LED light panels suggestions from China?

Just got a feed back on the eu price on the fill lite 200..... 1790 euros.

Photometrics: 174fc at 1 metre.... Dropping to 55 at 2 metres.
 
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David is right - it doesn't matter how the light itself looks to you , or to most color light meters for that matter which are wildly inaccurate re green and magenta. I don't know why but mageenta and green gels on LEDs or flo's always look bad when I look at the instrument itself.
Best is to set up a video camera and compare it to a tungstun light and a tungstun light with full blue on it . Or you could just try your camera at preset 5600 and 3200 if you know your camera is good and see if you like the color. 1/8 Minus green should not be a huge correction for your light. If its that close you are probably OK to begin with.
 
I just purchased an Aputure 528s (spot). It can run for an hour off of 2 cheap sony batteries. Got it off ebay with insanely fast shipping (from ebay). There is a high pitched hum on the light, which is something I've heard about other LED panels as well. I doubt it would be a big issue though.

I'm also hearing good things about the R300 ring lite from F&V
http://oliviatech.com/samples-from-fv-r-300-led-ring-light-and-comparison-with-600-led-panel-2

And the Genarays which are available on B&H
http://crewofone.com/2013/led-lighting-is-finally-affordable/
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/919883-REG/genaray_genaray_3_light_interview.html
 
That high pitched hum is most likely from the high frequency inductor component of the led driver board. Not being properly shielded. In some instances that pitch will be picked up by the close proximity mic on the cam and will have to be filtered out in post if that's the case. I would really watch out for that. Sometimes you can barely hear it, but the mic will pick it up.
 
I didn't notice this myself till just this week, but apparently F&V is up to it again.

This time they are bringing out an updated version of their LED panel which is supposed to boast an incredible 95 CRI, going under the name "Ultra-color".

I've tried looking for more details about these lights but can't really find too much. Price is supposed to be around 1700 dollars for a single unit.



So I'm left in a pickle, and David W Jones, I hope you have had more time testing, because I for one am still looking for proper feedback on the K4000 panels :)
 
legrevedotcom said:
I didn't notice this myself till just this week, but apparently F&V is up to it again.

This time they are bringing out an updated version of their LED panel which is supposed to boast an incredible 95 CRI, going under the name "Ultra-color".

I've tried looking for more details about these lights but can't really find too much. Price is supposed to be around 1700 dollars for a single unit.



So I'm left in a pickle, and David W Jones, I hope you have had more time testing, because I for one am still looking for proper feedback on the K4000 panels :)
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Yikes! That's 4x the price of their existing panels. Of course the cri might be worth it to some, but I think most would go for lite panels once you're in that price range...
 
Norman99 said:
That high pitched hum is most likely from the high frequency inductor component of the led driver board. Not being properly shielded. In some instances that pitch will be picked up by the close proximity mic on the cam and will have to be filtered out in post if that's the case. I would really watch out for that. Sometimes you can barely hear it, but the mic will pick it up.
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Yes, I will have to do further testing. I am not an audio guy though, just have a basic shotgun, so I'll have to wait until I'm on a shoot with someone with high end audio equipment to see how much of an issue it really is.
 
CRI figures are being thrown around freely like frisbees these days, especially when anyone can claim anything to get buyer's attention. High CRI figures ( 90 or over) on leds normally are in the warm 2700 to 4000K color temperatures. I really would like to see which led in the 4500 to 6000K range has a CRI of over 85 let alone 90.
 
Bandpro gave me a ball park quote of $2400 for the small fill lite. Not bad. It would take 4 LPs to make one of the same size. Wifi control is a nice option as well. They were supposed to email me a quote for 2 but all i got was spam so far.

Im no fan of Chinese made lights and have even voiced my feelings to Chinese knockoff vendors face to face but i am reading a lot of concern over CRI. Is anyone claiming to be able to tell the difference between 90 and 95? Are we simply going off of what the manufacturer states as its CRI figures? I have a friend with Chinese LEDs and they are almost unusable and im pretty sure the box didnt have a CRI rating of 68.
 
