Need on-camera light for 500

B

Brad Neal

Well-known member
I need an on-camera light for run and gun stuff. But I'm not sure if I should go with traditional tungsten, LED, or what.

I have a corporate gig coming up that will have me running all over the building doing a "quicky interview-at-their-desk" type of thing, so I have to rely on available light with maybe an on-camera fill.

Here is one I am looking at. I like it because it's dimmable, but I don't like it because it's 300 bones.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/con...&sku=542007&is=REG&si=rev#anchorToReadReviews


Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Brad
 
get the LP micro.

it's worth every bit of the 300 bucks. i have one and i love it. i use it all the time. super light, super bright, never gets hot, color temp is accurate, and uses standard AA's. you can power from the cam with the proper cables but pointless. goes all day on a set of throwaways. i have mine on a noga arm which lets me get it off to the side a bit if i want. i have used it on a couple of music videos where it was the only light source. dead center on the camera following a half-dressed dancing girl around a dark room. super hot voyeur cam look and plenty of output to make the 500 happy and noise free. can't say enough about the light.
 
i'd argue against the micro and tell you to get the mini and an anton baur tap plug. You'll get a much better light out of the mini,
 
MicroBeam 128LED Ultra Bright Camera Mounted Light
http://www.prompterpeople.com/microbeam.php

The LitePanels Micro is a fragile piece of plastic, if you drop it or crack it against a corner, it will self destruct. The above light is better. I have also used the LitePanels Mini, they are great but about two and hald times the price of this PrompterPeopl Microbeam.

Dan
 
oooooh, that micro beam looks nice, is it as bright as the mini? also, how do the gels snap in, similar to the mini, or is it more like the vid led, where you tape them on? I'm also wondering how sturdy the camera battery mount is, I've used litepanels with the battery mounts and those batts fall off sometimes (and usually smash your pinky toe)
 
NewYorkLion said:
i'd argue against the micro and tell you to get the mini and an anton baur tap plug. You'll get a much better light out of the mini,
Click to expand...

the mini does put out more light and is built like a rock. however, he mentioned that the $300 price tag was a little scary so i'm sure he doesn't want to throw down tons more cash for a mini. i know the guys at litepanels. i have shot with every product they sell and even the ones that haven't hit the market yet. the micro, while lighter, and more "plastic-y" than the rest of the lineup, puts out very nice light. the led's in the micro are the same as the ones in the mini, the 1x1, ringlite, etc. and the convenience of aa's is great. we stick that light anywhere with no cables or heavy battery packs stopping us. a little gaff tape or velcro holds it solid. i wish i had 20 of them.....

that microbeam does look cool for the cash. anybody here actually own one? if so, have you put it on a color temp meter?
 
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According to sources familiar with Chinese and Taiwanese LED light producing contractors, testing any of these lights it pointless, they are all using the same sourced 5600K 5mm "white" LEDs. The CRI is poor, around 80-81, a little better for the 3200k LEDs. They are what they are. The good news is if you build an entire kit of poor CRI 5mm white LEDs, the low CRI ceases to be an issue, at least with video. You just manually white balance out the green spike OR put 1/2 minus green on all of them. Low CRI is really only an issue if you need to mix sources. There are some new products coming out this year hopefully that will allow entire LED kits to be purchased at a very reasonable cost.

It's kind of like we are all buying the same LEDs, just in different packages. Eventually the factories in China will cede to increasing the CRI up to where it should be, above 90 and the bigger sizes will become more reasonable in cost. Just remember that video lighting, in the grand scheme of LED production is an insignificant blip in comparison to consumer and industrial level lighting that the factories are geared toward. Once again, as it is with cameras, as it is with pro app software at Apple, we are really, really tiny in the world. Vocal, but as a market, microscopic in comaprison to iPods, consumer cameras, etc.

Dan
 
Hmm, Pana battery mount for the MicroBeam, I might stop waiting for the new VidLeds and just go with the PrompterPeople...
 
what is CRI ?



puredrifting said:
According to sources familiar with Chinese and Taiwanese LED light producing contractors, testing any of these lights it pointless, they are all using the same sourced 5600K 5mm "white" LEDs. The CRI is poor, around 80-81, a little better for the 3200k LEDs. They are what they are. The good news is if you build an entire kit of poor CRI 5mm white LEDs, the low CRI ceases to be an issue, at least with video. You just manually white balance out the green spike OR put 1/2 minus green on all of them. Low CRI is really only an issue if you need to mix sources. There are some new products coming out this year hopefully that will allow entire LED kits to be purchased at a very reasonable cost.

It's kind of like we are all buying the same LEDs, just in different packages. Eventually the factories in China will cede to increasing the CRI up to where it should be, above 90 and the bigger sizes will become more reasonable in cost. Just remember that video lighting, in the grand scheme of LED production is an insignificant blip in comparison to consumer and industrial level lighting that the factories are geared toward. Once again, as it is with cameras, as it is with pro app software at Apple, we are really, really tiny in the world. Vocal, but as a market, microscopic in comaprison to iPods, consumer cameras, etc.

Dan
Click to expand...
 
I would go with the Anton/Bauer, I even use it in mix lighting sometimes. Its bright enough to give some kick to dark shadows on faces, even if you have sun coming from the back. It also connects to your battery easily.
 
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