New Flexible LED Panels

nyvz said:
Ordered from travor on AliExpress, came to $154. Arrived in 20days. Also ordered another 3030a 10days later I saw was going for only $112 and it arrived the same day as this. Recently ordered another 3060a from another seller I saw had them for $125, we'll see how long that takes...

One odd thing is they seem to come with the same 48w power adapter which I can already see is a limiting factor. I thought this might be the case from a review I saw and only ever seeing the 2amp adapter pictured in the ads. With the included adapter it only draws up to about 60w and is about 1/3 stop brighter than the 3030a but with a universal 100W power supply I ordered, it draws 70w and is another 1/3 stop brighter. However, this universal adapter seems to buzz quite a bit when supplying >55W from AC. No buzzing on DC via d-tap though (which works btw!).

This cheapo universal AC/DC-DC adapter is the alternative one I'm using:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/252420111881 UPDATE: Using this adapter with AC input and ~70W load for 5-10min, it was buzzing until eventually it popped and now will not take AC power anymore, but runs from DC power fine at full brightness, this may work alright as an AC/DC solution for a 3030 panel but clearly it can only handle <60W load on AC power without buzzing and dying. It would be amazing to have a compact AC+DC power supply for my 3060A so I didn't have to carry extra boxes around for wall vs battery power. My meter was reading a <0.6 power factor which may have been the cause since it lists 1.3A as the max input current for 110V but with a 0.5-0.6 PF that's only about 70-80W. Guess I will continue the search, maybe I have to spend more than $10 on a power supply :P

Just tested running a fully charged 150Wh V-mount battery into that universal adapter and it seemed to work well (wasn't sure it'd work since it's designed for SLA car battery input which is a lower voltage range). I've also tested both power supplies running two 3030 panels via dc splitter cable, and the original "48W" power supply supplies 70W and the universal adapter supplies 80W!

The output on the 3060A is pretty similar (just a hair under) to a 4bank kino or a 4bank diva but without needing bulb changes or dealing with magenta dimming and inaccurate color temps and at 1/10th the cost and 1/100th the weight. So far pretty happy with these. Need to work on a way to add diffusion in small spaces or lightweight applications without having to build the frame. There must be a system that can keep the diffusion from getting too close to the emitters without hurting its flexibility or ease of attachment. Actually just clipping full grid cloth right on the unit isn't too bad if the panel has a little curve to it and the diffusion lies flat, but it's not that consistent. The wide beam LEDs really only need to be about afew millimeters away from grid cloth to create a very even source.
Click to expand...

holy crap...if youre right about how these compare to kinos that sounds incredible.
 
Josh Bass said:
holy crap...if youre right about how these compare to kinos that sounds incredible.
Click to expand...

Hah well keep in mind these don't have amazing build quality and I haven't put them in front of a spectrometer yet, though anecdotally I can say the color seems pretty nice so far with limited testing/use. Also looking at kino photometrics, these are probably slightly less bright than a 4ft 4bank or diva 401, but within about a 1/3-1/2stop probably depending how you power them. Also there is the issue of bare LEDs being more harsh than bare fluorescent bulbs, as I'd be a bit worried long term about hurting talent's retinas if they had to look at the panel undiffused for any period of time. These still need some kind of quick, light softbox solution (the umbrella softbox is handy but I'm talking about something that could be sit on the light when it's just clipped up on a wall/ceiling without the frame. Westcott flexes have a little velcro diffusion thing and a velcro small softbox, both for use with or without the frame which might be a good design to take a queue from.

Another development is I just received some milight LED gear I ordered from Aliexpress to test for remote controllable practical RGBW/CC+CW bulbs and to test compatibility with the Travor lights and the milight wifi bridge does in fact work with the Travor lights. Unfortunately so far I can only get it to work when it's emulating the controller that's included with the lights, not any other more advanced controller, but it may just be a matter of figuring out which device IDs these accept to get one of the more advanced controllers working with these that have numerical readouts and custom presets etc. And if not it's nice to know I could use wifi to control these lights on my phone if I manage to lose all my remotes or don't want to have to carry around and keep track of the RF remotes on set.

In other news, some other manufacturers are stepping up their game:
https://www.amazon.com/RX-18TD-Softbox-Diffuser-Portable-Flexible/dp/B06XJ2N23F (these are on Aliexpress/ebay/amazon with or without diffusers, probably worth the extra $30 for the softbox+dome)
Definitely a much more fully thought out system with stand mount, full waterproofing, bi-color, wifi control, v-mount, and dome and softbox diffusion specially built. Possibly also better CRI? But you have to carry around a controller box and an AC power adapter and it doesnt have any kind of rigid frame inside so it only holds its shape with the x-bracket. Might be worth it for twice the price if you want a more well-thought out system. I wonder if the photometrics listed are at 4300K and it runs at half power at 5600k or 3200k like a lot of LEDs though... If so this might be a lot less bright at daylight than the FL3060a.
 
Last edited:
Oh ok. They were sounding too perfect between some of y'all's glowing reviews, price, color output, etc., but sounds like there are some drawbacks.
 
