New Flexible LED Panels

broughtonfilm said:
Ok. I'm in New York too. Just saying...
Click to expand...

Well you're welcome to come check it out when (if) it arrives... I have a feeling the 5day delivery was an aliexpress screwup, seems to be operating under the 25day guarantee now.

Where in NYC are you?
 
Just received my RX-18TD (took about 7 days from order to delivery which is quite impressive and beats any other aliexpress order I've made so far) and I've gotta say so far really impressed just from a few minutes of testing. This light also does not dim as you adjust color temperature and it draws a solid 98-103W at 100% power at all color temps, and my light meter puts it at about 1 full stop brighter than an FL-3060A powered with the stock power supply, and 2/3 stops brighter compared to the 3060A using a better power supply. This is solidly a hair brighter than a 4 bank diva light and creates a source about the same size. That means this is also twice as bright as similarly sized/powered litemats 2/2L's at full daylight or full tungsten. Very happy about this. One interesting thing is that since it's 100W, my power meter measured that the power draw was almost exactly the same as the dimming percent readout, so at 100% it draws 100W and 50% it draws 50W etc except that at 1% it draws about 5W, but the dimming curve is pretty much exactly linear.

The RX-18TD is definitely not anywhere near as portable as the Travor lights since the panel itself is 50% bigger than a 3060a and the controller seems way bigger than necessary but it is nice that it comes with a case that fits all the accessories, but the case is more than 3ft long. This feels much more like a real production quality light than the Travors though the bag seems a bit flimsy and may fall apart. It is weird to me that the shape is not moldable, it's just kind of like a stiff piece of fabric so it might be necessary to tape all the edges to get it to keeps the shape you want if mounting it to a wall or surface. I like that the travor lights I can just mount at one point and fold/shape them somewhat to throw the kind of light I want. This tends to keep a little bit of the curve from being rolled up in the case so it may not tend to lay flat without a little help.

From what I can tell the 2.4Ghz control it advertises only allows you to bank units together and control several from the controller of any other unit that is on the same bank, but it doesn't seem to allow the use of a completely wireless remote. I hope they release some kind of remote because I have become so spoiled always having one and I'd miss it.

I haven't shot any color tests yet on my camera but I haven't seen any noticeable green/magenta tint to my eye.

Edit: just pointed a camera at it and found a barely detectable magenta tint at full tungsten and a very slightly greater green tint at daylight, only saw these tints by putting my camera in the most saturated color profile and cranking saturation all the way up and even then it was a pretty slight shift. Will test more thoroughly with a color chart and RAW stills when I have some time.
 
Last edited:
Yeah I just received mine today... Definitely is an FL-3030A despite having confirmed with the seller ahead of time that it would be a FL3060A. I just opened a dispute with them to hopefully get a partial refund since returning to China is more trouble than it's worth and I could find a use for another FL3030A anyway especially now that I know the FL3060A isn't all that much brighter anyway with the included adapter that I've been using. Sorry to anyone that ordered from that seller and wanted an FL3060A, but hopefully I've always made it clear enough that buying from random Chinese sellers is always a bit of a gamble unless can get confirmation someone has received the correct product from them. I justified the risk given that the price was silly low for an FL3060A so it was probably too good to be true and that I knew I wouldn't mind it that much if it was an FL3030A and I had to try to get a further discount/refund after the fact. But yeah anyone else, don't order from the "Spash" seller. Maybe at least I'll still get an FL3030A at a big discount if they accept the $50 partial refund I requested. I should also note that that seller seems to have sold me one that had already been opened, possibly for testing? It was packed poorly, the batteries were already installed in the remote, and the manual was all crinkled up. Seems like if they opened it to check it they should've noticed it wasn't the right item.... It literally says "Spash FL-3030A" on the box, where spash is a sticker added on to the standard packaging.

