Options for Gelling Aputure 300D ii to 3000k (and merits)

J

Jeffsteez

Member
I want to get a LED light along the lines of the 300Dii. My primary use will be pushing it through scrims to provide large source lighting, in some cases bouncing off a wall/reflector and then through a scrim. For that reason I'm keen on the 300Dii over then 120Dii and *I think* will still prefer the 300Dii over the announced 300x light that will offfer bi-colour. Additionally, I'm expecting the 300X to be more expensive which will probably put it out of budget for the time being.

I think 60% of my use of the light will be alongside other 3000k lights, so I would have to gel the 300Dii. Can anyone speak to the merits of this?

- What sort of light loss can I expect? I've read everything from half a stop to 1.5 stops. I'm wondering if a gelled 300Dii will be more powerful than the new 300x (which is supposedly the power of a 120Dii at its warmest setting.)

- What impact will gelling the 300Dii have on colour quality / CRI?

- Is there a decent gel solution for the 300Dii. I've seen the home-made "roll a strip of film into a cone and stick it on" approach, but I think I've also seen a magnetic or clip on filter of sorts for the 120D.

Grateful for any other thoughts or suggestions.

Thanks!
 
AFAIK the 300X is expected to cost about $100 more than the 300d2. Aputure has stated a 300X set to 5600K (or was it 4500K?) should be about as bright as the original 300d (version #1), & while I haven’t read any specs for the output at 3200K it seems it should be brighter than a 120t.

As your planning on bouncing the light, or pushing it through a frame, the easiest way to gel a 300d2 is by utilizing the gel holder built into Aputure’s barndoors. These fit onto the reflector included with the lamp, but when pushing through a frame I typically prefer to attach the barndoors to the updated fresnel (aka ‘Fresnel 2X’), the reason being the reflector has a tendency to spill light around the barndoors’ leafs. The Fresnel 2X fits into the same slot the reflector normally occupies in the kit’s case so that’s where I store it, & I typically leave the reflector on a shelf in my storage space.

Unless you need the maximum ‘daylight’ output I suggest holding out for the 300X. While it’s easy to gel the barndoors, or Aputure’s Light Dome II, & Light Dome Mini II, it’s a PIA to gel their Lantern (aka China Ball), or offbrand modifiers such as my Profoto 5’ OctoDome. The extra $100 spent on a 300X will likely save you more money in the long run over constantly replacing gel, while also saving precious time on set.
 
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I believe at one point Lee had a line of gels designed for LED lights, because of the lack of spectrum of LED’s. This was also years ago, when LED’s were still REALLY lacking compared to typical tungsten. LED’s still aren’t full spectrum sources, but I’m not sure if the special gels would be necessary or as necessary today with quality LED fixtures.

Anyway, I agree with Bern, “bi-color” is the way to go, especially if the price premium is that low and you’re not sacrificing needed power. But gelling a 5600 source down to 3000k is going to take some bite out of it, too. Quite possibly more than you will give up with a bi-color fixture and you wouldn’t have the flexibility, speed and ease of changing color temp with the twist of a dial. I’m pretty sure almost every LED that I’ve bought in the last 18 months has been either bi-color or RGBWW/RGBAW. And most of them have +/- green, as well. The last time I pulled the gel roll out was for diffusion.
 
Jeff, I recall hearing an Aputure guy at IBC saying they expected the 300X to be about 20-percent less bright than the 300Dii. The rough ballpark I've used for light loss from basic color-correction gels (CTO, CTB, etc) is about 10 percent...So like 1/2 to 1 stop. So in that manner, perhaps the 300Dii seems like the way to go. But...

Last month I rented a 300Dii for 10 days. First off: I liked the light; better made than I expected. Second off: It was pretty bright, perhaps like a 400w Joker (ballparking). My thought, being in a similar position to you of considering buying a 300X or a 300Dii, is that if the X in fact is about 20-percent less bright, I'll take that loss for to gain ability to easily dial in the temperature I want.

So I'm leaning towards the 300X, but am waiting for it to actually ship and to find out it's actual output, color, and price.
Also, my guess is that when the 300X ships, perhaps the 300Dii will drop in price.
 
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