you get to see the light up close before buying it, for your own sake.
Click to expand...

Been using these for a bit now (the blade lights), and they are indistructable, have insanely high color rendition, are crazy bright, barn doors are solid and don't flap around, and nothing really competes, especially at the price point.
 
I have three flolight duals from a while back, they were my first biax units.

Super-lightweight plastic with thin barndoors - you can hang them from drop-ceilig x-clamps or even tape them up.

They have goosenecks, which pretty much suck the ass of a week-dead roadkill donkey. Under the Texas sun.

Other than that, they'v lasted years, never changed a tube. Their stock bulbs run a little yellow, I pretty much use 'em for green screen lights these days.

But those blades look kinda cool...
 
I've got the 36" version of the Bladelight (daylight balanced) and I'm quite pleased with it. It's heavier than I assumed it would be and a bit more cumbersome with its (again heavy) power supply than I'd have liked, but that's really about all I can complain about. Color rendering was very high per my tests. That's not my speciality, but I can at least compare lights relatively and this one consistently measured around 95 or higher. That's a big step up from my other LEDs. I wrote up a pretty long article about this light with a bunch of photos if it's helpful here: http://www.fennworld.com/a-look-at-flolights-bladelight/
 
Sorry to resurrect an old thread but I am actually considering buying a pair of the 36" Bladelights (daylight). The other lights I'm considering is a pair of Aputure Light Storm LS 1s which seem to have a similar CRI, output and price point. So I guess I am looking for some info / opinions as to why I should go with one over the other. Pros. Cons. All the rest.

There seem to be lots of positive reviews on the Aputures and what I've read about the Bladelights has been positive as well but there just isn't as much discussion about them in general. I don't live close enough to any store to test these lights in person so I have to base my decision based off of research and others' real-world experiences. Of course, I know I can return the fixtures if I wasn't satisfied but I prefer to avoid the hassle and prefer to choose wisely whenever possible.

I appreciate any input. Thanks!
 
digitalinnovations said:
Sorry to resurrect an old thread but I am actually considering buying a pair of the 36" Bladelights (daylight). The other lights I'm considering is a pair of Aputure Light Storm LS 1s which seem to have a similar CRI, output and price point. So I guess I am looking for some info / opinions as to why I should go with one over the other. Pros. Cons. All the rest.

There seem to be lots of positive reviews on the Aputures and what I've read about the Bladelights has been positive as well but there just isn't as much discussion about them in general. I don't live close enough to any store to test these lights in person so I have to base my decision based off of research and others' real-world experiences. Of course, I know I can return the fixtures if I wasn't satisfied but I prefer to avoid the hassle and prefer to choose wisely whenever possible.

I appreciate any input. Thanks!
Click to expand...

I've not used the Flolights but I bought and have used two of the Aputure LS 1S for the past six months. The are pretty cool for cheap lights. They put out a ton of light, really impressive. I have used mine in direct sun as a fill source, which blew me away that they had that much output. I engineered a homemade speed ring on one of mine after removing the barndoors and I key with my small Chimera Quartz bank. It has enough output to use my 40 degree egg crate for interviews. The wireless remote is immensely handy when one man banding it. The ability to run off of V-Mounts is cool too, I am buying a few right now for them.

Pros
Incredible amount of output. 1,536 bulbs put out an amazing amount of light for the size and cost
Wireless remote is too cool, it is really useful
They are thin and not too heavy
They have been 100% reliable, even in the heat and one time, before I had the power supply holders, the power bricks were down in some mud on an outdoor shoot. No issues, cleaned right up after the shoot. Now I have the holders that get them up off of the ground.

Cons
Build quality is okay but not really pro level as far as taking a lot of abuse over years
Barndoors do not detach, although you can take them apart like I did to put on my homemade speed ring for my Chimera. Then again, I can't think of situations when you would WANT to shoot without barndoors other than sticking a softbox on it? You can always just fold them back. I bought two of those cheap $69.00 softboxes that they sell with them, they kind of suck, too shallow and not enough diffusion, usable for a fill source but not good for a key, that's why I mounted my Chimera, much greater depth from source to diffusion so softer light quality.
The AC power to AC power supply to control box with yet another cable from control box to light head is generally a PITA. I bought some neoprene power supply holders that Erik Naso reviewed, they help, by getting the power supply to attach to the light stand so moving it is easier. But if you are used to just one cable from the wall to the light, this setup is convoluted although it's not a deal breaker. OTOH, it makes the light head itself really small and light, not too top heavy if you are using aluminum kit stands and not proper steel light stands and the control box is down where you can use it rather than the control 9' in the air on the back of the light head.
The LED power level display light on the dimmer on the control box is weak, you will never see it in sunlight and it is even hard to see in a bright room

