Looking for LED light comparable to Lowel ViP Pro-Light (250 Watt)

P

pifemaster

Well-known member
Hello,

I had an opportunity to use 2 Lowel ViP Pro-Lights with 250 watt bulbs at a wedding this past weekend. ( http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/284755-REG/Lowel_P2_10_Pro_Light_Focus_Flood_Light.html )

These lights were mounted on 13' Impact light stands ( http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/253065-REG/Impact_LS_13HAB_Air_Cushioned_Heavy_Duty.html )

I loved the additional light that was added to the dance floor during all of the formal dances. However, I would prefer to use something that was LED as opposed to the 250 watt halogen bulbs. I have been comparing a lot of different fixtures (online) and would love to get some opinions from some of you guys that have actually used these fixtures. What LED fixture would give the closest light output to the Lowel lights?

In most cases, these lights would be mounted approximately 15-20 feet from the center of the dance floor.

Here are a few I have been looking at:

Dracast LED500 - http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1053044-REG/dracast_dr_led500_bv_led_500_bi_color_spot.html
Apurture HR672C - http://www.amazon.com/Aputure-Wireless-Control-Digital-Panasonic/dp/B00NAOY7U2
Ikan IFB576A - http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/968572-REG/ikan_ifb576_a_ifb576_bi_color_led_light.html

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you,
Robert Pfeifer
www.pifemaster.com
 
Odd that the lights you point to are nothing like the Lowel VIP Pro Lights. They're all bi color panels.

Litepanels SOLA ENG might be closer.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/687491-REG/Litepanels_SOLAENG_SolaENG_3_LED_Fresnel.html

In fact I have the Pro Lights and now use the Sola ENG.

BTW I'm looking at getting the Apurture HR672S. The 672C, like most bi-color throws less light. Certainly not something I'd used 15 feet aways from the subject. There's a 672W which is wide beem with more light but if you need really bright the 672S is much better but with a 25° angle it's very much a Spot (hence the S).

DigitalJuice 504 is interesting for smallish panel. It's not bi-color though. Maybe not as good as the Dracast but it seems to be much lighter if portability is important.
http://gear.digitaljuice.com/products/products.asp?pid=3702
 
cseeman said:
Odd that the lights you point to are nothing like the Lowel VIP Pro Lights. They're all bi color panels.
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Yes, I should have mentioned that. I am not against a fixed color fixture, but if I can get the output I want and have the flexibility of a bi-color panel, I would prefer that.

I am interested in the Sola ENG that you pointed out. I had not previously seen that fixture. How would you compare light output of the Sola ENG to
the Lowel Pro? I also did not see a CRI rating on the Sola ENG.

Thank you,
Robert Pfeifer
www.pifemaster.com
 
Litepanels describes it as "high CRI" so my guess it's in the 85 to 90 range.

The problem for you is that at 15 feet you're going to be needing a very powerful LED light. Wide Beams are weaker than spots and Bi-Color tend to be the weakest of all.

At 9 feet the Sola ranges from 15 to 72 foot candles depending on flood/spot setting.
At 10 feed the Pro Light ranges from 23 to 302. I believe it spots a bit tighter.

Aputure specs only show to 1 meter (3.3. feet).
627C is 178fc
627S is 559fc
The Sola ranges from 137 to 645fc at about 3 feet.
The Pro ranges from 86 to 1129fc at 5 feet (they don't have a 1 meter or 3 feet measurement).

Unless you know how you had the Pro light beam set it's hard to compare.
As spot none of the others come close to the Pro.

You really need to think about what you need since comparing to the Pro is near pointless if you're looking for a Panel.
You may want a Sola 4 but that's a bigger light and it's still not bi-color
 
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There's a relatively cheap LED with decent throw wirelessly controllable: Switronix Torch LED Bolt 220R. It's bicolor - 195fc at 1 meter (3') for 3200 Kelvin and 241fc at 1 meter (3') for 56 Kelvin - $300. Obviously not as powerful as some of the others, but an option... the color temp is controllable with a knob and you can go from 3200 all the way up to 5600 blending the temps all the way - and it's dimmable down to zero, controlled with a separate knob. It also has wireless remote control.

Again, the biggest advantage of the Switronix LED is throw. The panels - such as the Aputure mentioned above have terrible throw... they basically wash down to nothing useful any further than about 6'. Meanwhile, the Switronix are like car lights - long throw. But they do have just horrible multi-shadows - some of the worst I've ever seen... hard to diffuse, and if you try, you start losing brightness.
 
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OldCorpse said:
There's a relatively cheap LED with decent throw wirelessly controllable: Switronix Torch LED Bolt 220R. It's bicolor - 195fc at 1 meter (3') for 3200 Kelvin and 241fc at 1 meter (3') for 56 Kelvin - $300. Obviously not as powerful as some of the others, but an option... the color temp is controllable with a knob and you can go from 3200 all the way up to 5600 blending the temps all the way - and it's dimmable down to zero, controlled with a separate knob. It also has wireless remote control.

Again, the biggest advantage of the Switronix LED is throw. The panels - such as the Aputure mentioned above have terrible throw... they basically wash down to nothing useful any further than about 6'. Meanwhile, the Switronix are like car lights - long throw. But they do have just horrible multi-shadows - some of the worst I've ever seen... hard to diffuse, and if you try, you start losing brightness.
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It's funny you mention this fixture. I was just looking closely at it. I LOVE the fact that it has the wireless remote. It also seems very lightweight & compact. I am not happy to hear about the multiple shadows. I am assuming that is due to the individual LED diodes?

