Litegear litemat - any reviews/opinions?

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adaptation

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I have been looking for a large LED panel(larger then 2x1). Aside from the softpanel(which are not out yet), the only options i have found are litegear's litemat and kino's celeb - however the litemat are cheaper - anyone tried/used them?
 
I use a variety of Litemats including the larger 4. Color purity and output quality are very good. They are relatively lightweight, but the coroplast construction may not be rugged enough for some people (we've never had any issues). Litegear uses connectors and cable that some may find a little wonky. The dimmer is external, which is a bonus for some situations (if the unit is rigged out of reach) but will be messier for a run-and-gun or one man band situation. Of course you could always velcro it to the back. The pots on the dimmer are on the small side. The unit can be run through DMX with additional hardware.
 
There is the Zylight Pro-Panel V2 2x2 Dual Color LED Panel which is a 2 x 2 soft panel: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1131917-REG/ushio_1003947_pro_panel_v2_2x2_dual.html

100w power draw seems pretty low for the size, though.


The S2 LiteMat 4 (21" x 40") has a 200w power draw, so should be about as bright as a Kino Celeb 401 (30" x 26" or 45" x 14") with its 210 watt power draw.


Personally, I'm a fan of the Cineo HSX which just became available. It's a bi-color 2 x 1, so not larger as you were asking for, however, it has a 400 watt power draw, so should be twice as bright as the LiteMat 4 or Kino Celeb, and of course a soft box or other diffusion will increase the size of the source. I just wish it had WiFi control via a phone ap like all of the LED lights I own, as I find that to be a killer feature whether as a one-man-band or working with a grip and a full crew.
 
I don't know how you can compare a litemat to a Cineo HSX or Zylight pro-panel. They are 2-3x the price and 6x and 4x the weight...
 
adaptation said:
Just checked out the Cineo, looks amazing - waiting on the softpanels to come out though, curious to see how they will fare.
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The Softpanels 1 x 2 is a 100 watt power draw, which is slightly less than a Lightpanel Astra at 110 watts. At 16.6 lbs, the Softpanel is twice as heavy as an Astra and doesn't have wireless control. I'd rather own an Astra (as I do). Only real advantage to the Softpanel 1 x 2 is the size of the source (and maybe the "AUTOCOLOR" feature if that's actually useful; I'm doubtful).

The Softpanels 2 x 3 is a 300 watt power draw, which is less than the Cineo HSX at 400 watts, and at 30.3 lbs, it's 5 lbs heavier than the 25 lb Cineo HSX, and since it's pretty large it may take two people to handle. So the Cineo is lighter, more powerful, and easier for one person to handle. Cineo HSX wins here I would say. Softpanel 2 x 3 of course still has the advantage of a larger size of source, though.

Then there's the Softpanels 4 x 3, with a 600 watt power draw. This light is unique among what is currently out there. Large source (doesn't necessarily need diffusion, which is nice), very powerful, but the really large size means it needs a crew and a large vehicle to handle. I work with a crew and a grip van occasionally, but not often enough for this light to have appeal to me personally as more often I'm by myself, or with a small crew, and transporting everything in my Crossover SUV. I could handle a Cineo HSX on my own easily enough, so, I'd rather have two Cineo HSX's than one Softpanels 4 x 3 if I needed more power.

So a lot of it comes down to how you work. I'd rather have a smaller and lighter light (that is still powerful) that I can handle by myself, which I can shoot through diffusion to make it a larger source, than a larger light with less need for diffusion that is more difficult for me to handle. This is a personal preference, though, so if you often work with a crew and large vehicles, the size of the Softpanels may be more appealing.

Cineo also has the Cineo XS with a 1000 watt power draw, which is about a 2 x 2, which would be almost twice as bright as the Softpanels 4 x 3 at 600 watts. It's 25 lbs, and requires two separate 12 lb power supply units. The Softpanel 4 x 3 is 45 lbs, so as the Cineo XS is 49 lbs with the power supply, the weight is similar, however, since the power supplies are separate (meaning they can be put on the ground), it means the Cineo XS requires a less beefy light stand than the Softpanel 4 x 3. Main downside of the Cineo XS is it's remote phosphor, which requires changing (expensive) panels to change color temperature, unlike the HSX and Softpanels which are internally bi-color. Also, I don't see a price or distributor available anywhere, so not sure what the status of it is. I'm guessing you'd need to e-mail them for a quote.

Remote phosphor used to be more advantageous in having the best color quality available from LEDs, but regular LED tech has seemed to have caught up such that remote phosphor is now just more of a pain in terms of needing to change out expensive panels to change color temp. Remote Phosphor still is a bit better light transmission than internally bi-color LEDs, so it's a bit brighter too, but not enough to make the downsides worth it, I feel.

Then there's the Cineo Quantum with a 1200 watt power draw. I know the Quantum is rental only.
 
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There are many softpanels in the market, different price and different quality. Just found this interesting one. It seems an alternative to the Kino Celeb 201. Anyone tried ?
 
My buddy Gaffer Mike McLaughlin was using Litemats on a feature recently. His team had soft boxes attached to them. Very nice light. Pretty punchy as well for an LED. LiteMat 4 S2 Hybrids, I believe. Looked to be lightweight and even with the accessory soft box they were still quite shallow in physical depth. The "cases" are just cordura sleeves with handles. You'd likely want to come up with some sort of hard case for them if using them on small crews where you don't have lighting carts and a truck.

At a 200w draw the LiteMats are not nearly as powerful as the Cineo HSX. The Cineos would be the way to go if you wanted an LED panel for use in outdoor setups. But they are pricey indeed at roughly $4000.
 
Out of curiosity - do you think a litegear s2 4(the biggest one) could replace a kinoflo 4'4? - Also since the cineo HSX are being mentionned quite a lot - what is the Cineo HSX comparable to? a 575 HMI? a 1200 HMI?
 
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Cineo HSX consumes 400W with luminous efficacy probably similar to an HMI, or perhaps fractionally better these days.

It's difficult to compare as it wouldn't be very common to diffuse an HMI into a 12x21" rectangle of, say, 216 diffusion, which is effectively what most of these diffused LEDs look like. But the absolute output should be of roughly the same order.
 
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