Also I've been using these a lot and they are really handy to rig in sets that are otherwise hard to rig lights into, but I had an issue where some of them seem to have mismatched remotes. I couldn't get one to change channels on the remotes I was using, which was a little annoying, but I need to look into it further to figure out what's going on. It did a weird thing where I'd put it on CH1 on one of the remotes but then it be CH3 on another remote and wouldn't switch channels on either... Probably need to go through all my remotes and see which ones work with which, since some of the remotes came with FL3030, some with FL3030A, and one with FL3060A...

The RX-18TD has been handy on set yesterday, though I mostly used it at <20% brightness, but it sure does make me appreciate the compactness of the Travor lights since I can carry them around much easier.
 
Last edited:
Well looks like the Spash seller agreed to refund me $50, I wonder if I should've asked for more. In the end a FL3030A for $75 isn't a bad deal.
 
At NAB last week there were a lot of variations of flex lights and thin panels but I passed by a small booth that had the RX-18 flex light. It was by a company called "Soonwell," a rebranding of the same Falcon Eyes light. Anyway I couldn't pass up the "NAB discount" and bought two of them, with softboxes, for about $400 total and they shipped from L.A., took about 4 days.

Here's the light: https://www.amazon.com/SOONWELL-Photographic-Foldable-Portable-Waterproof/dp/B01N944468

Anyway, I got them today and so far I'm really happy with them. The bicolor version does have the long dimmer/color unit, but this daylight version has a very small and lightweight dimmer. The mounting brackets are easy to use, though the light stand adapter attached to it tends to want to rotate. I may just superglue a little 1/4-20" female thread in the back of the light, right in the center, and I bet a small Noga arm or Cinevate Universal Accessory Mount would hold it up without needing the brackets.

Also I highly recommend the softbox they offer that's built for this light. It's very easy to setup, takes up little space when packed down, and when the light is turned on it looks like any other panel light, but of course it weighs almost nothing and packs down tightly. The RX18 frame isn't as rigid as other flex lights, but I actually prefer that because it makes the whole thing lighter and easier to roll up for compact travel.

As for brightness, it has 792 LEDs, but I did a quick visual comparison against an Aputure 672W, and they're pretty similar in brightness except the RX18 has a wider beam angle, so I guess that's where the extra LEDs are going. The softbox doesn't cut much of the light intensity, so it's perfectly usable for indoor interviews away from bright windows. Also the color of the light is bluer than the Aputure 672W, so even though they're both daylight rated, I did an auto white balance with a C100 and it said 5800-5900K. I don't have a Sekonic so I can't do any scientific tests.

One of the lights does have a few missing LEDs along one strip, but for what these cost I can live with that. I just hope they don't all break after a few uses.

Nyvz, any suggestions on how to hack the power supply to make these a little brighter? I'd be glad to trade in lifespan for a brighter light.

Cheers,
Slavik

IMG_2704.JPG IMG_2703.JPG IMG_2702.JPG IMG_2701.JPG
 
By the way if you're interested, you could order straight from the sales manager Derek Pang, like I did, and pay via paypal. His email is derekpang@soonwell.com

I paid $370 total for the two sets and shipping. That was an "NAB discount" but maybe he'll extend it for you.
 
Looks like a pretty good deal, though I still see the newer bi-color 100W light as a better value given the higher output and flexibility of bi-color operation. I do wish the controller were smaller though. I don't see how you'd get more output from yours. I dunno, at that output level, the FL3060A is cheaper, more portable, remote-controllable and bicolor. Though I guess the RX18 is a bigger source out of the box and the included softbox and stand mount is nicer. I just remember looking at the RX18 when I started this thread and thinking it seemed like it probably got a lot of things right but wasn't the form factor or light density or featureset I wanted, the RX-18TD seemed to fix some of those things for me though.
 
I keep finding myself in situations where a sit-down interview has to be shot in a room so small, that it's impossible to get any kind of edge or hair light stand in place. I'm interested in a light that can be really quickly gaf taped to the wall that is too tight to the subject to allow for a stand. The lighter the better. Ideally, not hard frame or hard stand mount attached so that it deals well with a quick and dirty tape job on the wall. Also, because it will then be very close to the subject, it's also important that at it dim down to zero or something extremely low.