Joshua_G said:
The FL-3060A (Bi-Color) uses half of the LEDs for white and half for yellow, yet both models are specified at maximum power up to 8000 lumens.
How is it possible?
Click to expand...

The sad answer to that question is that it probably puts out the most light when both the daylight and the tungsten LEDs are at full blast, around 4400K, which is rarely useful.
 
No sad answer. As I mentioned earlier, I can confirm in my tests that max light output is consistent for all types of panels at all color temperatures. I assume this to be true for the 3060 vs 3060a as well. Most likely they use LED emitters that are more powerful than the system specs so the controller is the limiting factor. This means the bi-color models run the LEDs at full power at 3200k and 5600k and run both at half power at 4300k. Litepanels Astras as well as some other LED panel models do this as well. Using LEDs that can handle more current than the controller can provide can lengthen the life of the emitters and allow them to provide more stable color over their lifetime as I understand it. Also it is nice to know changing color temperature doesn't change your light output. Other panels dim up and down by a full stop as you scroll through the color temperature range which can be annoying to compensate for if all you want is a color temperature change.
 
nyvz said:
No sad answer. As I mentioned earlier, I can confirm in my tests that max light output is consistent for all types of panels at all color temperatures. I assume this to be true for the 3060 vs 3060a as well. Most likely they use LED emitters that are more powerful than the system specs so the controller is the limiting factor. This means the bi-color models run the LEDs at full power at 3200k and 5600k and run both at half power at 4300k.
…
Click to expand...

Does it mean that in the daylight only model the LEDs are run at half power?
 
Crap I think I might have to order one of those RX-18TD kits. They seem so well designed, like all the stuff I like about Westcott Flexes and Litegear Litemats but with wireless control, better wiring/power and 1/4 the price... Plus I feel like I could hand one to G&E dept and they wouldn't laugh at the build quality or break it. Only $320 with all the softbox/dome accs and supposedly shipped in 5-days?
 
Last edited:
nyvz said:
Crap I think I might have to order one of those RX-18TD kits. They seem so well designed, like all the stuff I like about Westcott Flexes and Litegear Litemats but with wireless control, better wiring/power and 1/4 the price... Plus I feel like I could hand one to G&E dept and they wouldn't laugh at the build quality or break it. Only $320 with all the softbox/dome accs and supposedly shipped in 5-days?
Click to expand...

What is so well designed about this hard to control half dome softbox? What is so well designed about the flimsy X bracket which at this size of the unit must make it wobble like crazy ? Are we looking at the same thing?
 
broughtonfilm said:
What is so well designed about this hard to control half dome softbox? What is so well designed about the flimsy X bracket which at this size of the unit must make it wobble like crazy ? Are we looking at the same thing?
Click to expand...

Hard to control dome softbox? That's the point of a dome softbox, it goes everywhere and has a consistent soft source that is the same size 180x360deg around, great as a spacelight, and I could definitely have used that on a cyc shoot I was on yesterday, instead I had to build the frame on my 3060a just to mount in an arm and hang some diffusion on it in a much less efficient/effective/elegant way... Clearly a dome softbox isn't good for everything but for a light that is light and flexible and easy to tape/clamp anywhere it'd be great to have a lightweight softbox/dome that lets me still have a big soft source that can be put anywhere without too much rigging time. I especially use these lights for rigging in hard to reach places out of the shot, and being able to get a nice elegant source that's still light weight is quite helpful. I just shot in a bathroom today where I really wished I had some of my 3030a/3060a/rx-18td lights but all the gaffer had was a big litemat which is ok and lighter than a kino but still a bit too heavy and bulky to ceiling mount well and didn't fit well over a vanity where I wanted it, they had to do a bunch of rigging for it and duvetyn half of it because it was too big a source for the for the corner I wanted it to light come from.

Doesn't look too wobbly to me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7pIDAGgt_k
But I guess we shall see. But it's certainly more compact/lightweight/quick and easy to angle than a frame mount...

Part of why I think it seems well designed is like I mentioned that it seems to take on most of the best features of those two much more expensive lights (litemat/flex) and could easily stand in for either light. Litemats were revolutionary but their connectors suck and they can't be reshaped to fit in tight spaces but have a nice softbox attachment that is quite soft and slim and compact which this seems to borrow from, and litemats have the emitters so far apart you really do need to use the softbox attachment. Westcott flex lights are great but don't have dmx or remote control or good battery power and need a big bulky scrimjim frame you build just to put it on a stand, and they have s*%tty controllers that don't feel like they should be on $1k+ lights. These Falconeyes lights seem to fix all those things at <1/4 the price...

I guess the x-bracket may be a matter of taste, but I liked the original X-bracket design from the Westcott flex 1x1 that they dropped for all the larger models, it is much more compact and quick to build than a frame, and a frame still needs a stand mounting adapter or clamp before you can even think about putting it on a stand let alone tilting/angling it. Granted I live in NYC and am obsessed with super compact and efficient lighting kits since I travel and hand carry gear a fair amount and space is at a real premium in my office.
 
