LiteMat4 VS Aperture 120d: advice needed

P

PIMP

Well-known member
Hello group:



So I currently own a LITEMAT 4 s2 and I am very happy with the light. My only gripe with it is that its not as powerful as I would like. *I hear the new version is 40 percent brighter then the one I own, however it is also double the price. *A DP friend recommended to me the*Aputure Light Storm LED COB 120D. *In doing research I was impressed with the videos I saw of it. My only issue with it is that is 6000k daylight and I prefer to light 3200k. * So I have a few questions I hope some of you might provide me answers.



1) Can you gel the APUTURE 120D to get it to tungsten light easily? *

2) Can you mix the two lights in a filming? The litermat *and the aputure even though they have different CRI?

3) Should I just get another used LITEMAT 4?*



Any advice would be appreciated



O
 
Aputure's 120D/300D are fantastic lights. Incredibly versatile with modifiers, and generally much easier to work with than panel lights (as you can control them much more easily). But only their new 300X offers bi-colour/tungsten capabilities.

If you want to light with tungsten, AVOID daylight balanced lights.

I'm with Sam's suggestion above. Grab some tungsten fresnels for cheap.
 
I have daylight only lupos and they convert from daylight to Tungsten via physical filters really badly.

If you look at the colour vs intensity graphs (see newsshooter) you will see most LED are very weak in the lower red spectrum. Once you have filtered out the blue with an orange gel you are left with virtuall nothing.

UvbV1.jpg
 
Last edited:
At least in LA, people are having a hard time even almost giving away tungsten lights. I'm not sure why anyone would only want to shoot Tungsten these days but in looking at some of my beauty and starlet EPKs that I lit
solely with Tungsten a few years ago, they really do make skin tones look better than any LEDs can. I still have my Arri kit although it's collecting dust. My open face 1K sort of fell apart after 20 years of use, the screw hole
that attaches the body to the yolk kind of self destructed. I could probably find a replacement for $50.00 if I wanted another.
 
puredrifting said:
At least in LA, people are having a hard time even almost giving away tungsten lights. I'm not sure why anyone would only want to shoot Tungsten these days but in looking at some of my beauty and starlet EPKs that I lit
solely with Tungsten a few years ago, they really do make skin tones look better than any LEDs can. I still have my Arri kit although it's collecting dust. My open face 1K sort of fell apart after 20 years of use, the screw hole
that attaches the body to the yolk kind of self destructed. I could probably find a replacement for $50.00 if I wanted another.
Click to expand...
$40 gets you similar brightness as 120D but with 100% color accuracy which 120D does not give.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Globe-Electric-500W-Portable-Halogen-Yellow-Work-Light-6050401/300374664

I've still got three of these from my first lighting kit. Was really stretching the budget at the time to get them. That's like, six hours of work at the sandwich shop to pay for them.
 
You'd have to be crazy to sell tungsten lights so cheaply.

Here they get used constantly on low budget music videos, short films then funnily enough by ultra high end DPs who have used tungsten for 30+ years and are familiar with the tools.

It definitely helps being in countries where you can have more lights on a circuit.

I still want to pick up some Arri T1/T2s..
 
Last edited:
Eric Coughlin said:
$40 gets you similar brightness as 120D but with 100% color accuracy which 120D does not give.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Globe-Electric-500W-Portable-Halogen-Yellow-Work-Light-6050401/300374664

I've still got three of these from my first lighting kit. Was really stretching the budget at the time to get them. That's like, six hours of work at the sandwich shop to pay for them.
Click to expand...

I've still got my halogen work light as well. I liked using halogen in the winter here in the midwest, but not so much in the summer. They were a good investment though, as now I'm finally using them for their intended purpose, to illuminate remodeling projects.
 
I still use tungsten all the time. If the heat and power aren't an issue - why would you give up the control and colour quality?
 
They do look good but not being able to conveniently integrate them into set ups where I have windows or want to use window light without gelling away all of their output always was frustrating.
If it's on a stage, plenty of space so that they don't heat up the room so much, I still like them.
 
Grug said:
I still use tungsten all the time. If the heat and power aren't an issue - why would you give up the control and colour quality?
Click to expand...

While they’re heavily invested in HMI, & LED, my Gaffer friends still have substantial Tungsten kits that regularly get used on productions large & small.
 
PIMP said:
(2) Can you mix the two lights in a filming? The litermat *and the aputure even though they have different CRI?
Click to expand...

This topic has been discussed for years on these forums, & others, but here’s a recent article on the issues.

How do you get LED lights to play well together?
by Matthew Allard
https://www.newsshooter.com/2020/05/11/how-do-you-get-led-lights-to-play-well-together/

That said most still use (some carefully) a combination of various HMI, LED, Tungsten, & Daylight, when needed.
 
Last edited:
Also, to the OP, if you are considering the 120d, I would wait and also consider the new Godox VL 150 and 300.
For the same money as the Aputure 120dII, you can get the Godox VL 300 with roughly double the output.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqAkEDX6krg

Dealers say they'll have them in June or July. I've never used them obviously since they are brand new but all of
my still friends love the Godox flashes.
 