Any thoughts on this? I'm fine with plugging it in as this will always be for indoor situations with mains available. However, battery options are great too so that it can be repurposed. Bicolor would be ideal.
 
That's good reasoning. I didn't realize the bicolor had higher output, but that's ok. I'm happy with these for the crazy price. By the way I looked in the box again today and found there's also an egg crate included.

IMG_2710.jpg

Looks like they also have the bicolor version, for $218. Here's the price list they sent me: https://www.dropbox.com/s/cnovf7u3m0yunpz/Soonwell LED Light Price List-US.pdf?dl=0


nyvz said:
Looks like a pretty good deal, though I still see the newer bi-color 100W light as a better value given the higher output and flexibility of bi-color operation. I do wish the controller were smaller though. I don't see how you'd get more output from yours. I dunno, at that output level, the FL3060A is cheaper, more portable, remote-controllable and bicolor. Though I guess the RX18 is a bigger source out of the box and the included softbox and stand mount is nicer. I just remember looking at the RX18 when I started this thread and thinking it seemed like it probably got a lot of things right but wasn't the form factor or light density or featureset I wanted, the RX-18TD seemed to fix some of those things for me though.
Click to expand...
 
Oh nice, those prices look good, may contact them about getting another RX(SW)-18TD looks like they are only $280 with softboxes, which is $40 less than anywhere else I've seen. One issue though is I'm finding the color on the RX-18TD light isn't quite on par with the Travor lights. The RX-18TD seems to be coming in at 4700K with a bit of green, but the 3000K is a bit more accurate at 3000K with just a little green. This is just using my A7S2 shooting a macbeth color chart in raw stills as a meter, but I tested it against the daylight in my window which came in at exactly 5500K+10 which is Adobe RAW's daylight preset, and against the travor FL-3030A coming in at 5400K+15 which is even better than expected. The RX-18TD in daylight was giving me 4700K+28 which is pretty substantially off from 5500K+10 and definitely looks warm at the daylight preset. These findings might make me rethink how I use this light in the field a bit and whether I really want to buy another one...

Are you seeing that on your SW-18T? Seems a bit disappointing since the Travor is a less expensive light. I've definitely had LEDs in the past that said they were 5600K but were really 5000K and it was never too much of a problem, but 4700K is almost double that shift and over an eighth CTO difference. Maybe it wouldn't be such a big deal if it wasn't also greener, tungsten Kinos are usually about that far off from actual tungsten...

Perhaps it'd be a good idea to leave 1/8 CTB and 1/8 minusgreen on these falconeyes lights.
 
Last edited:
ozmorphasis said:
I keep finding myself in situations where a sit-down interview has to be shot in a room so small, that it's impossible to get any kind of edge or hair light stand in place. I'm interested in a light that can be really quickly gaf taped to the wall that is too tight to the subject to allow for a stand. The lighter the better. Ideally, not hard frame or hard stand mount attached so that it deals well with a quick and dirty tape job on the wall. Also, because it will then be very close to the subject, it's also important that at it dim down to zero or something extremely low.

Any thoughts on this? I'm fine with plugging it in as this will always be for indoor situations with mains available. However, battery options are great too so that it can be repurposed. Bicolor would be ideal.
Click to expand...

Seems like the FL-3030A would be a solid option. It's especially nice to have taped/rigged backlights on a remote control dimmer since you can tweak from the monitor and avoid having to touch any precarious rigging :) Also nice on battery power since you can easily click it off in a second between takes to save battery. Also I recommend using an A-clamp to clamp them to a drop ceiling even faster and more secure than any tape rig. Get a universal DC adapter like this to plug it into a battery or car: http://www.ebay.com/itm/252420111881 and a dc barrel to d-tap cable to plug that adapter into a d-tap battery: http://www.ebay.com/itm/272562644077

The FL-3030A dims down from 45W to 3W so it should get pretty low, and if you need lower you can just tape/clip some diffusion to it or fold/roll/clip it in half :P

An FL-3060A would probably do the trick too, but I imagine the FL-3030A is a bit lighter to rig and holds its shape better even if clipped/taped at only one point or one edge. More and more I'm leaning toward just building a kit out of tons of FL-3030A's and ganging them together or splitting them apart as needed since their light density is higher and they are easier to rig than the larger 3060. I got a 24V 5A adapter which maximizes the output of these in all configurations and definitely can run at least 2-3 FL3030A's but might even be able to run 4 FL3030A's ganged together in a 2x2 configuration. I can't seem to find my 4-way DC splitter to test it though so I just ordered another one.

