Sun competing Led?

I'm friends with a real master steadicam'er in Toronto - We are planning a 'steadicam day' with food, drinks, and probably good looking talent... are you interested?

email if so. you should have my email address still.

: End Off topic discussion :
 
Nirv said:
Are these Chinese lights too cheap to get a mention? http://www.aputure.com/Light-Storm-LS1
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Nothing is too cheap.. but this topic is drifting down the lux mountain.

Erics test is pretty rubbish, thats why Im doing the '8ft target test.. maybe I can start something of a standard.

The Mole needs 1/64ND and blows away cloudy uk daylight, is uncomfortable to be near if you are close - that is the sort of illuminance levels Im after :)

if it doesnt hurt it wont work!

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Samuel H said:
Thanks. I want to replicate your test with my 650W tungsten fresnel and my DIY LED fresnel, that's the reason for asking about the details.
It's definitely not a "sun competing LED", but I'm curious to see how it does. The head is around 500g (one pound) and about the size of a 150W fresnel, so it does have its advantages. I'm using an 80W LED right now, with plans to go 130W if I can get enough juice out of my power brick. It's not color-selectable and won't be, but I can make 3000K and 6500K versions. It uses a very mild frost as well. It costs it around a fifth of a stop of light. A more regular frost would cost it one full stop. Without any frost, the inidividual LED points can be focused by the lens and projected on to the subject (I'm using optical-grade glass, not a fresnel lens), this very mild frost is enough to diffuse that.
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Samuel, will we get a how-to post on this sometime? I've been using a 150 HID fresnel conversion that can go in a 150 or 300 fresnel (really any size fixture but needs glass), gives clean 5000k and is under $100 in parts (the globe and to make a pro looking ballast). Cold start but it's been really handy. But the LED is interesting, would love to see a parts list and DIY info!
 
Great thread. I'd like to thank everyone so far for a solid look at the high-end of the LED world (and likely a look at the future as tech goes wider and prices drop).

It will be interesting to look up this thread in two years and see where we're at, won't it? Would you have believed this in 2013?

My takeaways?

The Area48 seems like a killer value;

I'm not in the $4 - $10k market myself(!!!) for single fixture;

The Lightstorm is really impressive for the price (though it's a different class than this thread is intended, nice to see an LED that could replace my go-to quad biax for non-sun interviews and is affordable);

I think I'll keep looking for a 1.2 HMI par… my 575 par just barely handles big-office-window corporate interviews; I don't think a 1.2 fresnel will be much of an improvement though, I like the utility of a par.
 
Michael Carter said:
Samuel, will we get a how-to post on this sometime?
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I expect to have it for sale in a couple of months. My target price right now is $450, but it could end up anywhere from $400 to $500. And I'm still not sure what LED it will use, the 80W I'm using right now is nice but there's a 130W model and a 150W model that I have to try (if I can feed them with my current power brick, that's what I will use, since it wouldn't add much to the cost).

I will post some of the parts but I won't share the plans for the 3D-printed parts. It does use a big heatsink and slow-moving fan, so I think it's not what you're looking for.

I ran a quick measurement this morning following morgan_moore's instructions here. I got f/5.6 in the center and f/3.2 on the edges, with the 80W LED. I also measured it at 3000K with A-B=0 and G-M=0. All these measurements were done with my RX100 IV and a grey card.
I'm not sure I did everything right, though (I had to run for work), so I'll test it again this evening, with more care. I'll post some pics here too.
 
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Michael Carter said:
The Area48 seems like a killer value;

I'm not in the $4 - $10k market myself(!!!) for single fixture;

The Lightstorm is really impressive for the price (though it's a different class than this thread is intended, nice to see an LED that could replace my go-to quad biax for non-sun interviews and is affordable);

I think I'll keep looking for a 1.2 HMI par… my 575 par just barely handles big-office-window corporate interviews; I don't think a 1.2 fresnel will be much of an improvement though, I like the utility of a par.
Click to expand...

I mentioned the light storm because that seemed to be the best budget LED light that packs quite a punch in relative terms. It's the sort of light I'd buy as I'm more of a renter of lighting gear. I want to put together an acceptable lighting kit but I'm not going to throw £thousands at them as the rate of development is ridiculous at the moment and lighting is one of the cheapest things to rent. The light from those Area48s does look incredible.
 