We're in a time kind of ~2012ish, but instead of everybody and their brother making a digital cinema camera, everybody and their Chinese cousin are making LED lighting fixtures. There are so many choices out there, it's ridiculous... and ongoing LED lighting developments are now making regular upgrades almost a necessity.

FWIW, IMHO... I do love tungsten (I just bought someone's cast-off set of Lowels just last year, and lit a job with them just last week :D ), but I prefer not to be limited by single-color fixtures like the 120d/300d. They doubtlessly have their place, but it's awful nice to twist a nob instead of hunt for that gel I swear my PA put back in the case last job.

Along those lines... if you're looking for a COB light, the 120d is kind of old tech at this point. I'm keenly interested in the new Intellytech X100. I've owned their older F165 for a couple years, which is good and solid... but way too large. Both the X100 and 120d are roughly same-sized COB/Bowens fixtures, but the X100 appears to have an edge on the 120d in that:
- it's 2800-6500K
- it has a built-in focusing lens to spot it down for roughly twice the output
- flooded, it has the same output as the 120d with its reflector fitted

I like Intellytech's stuff... some very flexible and powerful units with decent build quality. I semi-lust after their "Light Cannon Pro Bi-color 2" if I remember the name right, which chucks out like 120,000lux @ 1m (in perspective, about as much as 6 120d's or X100's)... kind of like the Dodge Hellcat of video lights... just huge, sloppy, and insanely powerful. They're really under the radar, though. Aputure has an incredibly aggressive marketing strategy, doling out free lights to seemingly every Youtuber in existence that makes Youtube videos on how to make Youtube videos. Intellytech has, like, the Crimson Engine guy, and that's about it.

Of course to Aputure's credit, their lights aren't exactly crap, and work well enough or people wouldn't keep buying the things.... but there are lots of good options available.
 
puredrifting said:
Also, to the OP, if you are considering the 120d, I would wait and also consider the new Godox VL 150 and 300.
For the same money as the Aputure 120dII, you can get the Godox VL 300 with roughly double the output.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqAkEDX6krg

Dealers say they'll have them in June or July. I've never used them obviously since they are brand new but all of
my still friends love the Godox flashes.
Click to expand...

I’d be wary of jumping straight in to Godox’s continuous lights (for film work), I have a few of their strobes, and whilst I love them, and Godox are very good with the consistency of their colour output - actual build-quality has a long way to come.

I know nothing about how well their new lights are put together, but something to be wary of. Aputure are almost shockingly well-built given their price point. And they’ve clearly put a lot of work into making their units well setup for film work. That counts for a lot with gear you own.
 
Grug said:
I’d be wary of jumping straight in to Godox’s continuous lights (for film work), I have a few of their strobes, and whilst I love them, and Godox are very good with the consistency of their colour output - actual build-quality has a long way to come.

I know nothing about how well their new lights are put together, but something to be wary of. Aputure are almost shockingly well-built given their price point. And they’ve clearly put a lot of work into making their units well setup for film work. That counts for a lot with gear you own.
Click to expand...

I would like to check out the Godox myself when they ship. Not sure how flimsy they are.

I actually did a real shoot last night, first time in months. It was an outdoor shot with Joel McHale for a live stream fund raiser for the LA Zoo we produced. I lit Joel with my Medium Chimera with two of my Aputure LS-1S panels punched through it. I set up everything at about 4:00 PM so you could barely see any lighting on the talent,
since it was still pretty sunny, but our live stream was due to go live at 6:15 PM so it was getting dark enough into Golden Hour where my two Aputures through the Chimera actually looked nice. It's weird to light talent when you can't see what the setup will look like but such is the nature of an outdoor shot when you don't have HMIs
or something with some big output.

As far as the Aputures being "well set up" for film work, not these ones. They are the panels that have an AC cord to a power supply, a hardwired four pin DC from the power supply to the control unit. Then yet another four pin LEMO from the controller to the light head.
It all works but I had the two Aputures up about 8.5' in the air and the mess of cables. boxes and cords at the mid level dangling on the stands was a PITA to wrangle. I may be picking up the Aputure 600 when it ships, although I don't do too many outdoor shoots, usually
just once or twice per year.
 
Last edited:
Outdoor shoots are delightfully unpredictable... and it looks like it'll become a more and more common setup to avoid cramming everyone into a conference room. Finger hovering ever so precariously over the "buy" button on a strong 2x1 fixture like the SuperPanel60 or TitanX2
 
mcbob said:
Outdoor shoots are delightfully unpredictable... and it looks like it'll become a more and more common setup to avoid cramming everyone into a conference room. Finger hovering ever so precariously over the "buy" button on a strong 2x1 fixture like the SuperPanel60 or TitanX2
Click to expand...

You should check out the Luxli Taiko too. Matt from Newsshooter raved about it and he's usually pretty picky about lighting. I have the Luxli Cello and have been extremely impressed with it, it's useful for so many different things.
It's one of the few in that lighting class that can run from dual V Mounts and the measurements on it were class leading.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top