Thank you,
Robert Pfeifer
www.pifemaster.com
 
Yes, multi-shadows are due to individual bulbs each emitting their own light. That's often a problem with LED lights, some worse than others. Because these are 12 fairly largish ones, you get fairly distinct multishadows - if you stick your hand, even quite close to the light (say, 8" - 12"), the shadow will look like several hands each on top of the other offset by 0.5" each. Quite a hideous effect, and my biggest gripe about these. What I like about them though is that they can be battery operated by a single Sony NP-970 battery - it's just awesome. I have 2 and thinking about getting a third, they're just so useful: bi-color with adjustable color spectrum, battery operated, good throw, fairly bright, small size and quite light, remote control. I have the F&V K4000 panels (the 3 kit), and by comparison they are quite a drag to handle if you're in a hurry on location - they take multiple batteries which quickly gets expensive and a handful to charge and keep track of, and just have no throw at all, the diffusion is the worst most inconvenient way to attach known to man, and generally tedious to set up. The Switronix are a super fast - clap in a battery and you're good to go, attach or hold anywhere. Throw them into a small bag and you're set - break 'em out and shoot. Great throw and highly useful. Not super expensive either.
 
I have the Aputures. Probably should have bought the "spot" version though.
The 672 is a great light. Much brighter and better color than their previous 528 model which I also have.

Now that I see the light power rating that cseeman posted above, I am going to get 2 of those with the hopes that I will then be able to retire a couple of my hot-lights.

Thanks for THAT cseeman!
 
I use Pro lights at weddings. I have a kit of 6 of them.

The closest thing to a pro-light on the LED market is the fiilex P360ex but they are expensive. If you want to save some money you go with the older P360 (non ex version) but the output is slightly less. They are bi-color, dimmable, and have a very small face so they will flare up nicely if you get them in your shots. The output is very comparable to a 250w pro-light (and slightly less as you make the color temperature warmer). The one thing to keep in mind with these lights is that they don't have a spot setting like the pro-lights. You will have to buy a spot filter/lens for them if you want a narrower/stronger focus pattern.

You can buy these lights individually or in kits of 3.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1043612-REG/fiilex_flxp36x_p360ex_90w_led_light.html
 
egproductions said:
I use Pro lights at weddings. I have a kit of 6 of them.

The closest thing to a pro-light on the LED market is the fiilex P360ex but they are expensive. If you want to save some money you go with the older P360 (non ex version) but the output is slightly less. They are bi-color, dimmable, and have a very small face so they will flare up nicely if you get them in your shots. The output is very comparable to a 250w pro-light (and slightly less as you make the color temperature warmer). The one thing to keep in mind with these lights is that they don't have a spot setting like the pro-lights. You will have to buy a spot filter/lens for them if you want a narrower/stronger focus pattern.

You can buy these lights individually or in kits of 3.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1043612-REG/fiilex_flxp36x_p360ex_90w_led_light.html
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Now we are talking. I really like the looks of that light. Have you used the P360ex side-by-side with the Pro light? The only thing that would make this light perfect for me would be a built-in remote control. I do see that they offer an optional DMX module. But that would mean adding the module and then adding a wireless dmx receiver. That makes it a more cumbersome set-up.

Overall this light does seem to be a very good option.

Thank you,
Robert Pfeifer
www.pifemaster.com
 
I used the original p360 (non ex) next to the pro lights. at 3200K they are noticeably weaker, at 5600K they are only slightly weaker. I would imagine that the EX version is very much on par in terms of output.

I don't know about a remote control outside of DMX but if all you wanted to do was be able to turn the lights on and off remotley then all you would need is something like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Etekcity-Wire...5524&sr=8-2&keywords=remote+control+ac+switch
 
I like my Aputure HR672S model. I bought two and did a review on the HERE

They are all plastic but just dont beat them up and they should last. Also comes with 2 nice big batteries.
 
egproductions said:
I used the original p360 (non ex) next to the pro lights. at 3200K they are noticeably weaker, at 5600K they are only slightly weaker. I would imagine that the EX version is very much on par in terms of output.

I don't know about a remote control outside of DMX but if all you wanted to do was be able to turn the lights on and off remotley then all you would need is something like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Etekcity-Wire...5524&sr=8-2&keywords=remote+control+ac+switch
Click to expand...
So far, the P360EX is definitely my front runner. Thank you for the link to the Etekcity remotes. I will probably pick up a few of them. I currently have an older NRG Research remote that is similar. But, I only have 1 of them and they are about $150.00 each.

Thank you,
Robert Pfeifer
www.pifemaster.com
 
Erik Naso said:
I like my Aputure HR672S model. I bought two and did a review on the HERE

They are all plastic but just dont beat them up and they should last. Also comes with 2 nice big batteries.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the link to the review. I really like some of the features of the HR672's. My biggest problem with them is I am afraid they will not have enough punch to allow me to place them away from the dance floor. I will be using these primarily at wedding receptions and I would not want to have to place the light fixtures right on the dance floor during the formal dances.

Thank you,
Robert Pfeifer
www.pifemaster.com
 
I'm a wedding shooter and just received my fiilex p360 yesterday (non EX). I'm extremely happy with it. It's bright but not blinding bright if I use it on a dark dance floor. I really like that it comes with barn doors so I can attach some diffusion if I need to.
 
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