Low heat 1K alternatives?

O

ot444

Member
I am looking to purchase some new lights mainly for larger green screen shoots. We typically use four 1K's. Two on the screen, two on the talent. We are looking to find a lower heat light that still will give us the same amount of light. I've looked a bit into LEDs and Kinos. Any suggestions as to alternatives? Thanks.
 
I think that's about it. Tungsten, LED, fluorescent. Unless you want to consider super expensive HMI.

Lowest heat would be LED I would think. My Flolight 1024 heads put out the equivalent of a 1K tungsten head.
 
Life would be so much easier if LEDs were super bright (and I'm not talking about a wall of LEDS). Until 1 LED could mach the equivalent of a tungsten or HMI lamp, those would be my alternative options (HMI for relatively low heat)
 
I have been looking for something with low heat as well. Recently I looked at this light but I may just have to buy one and try it as there is not a lot of info on them out there. The link is to ProPhotographyGear.com who sell it and where I saw it working. Not great for sound however as it has a small fan to cool the LED. But the output is impressive, though I didn't have my camera to check the colortemp Michael who owns ProPhototgraphyGear said it was in the 6000k area.
http://www.prophotographygear.com/led-sun-light-continuous-light-w-bowen-mount-1000ws-p-622.html
If anyone has experience with one I would love to hear from them.
 
egproductions said:
Life would be so much easier if LEDs were super bright (and I'm not talking about a wall of LEDS). Until 1 LED could mach the equivalent of a tungsten or HMI lamp, those would be my alternative options (HMI for relatively low heat)
Click to expand...

http://www.adcom.it/prod/30980_DAYLED+1000+-+5600%B0K.html
http://www.adcom.it/prod/30981_DAYLED+650+-+5600%B0K.html

I have both the 650w and 1000w version and all directors I'm working with are enthusiasts about.
Hope this helps,
Diego
 
The single led that consumes 90 watts or 100 watts are , at that power consumption level, in the vicinity of perhaps 80 lumen per watt or less ( some far less). A led that has over 100 lumen per watt at rated max wattage level is something in the holy grail category ( see Cree XM-L2). Those that achieve that are in the lower wattage level in the vicinity of between 1 to 10 watts class. Even so, at 90 watts, that led would pump out 9000 lumens ( if indeed it cam muster that 100 lumen per watt)) to be equivalent to a 500 watt filament tungsten bulb. Now here is the catch. That 500 watt ( or 9000 lumens ) when concentrated to a tight beam will indeed produce 1000 watt equivalent or more but at THAT TIGHT BEAM SETTING. You will never get a flood 1000 watter bulb equivalent from a 90 watt LED. To achieve that, you are looking in the area of a 350 watt LED die consumption that can come remotely close to the 1000 W bulb. My 2 cents.
 
I've done some really intensive green screen projects. Use freakin' flos for the screen. A 4-bank biax is sorta-like 1000 watts (depending on distance as the throw is short), nice & soft with a nice spread. And you can get chinese versions (try cowboy studio) for as low as $250 a piece. Get two quads and two duals and you can light a 20' screen (that's how I light my 20' screen anyway). I think biax units are some of the best lights for the screen. I've used big spiral flos in clip lights (35-85 watts) overhead to open up the center of long screens as well. And your camera and keying software will love you for shooting 5500k (vs. all that extra blue channel gain for tungsten). For talent, go with more flos, go with some 1k fresnels with 1/2 CTB (that's all you need if you want a warm-ish kicker, you don't always need to go full CTB).

I really have gotten so much use out of those Alzo HID's it's ridiculous. They put out NICE 5500k that's close to a 2k with full CTB - my tests say it's like 700 - 900 watts. Their bulb & ballast combo is dynamite. 150 watts. Cold start, but I can live with that - nobody's ever "tripped over a cord" and shut them down which seems to be everyone's argument against cold start.
 
The OT said 1K tungsten but did not specify fixture type. Fresnel? Open Face? Par? How does one make a comparison when not knowing what to compare to?

Likewise, how are these lights used? Green screen & foregound sure, but is there any diffusion or bounce? Tell me details and I can suggest the appropriate units. They do exist.
 
Mitch Gross said:
The OT said 1K tungsten but did not specify fixture type. Fresnel? Open Face? Par? How does one make a comparison when not knowing what to compare to?

Likewise, how are these lights used? Green screen & foregound sure, but is there any diffusion or bounce? Tell me details and I can suggest the appropriate units. They do exist.
Click to expand...

Well, for lighting an actual green screen, "big & soft" is the only way I've ever gone. If he's trying to replace a 1k open face or fresnel or par, I doubt he's pointing that at the screen without some sort of diffusion. That's why I'd suggest biax for the screen. (Really a 4' Kino bank would be nice, but those are very pricey compared to the current biax market).
 
Back in the day I had a small travel kit with a couple of Lowel V-lights to light a huge 16'x8' greenscreen. Two 500w open face blasts into the screen without diffusion and it worked great. And tat was often for the unforgiving HDV format.

But I agree that softer is better. And we still do not know the size of the greenscreen or the physical space. I like to use KinoFlo greenscreen bulbs are they are notched to deliver a ton of green and very little else. The result is that even if they do not put out as much light they saturate the greenscreen better than regular bulbs, meaning that you need less light for a larger or brighter greenscreen. Biax is fine and a couple of Diva 401s can always be rebulbed quickly and cheaply for other uses.
 
Yep, I was never been able to get a straight line on my WFM until I started using flos on the green screen. I could get it "good enough", but it's nice to start keying and keep the green being selected to a very narrow band. Way less masking on the sides of the frame, cleaner hair, etc. Now it's this kind of game of "how straight and narrow can I get the WFM??" when I light the screen - makes me feel like a badass. (Not like chicks dig that particularly, but still...)
 
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