Last edited:
I admit that I did not see the video you linked before, the small softbox looks like a good option, I did not know it was part of the kit. Personally, I'd always take a frame over a flimsy X bracket, it integrates better with standard grip clamps and tools. Another thing, it is of course hard or impossible to judge not knowing what the reference color temperature, green / magenta are of the lights in the interview, but as soon as they turn that RX-18TD it is quite visibly green....
 
broughtonfilm said:
I admit that I did not see the video you linked before, the small softbox looks like a good option, I did not know it was part of the kit. Personally, I'd always take a frame over a flimsy X bracket, it integrates better with standard grip clamps and tools. Another thing, it is of course hard or impossible to judge not knowing what the reference color temperature, green / magenta are of the lights in the interview, but as soon as they turn that RX-18TD it is quite visibly green....
Click to expand...

Where are you seeing it be visibly green? Careful, whatever lights they used to light that video make the entire thing including the "white" background quite pink, so perhaps you are just judging the blown out white of the panel as green relative to that? I don't see any indication in that video of the light being green, only a strong indication of their studio lights being very pink...

If you don't see it, watch the video in a youtube window not fullscreen and compare the white background to youtube's white webpage background... so very pink...
 
nyvz said:
Where are you seeing it be visibly green? Careful, whatever lights they used to light that video make the entire thing including the "white" background quite pink, so perhaps you are just judging the blown out white of the panel as green relative to that? I don't see any indication in that video of the light being green, only a strong indication of their studio lights being very pink...

If you don't see it, watch the video in a youtube window not fullscreen and compare the white background to youtube's white webpage background... so very pink...
Click to expand...

Yes, I understand that. That's why I said it is hard or impossible to judge not knowing what the studio lights and camera wb settings are. If you can't see that the light coming from the unit being presented is green, perhaps you need a better monitor or need to train your eyes. I'm talking about its appearance in the video but there is no way for us to know if it's in fact green or not, not to mention that that is only a very small part of what matters, its spectral characteristic is unknown.
 
Last edited:
broughtonfilm said:
Yes, I understand that. That's why I said it is hard or impossible to judge not knowing what the studio lights and camera wb settings are. If you can't see that the light coming from the unit being presented is green, perhaps you need a better monitor or need to train your eyes.
Click to expand...

I'm sure we could all use better monitors but my monitor has recently been calibrated and recently color graded a TV commercial on it that was reported to me by the director to look good on a variety of outputs on broadcast etc. I'm curious where you are talking about there being green, when he turns on the light on it's all pretty much blown out pure white... I tried using my eyedropper tool on several different parts of the video and can't find any indication of color that is greenish in the beam, it's just white and then pink as it falls off into the pink background.
 
nyvz said:
I'm sure we could all use better monitors but my monitor has recently been calibrated and recently color graded a TV commercial on it that was reported to me by the director to look good on a variety of outputs on broadcast etc. I'm curious where you are talking about there being green, when he turns on the light on it's all pretty much blown out pure white... I tried using my eyedropper tool on several different parts of the video and can't find any indication of color that is greenish in the beam, it's just white and then pink as it falls off into the pink background.
Click to expand...

It's funny, I was doing exact same thing with a screen grab in Photoshop and can only see 3x 255 values meaning it's pure white with no deviation towards any color. That's my point though, it is visibly greener than the studio lights, I said I was not trying to judge it's absolute color - as per my comment, it's impossible for us to tell. Can't tell if studio lights are pink and this light neutral or if the light is green and camera was balanced to it making the studio lights appear pink (quite likely since this is a presentation of this light), or if truth is in the middle: studio lights are a bit pink and this light is a bit green, camera was white balanced to the light being presented.

Anyway, it's a dead end speculation. I should not have brought it up.
 
Oh ok, I was a bit confused by your statement:

"If you can't see that the light coming from the unit being presented is green, perhaps you need a better monitor or need to train your eyes"

Sounded like you were talking about some kind of absolute color. Not even sure what that would be unless it was rendered as green in the video. Anyway yeah it's all speculation. I was sort of speculating that it's most likely they probably just used a whitebalance preset with no tint since they clearly didn't have AWB on and they probably lit their studio with their older generation LEDs that were quite pink. But yes no one knows. If they did white balance to the light to make it look better then it seems like that backfired since it apparently still looks green to some people compared to the pink studio.
 
nyvz said:
Oh ok, I was a bit confused by your statement:

"If you can't see that the light coming from the unit being presented is green, perhaps you need a better monitor or need to train your eyes"

Sounded like you were talking about some kind of absolute color. Not even sure what that would be unless it was rendered as green in the video. Anyway yeah it's all speculation. I was sort of speculating that it's most likely they probably just used a whitebalance preset with no tint since they clearly didn't have AWB on and they probably lit their studio with their older generation LEDs that were quite pink. But yes no one knows. If they did white balance to the light to make it look better then it seems like that backfired since it apparently still looks green to some people compared to the pink studio.
Click to expand...

I thought you did not see the light being greener ( I really meant greener, not green) that the studio lights. It's relative. I think we agree.

Well, you got me thinking with these lights. I'm tempted. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top