And daaamn, FL-3030A prices keep dropping, they are down to about $100each on aliexpress from Travor. I'm addicted to these, I've lit whole studio setups mostly with them and keep buying more because jobs keep maxing out my supply. I now have 2 daylight, 3 bicolor, and one large bicolor. Wish I could trade the daylights for bicolors though :(

Edit: just ordered another FL3030A after my findings and this price drop. Now I'll have enough to make a 2x2 bicolor light out of FL3030a's. Should probably sell my daylight-only ones, anyone in NYC want to buy some? :)
 
Last edited:
I'm gonna order the SW-18TD and will report back on the color.

nyvz said:
Oh nice, those prices look good, may contact them about getting another RX(SW)-18TD looks like they are only $280 with softboxes, which is $40 less than anywhere else I've seen. One issue though is I'm finding the color on the RX-18TD light isn't quite on par with the Travor lights. The RX-18TD seems to be coming in at 4700K with a bit of green, but the 3000K is a bit more accurate at 3000K with just a little green. This is just using my A7S2 shooting a macbeth color chart in raw stills as a meter, but I tested it against the daylight in my window which came in at exactly 5500K+10 which is Adobe RAW's daylight preset, and against the travor FL-3030A coming in at 5400K+15 which is even better than expected. The RX-18TD in daylight was giving me 4700K+28 which is pretty substantially off from 5500K+10 and definitely looks warm at the daylight preset. These findings might make me rethink how I use this light in the field a bit and whether I really want to buy another one...

Are you seeing that on your SW-18T? Seems a bit disappointing since the Travor is a less expensive light. I've definitely had LEDs in the past that said they were 5600K but were really 5000K and it was never too much of a problem, but 4700K is almost double that shift and over an eighth CTO difference. Maybe it wouldn't be such a big deal if it wasn't also greener, tungsten Kinos are usually about that far off from actual tungsten...

Perhaps it'd be a good idea to leave 1/8 CTO and 1/8 minusgreen on these falconeyes lights.
Click to expand...
 
Hello folks. Is it likely that this item: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Tra...-LED-Video-Fabric-Light-Slim/32803014955.html will probably end up being the 3030 size not the 3060 size. If it's 85W then the 24V PSU needs to be at least 4A, but it's listed as 2A. It's a shame that Travor didn't design their units to run at 15V instead of 24V.

Edit... Unless of course the dimming between colour temperatures keep the power consumption flat.
 
Last edited:
Duncan Craig said:
Hello folks. Is it likely that this item: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Tra...-LED-Video-Fabric-Light-Slim/32803014955.html will probably end up being the 3030 size not the 3060 size. If it's 85W then the 24V PSU needs to be at least 4A, but it's listed as 2A. It's a shame that Travor didn't design their units to run at 15V instead of 24V.

Edit... Unless of course the dimming between colour temperatures keep the power consumption flat.
Click to expand...

Never ordered from that Sunesy store, but I can recommend ordering from the Travor store, they seem to have always sent me the correct item and seem to have very low prices after mobile discount and store coupons. The price looks in line for current 3060A prices so it's probably not a 3030A unless it's a big mistake on their part and you'd be entitled to a refund. If you go back and read my experiences (I know it's a long thread :) )you'll see that the FL-3060A I got does in fact come with the same 24V 2A power supply, but it will run the 3060A at about 60W. I have other higher current 24V power supplies and find they do run even the 3030A units with a bit more power though it never seems to affect the photometrics more than 1/10th of a stop on those. My 24V 5A supply runs the 3060A at ~68-69W vs 60W on the included 2A adapter and that does seem to affect photometrics a little more. For some reason according to my kill-a-watt meter, all of these panels power on at around 5W under peak and then slowly increase to the peak draw over about 1-2minutes. Also when I run these through a DC splitter it seems to lower the wattage by 5W or so but it doesn't seem to affect the measured photometrics more than the minimum 1/10th stop precision either... Anyone know what's up with that? Even when I run two or three of these on the same power supply the output seems to be the same but the wattage math seems weird like it's not drawing quite as much as it should. Maybe it's something about a slight voltage drop over the extra DC cables/connectors?