I got f/5.6 in the center and f/3.2 on the edges,

This would seem reasonable compared to the 40wLedDedo doing F4 in the middle.

In terms of 'measuring' colour shift.. I did that be using a click grey in Capture One and noting the shifts in Tint, and the resulting temperature.

My Fstop results (or rather Tstop for the nikkor 70-200/4) are sort of arbitary, we did it another way using a lux meter too.

S
 
I couldn't run the proper test yesterday, but I'll post the initial one because it's not that bad.
What I need to do in the next one is to make check the measurements with a light meter, to see if it matches with what the camera is saying.
This is a pic of the test (ISO 800 f/5.0 1/50s, Flaat settings but with cine4 instead of slog2 because slog2 is a bad idea if you are going to take RAW stills), you can download a couple of RAW stills here and here.

DSC00949.jpg
 
Sam have you looked at the 3200 or 3300 Alzo lights?

Was reading a post on Facebook, "Two Alzo 3200 LED Lights with light orange gels. 34000 lumens!"

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I have a dotline RPS200w which is pretty much a version of the Alzo 3200. It's bright but the fan noise is intrusive and the colour is so so. CRI85. I have an 1/8 minus green permanently attached. Might need a 1/4. I haven't used it for a while as I had planned to try and replace the fan with a quieter unit (and try not to melt it) but that project fell by the wayside.

Alzo has a new quieter version with large slower fans and supposedly higher CRI but who knows as I have yet to see any indipendant tests with it and am hesitant to risk my money again especially with the current exchange rate for us Canucks.
 
Just a little report back.

I ended up renting a cineo true colour for day one of my shoot, which was 'bakery' and 'airport'

This lamp was superb in the bakery and completely useless in the airport (exposing for the planes outside)

My thoughts thus far..

1) C Papert is correct.. for 'sun killing' you are going to (apart from interview shots) need a (to me) rental budget HMI package.

For the next section of my shoot I will probably rent some HMI.

2) Noise and Colour Temperature/Tint are big factors in choosing an LED fixture.

Some LEDs are noisy and some may have a very full spectrum but not be appropriate to mix with real daylight or other sources.

For example the Filex (noisy and green/yellow!) are excellent (powerful and full specturm) to use in a slo-motion studio shoot

The Cineo (expensive but not green or noisy) could provide a brilliant interview fixture in a location where there is some natural light

My testing process has been most educational (maybe I will post more results over time) and I would suggest to others to try 'before you buy' - what works for one operator may not work for another..

EventSW_1.52.1.jpg

Clearly if the light had been close this would have been different but I was doing wide shots too so I made a choice just to stop down and forget internal light.
EventSW_1.68.1.jpg
 
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Thanks for reporting back. Good to know your experience in the airport. And best of luck with the remaining production!
 
Late to this thread - but great stuff in here and appreciate the info. Sam - just wondering if you were unable to rent / try any of AadynTech fixtures. EcoPunch is enormous but fits description of thread title....
 
Hi, the lights I had access to did not include the fixtures you mention.

Over time im sure Ill get to try more or others could..

S
 
So the outcome on this shoot was the rental of 2 1.2 filmgear HMI lights.

The 'tricky' shot was the eden domes through this massive window.

The lights got me out of jail but did not have the power to be softened (I could given time) have moved the light in and softened the mid.

FS7, rough grade.

On other shots I used a rental Cineo Maverick.. this seems about the same power as my 6X55 flo, but smaller and lighter with better colour.. again this was a rental.

eden_1.112.1.jpg
eden_1.113.1.jpg

BTS on my iphone..
eden_iphone.jpg
 
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It's a hell of a difficult shot to light: not only is the background so much brighter, but you can't even get your lights anywhere close
 
Looks quite good and "realistic" in the grade. That is a difficult set-up. Huge difference in exposure from in to out, possible reflections in windows if fixtures aren't far enough off axis & having to be wide enough that key & fill stay long distance away. Nice work. Thanks for posting. Did you call in favors for the overcast day? :cheesy:
 
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