Fratis said:
Bandpro gave me a ball park quote of $2400 for the small fill lite. Not bad. ... They were supposed to email me a quote for 2 but all i got was spam so far...
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Fratis, Have you received your formal estimate from us? If not, I'm sorry for the delay and please PM me and I'll make sure we get something together for you right away. I have Fill Lite demo units in NYC for a day or two and then need to send them on their way for other demo's before they head back to the manufacturer for updating.
 
Not sure! Definitely to my eyes, but not sure on camera, I am pretty sure its too magenta, as compared it to the daylight through a window.
 
Hi All,

as our lights have been mentionend a couple of times in this thread I wanted to add some information. Making a distinction about the quality of manufacturers based on the country the company is manufacturing in is basically useless. Good products and bad products come from all countries. The quality depends on what the customer needs (either by expressing their wish actively or by the choice they make buying certain products) and the direction, knowledge and quality control of the manufacturer.

F&V is in the field of LED lighting for some time already and we are happy to have a great R&D department that can challenge manufacturers all over the world regarding the quality of our products. Our direction with F&V is pretty easy to describe, we want to make high quality lighting as affordable to everyone as possible - and we can reach both parts of this task because of our experience. We are absolutely open regarding the quality and performance of our products, if you ever visit us at a trade show or in our official F&V show room in germany you will see that we support you to test and compare our products with any other products on the market yourself.

Regarding the CRI - the CRI is just one value to get a first impression of the quality of an LED light and it has become quite a buzz word. Therefore many companies advertise with it and a big number of CRI values stated by manufacturers are not realistic. But CRI is something that can be meassured and therefore we bring a mobile spectrometer to all trade shows so that customers can meassure our products and also products of other manufacturers themselves and don't have to rely on published numbers by anyone. Mobile measurements can be quite tricky as well as most measuring devices are not really accurate regarding color temperature for example, but from our test with our integrating sphere and mobile spectrometers of different manufacturers the CRI value can be tested quite reliably to a certain degree.

At the moment with F&V we offer basically two quality lines. The lights like the F&V R-300, K4000 and K160, K320 and K480 have a CRI value around 85, which is already higher than most LED lights on the market including the most known and established brands for LED panels (meassure them, maybe you will be surprised). Our new series called UltraColor has a color rendering index of CRI 95, which is class leading. In general both lines are very neutral without green or magento casts. But one thing that is a quirk of LED lights in general is that the lower the CRI value the more different the light will be seen by different sensors, that means a Canon sensor will see the light in a different way (and color temperature as well) as an ARRI or RED sensor. With higher CRI values like CRI 95 this difference becomes smaller and smaller. Therefore we always advise our customers to either test the lights with the camera they intend to use with it or to check out content that was already shot with that camera for comparison.

In addition to a neutral color and high CRI our lights are also flicker free and ready for all high speed cameras. One thing that is often overlooked by customers is the performance stability over time, which is also harder to judge especially for newer products. One thing one should keep in mind is that too much heat is bad for LEDs as it damages the phosphor in them. The result of it is that LEDs that become too hot because of a bad cooling system or because too many LEDs are too close to each other change their color temperature with time and loose light output. Currently some manufacturers tend to add higher and higher LED counts to impress customers with initially huge light output not caring for long term performance. We take great care in designing our lights well especially with regards to cooling and long term performance stability.

Anyway, we don't want to preach but inform. If you should have specific questions I will be happy to answer them.

All the best,
Mark
 
legrevedotcom said:
I didn't notice this myself till just this week, but apparently F&V is up to it again.

This time they are bringing out an updated version of their LED panel which is supposed to boast an incredible 95 CRI, going under the name "Ultra-color".

I've tried looking for more details about these lights but can't really find too much. Price is supposed to be around 1700 dollars for a single unit.



