Making Your DVX200 Happy with Low Light - Mike Mas
As We All Know - If you’re careful, the DVX200 is more than capable of getting some beautiful low light shots, however with the addition of just a small amount of fill or by reflecting a bit of light off a wall or ceiling, the shot may be greatly enhanced to give us less noise and just what we were looking for.
On Camera Lights - While I have never been a fan of “On Camera” lights, the Duracast CamLux Bi-Color light, has completely changed my thinking and a lot of my old shooting habits. While of course we all have large light sets for major projects, we often find ourselves on a job where lights were not required, only to find out we’re dealing with a low light situation. For this reason, I now carry four of these small Duracast lights every where my cameras go. I was recently covering a small outdoor event, when it clouded over with rain, I was asked to do a talking head under a cover, if not for the Duracast light set, I would have been required to turn on the gain, something I hate to do on a camera.
Shooting Indoors or Outdoors - This little light will make your DVX200 or GH5 have better results. Even working outdoors with sun on the back of the talent, at distances of up to 10 feet, these lights will provide just enough fill to get a super well exposed face shot. Indoors you can mount them on your camera, a stand, or even place them on the floor. I’ve found with one mounted on the camera and another hand held moving with my helper, I can get some great exposures.
Pretty Good Specs - Let me start out by saying, "This Thing Is Bright". While I paid around $200 for my first Duracast some time ago, B&H now has the same Duracast Bi-Color light, two batteries and charger combo attractively priced at only $89. You could almost pay that amount for just the batteries and charger! The Duracast lamp has 160 super bright Led’s with dimming capability from 1-100%, so you can dial up any brightness you require. Temperature-wise, you can dial up any temp from 3200 to 5600K, since the light is battery powered, there is no flicker or phasing. The shot below shows the two different Led sets, with the power turned to minimum.
The Aluminum Fixture of the Duracast - Has an included 1/4 /20 thread and supplied shoe mount. When mounted to the forward located shoe mount on the DVX200, its then positioned forward of the view finder so there is no interference, or it may be mounted on a monitor mount as shown.
Using A Quick Release - I also have a few of these lights outfitted with the Manfrotto 323 Quick Release Adapters (B&H Manfrotto 323 RC1) This enables me to relocate the light off to either side of my tripod using the same Wooden Camera Ultra Arm mount (B&H # WO237000) that I mount my Atomos with. This provides a quick breakdown with no 110 volt wires or plugs for someone to trip over. Using this same mount, it can also attach to a second tripod as well.
The Duracast fixture is fitted with a Manfrotto 323 Quick Release for multiple mounting options.
Powering the Dracast Light - While there are a number of these lights available on B&H and Adorama, this combo pack is truly the way to go since it includes not one, but two batteries and a wall charger. The batteries conveniently slide right in the rear of the light and will operate with either 1 or 2 packs installed. The real beauty of this light is it uses the standard Sony packs, so the same batteries for my Atomos Inferno slide right on. While you get about 4 hours on the supplied packs, just one of my large Anton Bauer 7.2 volt 6000 mAh packs for my Atomos will power it for most of the day.
In Conclusion - These Duracast Bi-Color lights can be a real asset to the DVX200 / GH5 or in fact any camera. They are quality built and there is really nothing to go bad or fail, all you have to do is keep the batteries charged. For those who wish to just plug in, the fixture comes with a 12 volt jack which is the same power transformer used on my bigger Duracast Led studio lights. If it was not enough to get the light, 2 batteries, charger, shoe mount and a defuser panel, the Duracast Combo even comes with a nice high quality carrying case.
Regards - Mike
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=email&A=details&Q=&sku=1279670&is=REG
As We All Know - If you’re careful, the DVX200 is more than capable of getting some beautiful low light shots, however with the addition of just a small amount of fill or by reflecting a bit of light off a wall or ceiling, the shot may be greatly enhanced to give us less noise and just what we were looking for.
On Camera Lights - While I have never been a fan of “On Camera” lights, the Duracast CamLux Bi-Color light, has completely changed my thinking and a lot of my old shooting habits. While of course we all have large light sets for major projects, we often find ourselves on a job where lights were not required, only to find out we’re dealing with a low light situation. For this reason, I now carry four of these small Duracast lights every where my cameras go. I was recently covering a small outdoor event, when it clouded over with rain, I was asked to do a talking head under a cover, if not for the Duracast light set, I would have been required to turn on the gain, something I hate to do on a camera.
Shooting Indoors or Outdoors - This little light will make your DVX200 or GH5 have better results. Even working outdoors with sun on the back of the talent, at distances of up to 10 feet, these lights will provide just enough fill to get a super well exposed face shot. Indoors you can mount them on your camera, a stand, or even place them on the floor. I’ve found with one mounted on the camera and another hand held moving with my helper, I can get some great exposures.
Pretty Good Specs - Let me start out by saying, "This Thing Is Bright". While I paid around $200 for my first Duracast some time ago, B&H now has the same Duracast Bi-Color light, two batteries and charger combo attractively priced at only $89. You could almost pay that amount for just the batteries and charger! The Duracast lamp has 160 super bright Led’s with dimming capability from 1-100%, so you can dial up any brightness you require. Temperature-wise, you can dial up any temp from 3200 to 5600K, since the light is battery powered, there is no flicker or phasing. The shot below shows the two different Led sets, with the power turned to minimum.
The Aluminum Fixture of the Duracast - Has an included 1/4 /20 thread and supplied shoe mount. When mounted to the forward located shoe mount on the DVX200, its then positioned forward of the view finder so there is no interference, or it may be mounted on a monitor mount as shown.
Using A Quick Release - I also have a few of these lights outfitted with the Manfrotto 323 Quick Release Adapters (B&H Manfrotto 323 RC1) This enables me to relocate the light off to either side of my tripod using the same Wooden Camera Ultra Arm mount (B&H # WO237000) that I mount my Atomos with. This provides a quick breakdown with no 110 volt wires or plugs for someone to trip over. Using this same mount, it can also attach to a second tripod as well.
The Duracast fixture is fitted with a Manfrotto 323 Quick Release for multiple mounting options.
Powering the Dracast Light - While there are a number of these lights available on B&H and Adorama, this combo pack is truly the way to go since it includes not one, but two batteries and a wall charger. The batteries conveniently slide right in the rear of the light and will operate with either 1 or 2 packs installed. The real beauty of this light is it uses the standard Sony packs, so the same batteries for my Atomos Inferno slide right on. While you get about 4 hours on the supplied packs, just one of my large Anton Bauer 7.2 volt 6000 mAh packs for my Atomos will power it for most of the day.
In Conclusion - These Duracast Bi-Color lights can be a real asset to the DVX200 / GH5 or in fact any camera. They are quality built and there is really nothing to go bad or fail, all you have to do is keep the batteries charged. For those who wish to just plug in, the fixture comes with a 12 volt jack which is the same power transformer used on my bigger Duracast Led studio lights. If it was not enough to get the light, 2 batteries, charger, shoe mount and a defuser panel, the Duracast Combo even comes with a nice high quality carrying case.
Regards - Mike
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=email&A=details&Q=&sku=1279670&is=REG