Litepanels 1x1 Gemini

CharlesPapert said:
When I was looking at the Gemini 1x1 prototype we talked about having the diffuser be removable and/or changeable. We pulled it and looked at the results. It definitely gets messy with RGB units from a color blending perspective. I can't quite remember the takeaway but it seemed like attempting a bounce with the diffuser out vs in wasn't nearly as much of a difference in output as I might have expected.

I'm just now remembering using my old RGB Zylight IS3 (which didn't have a diffuser) raw, for different applications. Amazing to think that light came out something like 10 years ago. They were way ahead of the curve with that one, it's a shame the company was too small to really make a dent.
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That's my thinking exactly. Without diffusion, you would possibly see individual, different colored spots of light and just get weird results.
 
I like to buy my lights in at least two's. I bough a Gemini this past summer on a group buy on REDUser and wished I had bought a 2nd. Fortunately, LP ran a discount at the end of the year and I was able to buy another one for about the same money.
 
Eric Coughlin said:
Yeah, you're totally missing out on huge savings with very little effort. It's not really wheeling and dealing, it's basically take five minutes on the phone to setup the corporate account, add items to your shopping cart, e-mail the cart ID to the corporate account e-mail address, and they'll respond with a quote often saving you thousands of dollars. The Timpani for one is at least $100 off with corporate discount. I know a guy who got $400 off on his Astra 6x back when it first came out. I got $1500 off of my new OConnor 1030D. In the past year I've probably saved something like $5000 by using the corporate discount. Adorama does the same, and I assume other dealers as well. It is a bit less simple than simply hitting "Checkout" on your shopping cart, but the savings are significant.

Recently I got a quote from B&H that didn't have the typical discounts which they usually offer automatically, so I got a quote from Adorama which did have more significant discounts, went back to B&H, they then gave me a much better discount that was slightly more than Adorama's discount. Recent order was something like a $6000 order which was cut down to about $5000 with discounts.

I'm not much into using coupons at grocery stores; too much effort for too little of savings. But this, this is little effort for big savings.
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Thank for the tip, never had any idea about this. I'm cheap but haven't been scrounging and researching enough!
 
Eric Coughlin said:
I just saw the Practilite 802 is available at B&H finally. I've been wanting those lights for awhile. Basically a 1/2 x 1 that does what a Litepanel Astra does, but with variable beam (with lenses) angles and an app that works much better and comes with the light. Smaller, lighter, cheaper, weather proof, better app control, variable beam angle, similar brightness specs, probably more reliable, and from a company whose lights I already own and am happy with (the Practilite 602s).

No RGB, but not a must have as I already have some RGB lights. I'm just wanting to phase out my Astras as they're a bit unreliable and bulky.
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Yes...

I just received my two 6x units back from having the power boards replaced. That's four of six Astra's. And a fifth needs to go in, as well, for the power board issue and it's also started shifting magenta.
 
Run&Gun said:
That's my thinking exactly. Without diffusion, you would possibly see individual, different colored spots of light and just get weird results.
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So the conclusion then would be that RGB doesn't work well without diffusion, but considering 95% of the time you (or me) are using 5600k or 3200k, then assuming those Kelvin numbers don't have that issue (seeing as how these are RGBW LEDs), then it would still be nice to have the option to not diffuse.
 
Eric Coughlin said:
So the conclusion then would be that RGB doesn't work well without diffusion, but considering 95% of the time you (or me) are using 5600k or 3200k, then assuming those Kelvin numbers don't have that issue (seeing as how these are RGBW LEDs), then it would still be nice to have the option to not diffuse.
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That could possibly work in the case of the Gemini’s(and others with the same design-RGBWW), because they have actual “white” LED’s for “white light”, as opposed to some others, like SkyPanels, that create “white light” from the RGB LED’s.

Do you ever do any +/- green offsets? That could possibly throw a kink into running the panel undiffused, in those situations.
 
Run&Gun said:
Do you ever do any +/- green offsets? That could possibly throw a kink into running the panel undiffused, in those situations.
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I've never used it. It's not that common that I'm trying to match existing green tinted practicals, and even if I was, the majority of my lights don't have the +/- green feature so unless I was using just the lights I own with that feature then it would no longer match my other lights.
 
Eric Coughlin said:
I've never used it. It's not that common that I'm trying to match existing green tinted practicals, and even if I was, the majority of my lights don't have the +/- green feature so unless I was using just the lights I own with that feature then it would no longer match my other lights.
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It’s as much for trying to match to other fixtures you may be lighting with, but yes, also great if working with ambient light that may lean green or magenta. I’m constantly in mixed lighting scenarios with fluorescent and retrofitted LED’s where the ‘house lights’ cannot be turned off. Fortunately, most are pretty clean, and have been for years. I’ve never actually had to use the +/- green adjustment on a shoot, I was just throwing it out there as a real world scenario where running it completely undiffused could cause issues. Of course, once my softbox came in on my original, I don’t think I’ve ever run it without it, so even if the light itself was undiffused, it would still be diffused by that.

But yes, I can see the appeal of wanting the option to go completely bare for the maximum punch when needed. That’s why none of my Astra’s are the ‘soft’ versions, but each one has a soft box.
 
I've used the green/magenta axis shift many times when shooting on location and balancing to existing fluorescents or installed LED fixtures and it is impractical to change them out.
 
CharlesPapert said:
I've used the green/magenta axis shift many times when shooting on location and balancing to existing fluorescents or installed LED fixtures and it is impractical to change them out.
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So many times in the past, I wish I had had fixtures with this ability. I guess that speaks to the improvements in the Flo's used in offices, warehouses, etc. that I haven't had to use it since I got it. But it's great that it's there.

I remember shooting a tech piece in a warehouse years ago and I was using an original LP 1x1 Daylight. The house flo's were so green that when I WB'd for them, the 1x1 was purple. We ended up just letting the flo's go green to keep the light on the talent correct.
 
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