Overall, I am very happy with them, I can't think of another light in their price range that have nearly the output. CRI is good although some still think they have a slight green cast to them. If I had the money, I would have bought a pair of the Astra Soft but with all of the bells and whistles, $4k for two of them versus $1.4k for my two Aputures. They are an amazing value but a budget light. We'd all rather have Rotolights and or Arri Skypanels but most of us can't drop $20k on a lighting kit.

IMG_4485.jpgIMG_4483.jpgIMG_4481.jpg
 
Last edited:
Great write-up and thank you for the pictures too!

I think the debate between the two, for me, boils down to...

- Bladelights are heavier / bulkier. I do have proper c-stands but I also have micro-stands when I need to pack light so the Aputure lights are a better option there.
- LS 1s are smaller but the softbox solution that I know of (D-Fuse) still creates a fairly small source. But now I could consider your solution as well.
- Bladelights (I would get the 36" for the output) do provide a pretty large source from the start but I don't know of any softbox solution for them so I would need to shoot them through a diffusion frame to soften beyond the slide-in filters which = more stands, etc. so tough to do in tight spaces.

Since I don't see a whole lot else at this price point I feel like output and quality of light (CRI) will be the deciding factor between the two.
 
digitalinnovations said:
Great write-up and thank you for the pictures too!

I think the debate between the two, for me, boils down to...

- Bladelights are heavier / bulkier. I do have proper c-stands but I also have micro-stands when I need to pack light so the Aputure lights are a better option there.
- LS 1s are smaller but the softbox solution that I know of (D-Fuse) still creates a fairly small source. But now I could consider your solution as well.
- Bladelights (I would get the 36" for the output) do provide a pretty large source from the start but I don't know of any softbox solution for them so I would need to shoot them through a diffusion frame to soften beyond the slide-in filters which = more stands, etc. so tough to do in tight spaces.

Since I don't see a whole lot else at this price point I feel like output and quality of light (CRI) will be the deciding factor between the two.
Click to expand...

I have a D-Fuse large too as well as the cheap Chinese softboxes and I agree, the D-Fuse is also too shallow, which puts the diffusion only inches fron the LED bulbs. Usable in a pinch or as a fill light I find. I am okay with a soft/hard light combo for key and fill, sometimes it's an interesting look, depending on talent. I welded my own speedring out of small angle iron stock and it works well but you could easily purchase a cheap or used Arri 1K open face speed ring and just zip tie it to barndoor frames as I did with mine and it would work fine to get a Chimera on like mine. I own three small and one medium Chimera Quartz Pro, I have had most of them for over 15 years and I love them, they are an integral part of how I light. Diffusion frames, 4x4s or larger are for when you have a crew and some time. I get that once in a while for promo shoots and commercials but my typical shoot is not enough crew or time so using softboxes works for my style of shooting best.
 
I'm really anxious for the bi-color 36" BladeLights to ship. The diffusion filter with some more diffusion clipped to the barndoors with create a huge, soft source.
 
Rain Man said:
I'm really anxious for the bi-color 36" BladeLights to ship. The diffusion filter with some more diffusion clipped to the barndoors with create a huge, soft source.
Click to expand...

You realize it will only be soft on the horizontal axis because of relative size? In the vertical axis, it is still a small, hard source. Kind of unique look it will probably impart, I am sure, might look interesting?
 
That was one of the areas I was curious about; I love the idea of being able to cut the light but also want to create a large, soft source when needed. Also, one of the reasons output was so important to me - so I can fire it through diffusion and it still have "punch". But, as with anything, there is no "one light" to do it all...ugh I hate the real world and budgets :)

It would seem like the Bladelight would be narrow, either on the vertical or horizontal axis depending on orientation. I'd need to look it up again but someone posted a video that shows, without a focusing lens, the throw is actually pretty wide and that's before any diffusion to soften/spread the light more. I believe Flolight advertises it as 120 degrees without lens?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top