The Cheap LED Lights Shootout.

Postmaster

Postmaster

Dark Side of the Camera
LED lights for video used to be a sad gimmick for many years. Color temperature, flicker, angle, and output where not up for professional work. Showing up on set , with a thing that looked like a cheap little bicycle light, was nothing that a self respecting DP could do, without hurting his reputation. Then Litepanels came out with the first pro versions of those panels and they are respected at any set now, though they came with a hefty price tag. Now those kind of lights are getting cheaper and better every day. But are they any good? Time for a Cheap LED Lights Shootout.


Here are the candidates:
The popular NG 126 – 650 Lux for 70 Euros
The Z96 – 800 Lux for 60 Euros
The YONGNUO 135 – 960 Lux for 59 Euros
LitepanelsMicro – 970 Lux for 296 Euros.
The YONGNUO 160 – 1480 Lux and fancy barn doors for 69 Euro

10 ft. may sound a bit extreme for such tiny lights, but at 2 or even 5 foot they all look nice. So I decided to push them to the limits.


I also did some writeup:

http://frankglencairn.wordpress.com/2011/01/02/the-cheap-video-led-light-shootout/

Frank
 
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A couple of things... is there 'snow' on your website???

But to the lights. On the Yongnuo 160, and using the barn doors, was there a 'structure' to the light at the edges? It would seem that the light really needs to go through a bit more diffusion...
 
j1clark@ucsd.edu said:
A couple of things... is there 'snow' on your website???

But to the lights. On the Yongnuo 160, and using the barn doors, was there a 'structure' to the light at the edges? It would seem that the light really needs to go through a bit more diffusion...
Click to expand...

Yes there is snow - but only during the winter.

The inner side of the barn doors has a polished structure, that causes that effect.

1.jpg


Which brings me to Barry`s question:

Barry_Green said:
Frank, on that Yongnuo 160 -- can you reverse the barn doors so that the black side is facing inward?
Click to expand...

Great idea Barry. Yes it´s doable all you need is a tiny screw driver.

Frank
 
On the video comparison I noticed that the YONGNUO is brighter than the Lightpanl unit, yet is rated at 10 lux LESS and costs over 200 euro LESS. Are dimmers that costly (200 euros) to incorporate into a unit ?? Hmm. Are both these units made in China ?
 
They all have dimmers. Some have dimmer wheels (I prefer them), some have dimmer buttons.
The Litepanels are overpriced for what they are.
Since Vitec bought them, a lot of folks had major problems with the service.

Frank
 
Thanjs very much for this!

I think I agree with you the Z96 seems to have a very nice natural look and seems to be able to avoid the strong flashy look on faces
 
Has anyone used a bescor led-70? Bescor hasn't had the great reputation on LEDs, but this is a newer model, so I am wondering about the light temp.

Grant
 
As an owner of the z96, I'm curious what gel or combination of gels to use to get rid of the purplish tint or if it is even possible.
 
Knowledge is of course power. LED lights are not quite "there" yet. Years of trying to white balance in gyms and auditoriums with sodium vapor lighting taught me all about the challenges of a discontinuous spectrum. I was looking to benefit from someones gel experimentation to get a tad closer to daylight. Like the grasshopper watching the ants gathering food, I'm after the fruits of someone else's labor! :)
 
Richard from Cool Lights has some great info also.

I have no first hand experience with LEDs, but I am very interested to assemble a daylight kit to compliment my 3200k kit. Seems like the concensus from things I've read is that even on the best LEDs, some correction like a -1/2 green is in order to get to 5600k.

Grant
 
I read LEDs Part II: Color Rendering on the Cool Lights site and the green/magenta axis is mentioned. Am I mis-interpreting the purple cast of my Z96 light? Is a minus green filter what is called for?
 
Al MacLeod said:
Am I mis-interpreting the purple cast of my Z96 light? Is a minus green filter what is called for?
Click to expand...
MinusGreen = purple. Green and magenta are on opposite sides of the color wheel, so to reduce green, you add purple. To reduce purple, you'd add green. If your light is giving off a purplish tint, you'd want a PlusGreen gel to try to correct that out (but probably a very slight one, like a 1/4 PlusGreen or whatever you need to get it right.)
 
Great...thanks! I'll give it a shot.

Postscript...I googled "1/4 PlusGreen gel for led light" and the flood gates opened. Lots and lots of on target hits.

It amazes me how the terms one uses for web searching work sometimes.
 
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ggrantly said:
Has anyone used a bescor led-70? Bescor hasn't had the great reputation on LEDs, but this is a newer model, so I am wondering about the light temp.

Grant
Click to expand...

Just got 2 of these and used them last night on a shoot. With the clear filter I set the WB to K6200 and the color seemed pretty good. Haven't run the clips thru PPro yet so that's as far as I can comment. They are plastic but not too fragile. Ran them for about an hour on one set of AA's with no noticeable falloff.
 
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