LED or Pampa

[jax_rox]

I'm looking into making a lighting purchase as I need something small-ish kit-wise and portable-ish as a basic setup for interviews, B-roll, and the occasional extra lamp for the times when I don't have the budget to hire an extensive amount of equipment, a Gaffer - or simply where I technically have the budget to hire a couple lamps, but would rather use my own.

So I'm in a situation where I can buy either:

1x Pampa Doublesnap (2 lamps)
3x iKan ID500 LEDs

For around the same price

I'm wondering what peoples thoughts are on the above. My go-to would be a Kino, but I don't have the budget to buy them, especially to kit them with globes and hardware. LEDs I like less, mostly for their CRI - but they have their place. They're much more portable, able to be run on battery power, lighter etc. The high-CRI LEDs can be wonderful.

I'm swayed towards the ikan kit, mostly because there's an extra lamp, which can be real handy, as well as the ability to run them off batteries (which can be super handy). My concern about their CRI (I can't find anything online about it, and they're cheaper than say a Dedo Felloni which has a CRI of 85, so one would assume it would be lower than that).
The Pampa would be more what I'm used to, with a touch more light output to boot - however, I lose some portability and fine control over dimming (and if they're anything like Kino Deva's, a likely magenta spike as you dim), and have two lights instead of three.
I could simply have minus green on the ikans permanently if the green spike is too intense.

Any thoughts or other suggestions would be hugely appreciated!

 

[Ken Hull]

I've always had better luck with LEDs than with flourescents, so I'd say the iKand ID500. BTW, I'd never heard of Pampa lights.
However, I've noticed some forum members don't like iKan. (I've never used iKan.) But several members sing the praises of Aputure LED lights. Look into the Aputure Light Storm and Aputure Amaron lights. I recently got the Amaron HR672C, and am very impressed.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...672kit_wws_amaran_3_point_2_flood_1_spot.html
You might also look at F&V lights. I have 3 of their K4000S lights, and like them too.
http://www.fvlighting.com/109041010233.html

 

[David W. Jones]

For what it's worth, I believe the ID500 is the older unit with the much lower CRI value which has been replaced. If I were looking at an interview kit, I would likely not purchase 3 of the same size units. I would also budget for some form of diffusion to avoid the multiple shadows from the LED panels.

I too had never heard of Pampalite till now. From what I see these are yet another 55W Biax clone, which you could swap out quality Kino Flow tubes in either studio or daylight color temp.


Good Luck with your purchase.

Dave