So I'm left in a pickle, and David W Jones, I hope you have had more time testing, because I for one am still looking for proper feedback on the K4000 panels :)
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Hi,

sorry that we did not publish more information about the UltraColor series yet. We announced them during NAB this year and had prototypes with us during the show so that customers were able to test them but officially they will become available within the next month approximately. The prices for the Z400 will be around this

Z400 UltraColor Daylight 849€ excl. VAT (US$ 1119)
Z400 UltraColor Bi-Color 899€ excl. VAT (US$ 1199)

so a bit lower than you wrote.

All the best,
Mark
 
I've got a set of the F&V K4000 lights and like them a lot, although the filters they sent me were too large (an issues I've recently written to them about and expect they'll rectify). The lights are made in China, are pretty good quality, and worth the money.

So I'll second what Mark says about good stuff being made in many different places. Often you'll see or read something about a product as being Chinese made or a Chinese knockoff - written in such a way as to imply "cheap" and "won't be good". In my experience, there's good and bad Chinese made stuff, just like there's good and bad stuff made in every part of the world.

Anyway, I've discovered since getting to Shanghai a few weeks ago that there's some really high quality Chinese made gear here. I should probably shoot some video of it to share with everyone. I'll have to ask at some of the local shops if they'll let me shoot.

Anyway, back to lights.... F&V are worth the money, IMO.
 
FWIW, I also bought the F&V K4000 lights in their amazing 3-unit deals, and like them a great deal. My one quibble is the unfortunate choice of battery power - it demands v-mount batteries which are quite expensive (as are the chargers), and you can easily double the price of the lights just to power them... a bit of a downer. Also it was rumored that F&V was going to start selling barn doors for the K4000(S) at some point, which has not happened yet - many people don't see the need for barn doors on LED lights, but for some it is quite useful. Otherwise, there's nothing negative I can say about these lights - the build quality is very good, which is important... some LED lights I've bought by other manufacturers are OK for very short term use, but fall apart very quickly. Overall, I would highly recommend F&V lights.
 
Mark-André Voss said:
Hi,

sorry that we did not publish more information about the UltraColor series yet. We announced them during NAB this year and had prototypes with us during the show so that customers were able to test them but officially they will become available within the next month approximately. The prices for the Z400 will be around this

Z400 UltraColor Daylight 849€ excl. VAT (US$ 1119)
Z400 UltraColor Bi-Color 899€ excl. VAT (US$ 1199)

so a bit lower than you wrote.

All the best,
Mark
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Ah Mark, didn't know you worked with F&V! Nice...

And thanks for correcting the ill price tag I had read in some article.
That price tag is pretty decent. Could you disclose a bit more about the photometrics of those lights? What kind of lux / FC will we be getting at 1 metre and 3 metre?
 
I had been planning on picking up the new ultacolor when it ships, but the US dist didn't have a price or ship date at last check, but now that I know the pricing I'll pass. Mr frugal here.
 
Cheaper than Litepanels and better color rendition? From a rental point of view, a light that is useful for a lot of different types of cameras is great.

My only caveat is still the powering options like mentioned earlier. A simple battery setup for even the Z400 will be another 1300 euros or so.
 
legrevedotcom said:
Cheaper than Litepanels and better color rendition? From a rental point of view, a light that is useful for a lot of different types of cameras is great.

My only caveat is still the powering options like mentioned earlier. A simple battery setup for even the Z400 will be another 1300 euros or so.
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For the V-mount, I actually saw (here in Shanghai) a battery plate that mounts onto the V-mount and takes 2 Sony F-type batteries. Wasn't very expensive, and the F type batteries are very cheap these days. I can't seem to find any on the web - teh google is failing me. But the next time I go to the shop I'll try to take a shot of it.
 
keylight said:
For the V-mount, I actually saw (here in Shanghai) a battery plate that mounts onto the V-mount and takes 2 Sony F-type batteries. Wasn't very expensive, and the F type batteries are very cheap these days. I can't seem to find any on the web - teh google is failing me. But the next time I go to the shop I'll try to take a shot of it.
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Actually we presented exactly that at the Shanghai show, I will post some images and more information about it soon.
 
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