And yes dimming between color temps does keep power consumption flat, never seen a fluctuation of more than 1-2W when changing color temp, usually if it does drop an insignificant 2W it's in the middle of the color temp range.

Yeah it's too bad they dont have an internal voltage regulator to take a wide range of input voltages, but it's not at all surprising they are designed for 24V since most common LED drivers run at 12V or 24V. Frankly I don't know how they would've fit it all in there, I'm not even sure how they fit it all in there as it is since all competing models have separate driver/controller boxes that are heavier than the light itself. Fortunately it's pretty easy to just get a $10 DC-DC adapter to run on common 10-16V battery input, too bad I haven't found a reasonably priced one that also works well as an AC adapter, though. Maybe the one I was using would fit the bill ok as long as I only ever used it on my 3030A's rather than the 3060A which seemed to break the AC component of the power supply.
 
Last edited:
Noah, I've messaged the Travor store via AliExpress regarding this PSU misnomer. I'm not keen on a 48W rated PSU having 60W pulled from it. I know tolerances may mean it's OK, but it all seems a little odd. Do they get warm? I wonder if the lifespan will be affected by the heat it generates when there's form of heat sink or ventilation. Thanks!
 
Last edited:
Yeah I contacted them too when my "85W" light came with a 24V 2A power supply that only ran it at 60W. They basically just said "oh ok but don't use any other power supplies". I went ahead and tested some other power supplies, and it's pretty easy to come by 2A 3A and 5A power supplies since those are commonly used to power all kinds of 24V LED drivers.

I haven't had any issues so far, I've had these running for a couple full shooting days without any issues. Though I did get a bit confused by the controllers. Seems like they can pair with a certain number of different controllers but then when they hit the limit they stop pairing with new ones until you unpair them first, also odd how I have 6 controllers and almost all of them seem to map their channels differently. In most cases they probably have different IDs so they need to separately paired to a different controller but one or two actually match or map one remotes CH1 to their CH4 or something. Probably means it's good practice to either stick to one controller or at least be sure to unpair everything between jobs. I brought two controllers on a job before I realized you even could unpair them and one panel wouldn't pair with one controller and another wouldn't pair with the other. Much easier now that I fully understand the limitations and pairing/unpairing process.
 
OK. I'm thinking very seriously about getting a 3060A via the official Travor store.
It's currently £104.62 (approx $136) delivered to the UK (with a £3.91 protection plan which I can't seem to remove).

I'm imagining that I can somehow boom the panel without using the frame, perhaps by glueing some velcro to the centre of the back and using another velcro loop to tie it to a boom arm, then use the supplied diffusion but let it droop downwards, then the whole thing forms a sort of half china ball. Would that work? Another option might be a shoot-through brolley in it's holder and clip the 3060A over the top of it all.
 
Well I've had pretty good luck clipping these around. A-clamps to put them on drop ceilings or quickly on a stand, or C47s to clip inside an umbrella softbox. I think I need to buy some middle size A-clamps though since they might be a better fit. Of course when clipping with only one or two clips you leave a lot of the orientation up to gravity and a little adjustment available by bending the lights the way you want. They also make little clip reflector holders that have a stand mount and a small clip for a reflector that can grab one of these and put it on a stand a bit more securely. I have one of those. I've been trying to think of ways to secure them to stands quickly and was thinking maybe just a lollipop/ball mount attached to maybe a small coroplast board with velcro on it and some velcro on the back of the light... haven't gotten around to trying it yet though. I'm especially interested in coming up with a way to put 2-4 of these together and easily mount the whole thing on a stand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top