Thoughts on Litepanels Astra "4X" Daylight LED? It's on sale right now...

The bi-color 6x arrived and it appears (haven't metered yet, but naked eye) to match/beat the old 4x (standard Astra) Daylight, as specified. I wasn't sure if I hoped it would, or hoped it wouldn't... but I am back to the curiosity about "free lunch". There's a property with diodes called "initial lumens"... and this is because you can design a light that's brighter, and the diodes may be rated for 50,000 hours, and in only a couple years they aren't going to be the same intensity as they were on day one. Hence my curiosity about the apparently free lumens... saying, "because it was designed that way", is fine, but there's some basic physics the industry is working with... and this seems to pushing that envelope pretty aggressively.

"She can't take any more Captain..."

"I said FULL POWER!"

I hope the dylithium crystals don't burn-up.
 
Have you set it to full-up and then stood in front of it? You'll want it high enough that you're not looking directly in it (even borderline)... but it's insane. I can't imagine anyone less than professional talent could even take it at less than 5'... The first time I tried it (just to see what a reporter will see)... I uncontrollably muttered "holy sh*t". There's a regular 4x daylight next to it, and yep... they somehow beat the 4x with 1/2 the diodes (on dedicated daylight or tungsten). As I said before... with this advancement, who would buy a regular daylight-only at anywhere NEAR the normal price? With this you get more than the 4x daylight ($1170)... and almost as much as the 6x daylight... for a couple hundred more. It's like a whole second light (and more) built-in. This will be the light you see with every eng crew for the next couple years, no doubt.

PS. Magnifying sheets arrive tomorrow... I'm going to see if it's possible to change the beam-shape with a flat fresnel. I imagine that must be what's happening inside the bi-focus. Wouldn't it be nice to slide in a "spot" and genuinely be in HMI territory from a panel? (I hope it works).
 
firehawk said:
The bicolor 6X is back on sale again $1092
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Thanks for the head's up... and now I sit here trying to decide if I want to return an unopened daylight 4x and get a 6x bi-color... when in reality, there's really no decision... since it seems the bi-color is everything the daylight 4x is... AND in tungsten, and everything in-between.

My only criticism of the 6x bi-color is the individual blocks of the panel aren't perfect. Some are bumped-up slightly... and can be pushed down... it's... er... interesting... like the blocks that make up the panel are scrunched a bit.
 
MattinSTL said:
Have you set it to full-up and then stood in front of it? You'll want it high enough that you're not looking directly in it (even borderline)... but it's insane. I can't imagine anyone less than professional talent could even take it at less than 5'... The first time I tried it (just to see what a reporter will see)... I uncontrollably muttered "holy sh*t".
Click to expand...


Yes, it is intensely bright. But if you are using it with a softbox ( and imo you should always use some sort of diffuser on 1x1 LEDs ) you need the power output.

As bright as it is it often still isn't enough to compete with full sun. The output is not as much as a 1200w hmi which for years was the standard unit for daylight standups with a reporter.

The nature of the output of the 6x sans any diffusion makes me think it was not intended to be used naked. The beam is quite narrow and falls off rapidly. I think that from the start they designed it to be put through diffusion. They really should just include a softbox in the price, even if it raises the price a couple hundred bucks. I hate to think of all the people using those lites raw either because they don't know any better, couldn't afford a soft box, or are just lazy in how they work.

GET a softbox for your Astra. If you can't afford the DoP Choice softbox or the Chimera softbox at least get the little $30 one made by "dFuse". It is better than nothing.


Fig-3c-Astra-w_Softbox-mounted1-590x407.jpg

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firehawk said:
The bicolor 6X is back on sale again $1092
Click to expand...

Seriously thanks for this post... I did order the 6x and send back a daylight. It appears that it's only going to cost $13 against the return/re-buy... hopefully this will work on the other daylight, because with the sale... really... I think the proper move was 2(6x) bi-color. I thought, "there's NO WAY the 6x bi-color equals the 4x daylight, in daylight-only mode"... but... well... it does. So if longevity isn't an issue, I don't know why anyone wouldn't want the whole spread of tungsten to daylight, in the same power as daylight only, for $400 more.

As for the softbox discussion? Yeah... that would ideally be the situation, but in live news hits, you often want the most possible punch no matter what, no box, hard-hit. On the live news shoots I see, the Joker 800 is the HMI (close range, fresnel, just to light talent with back-light)... then something else daylight for the other side, but it's bright alright. So in these situations... I think a couple of the 6x bi-colors may get the job done, without an HMI, which is what the networks want now.
 
Both of the 6x bi-colors that I ordered during the original sale came in today(along with the Dracasts that were on sale for $99). I prepped them after I got home from my shoot today and will take them with me for my shoot tomorrow. It's gonna be an HMI day, but I usually use an Astra for fill anyway, so I'll be able to at least get a rough idea how useful they could be by themselves outside.
 
Back on sale again at B&H. This time about $10 cheaper than the lowest point last time, but you must use code BHNAB18. I picked up another.
Also, the MAXOAK 177 V mount battery is down to $199 on Amazon. And the Porta brace single bag for the Astra is $40 off.
Now. No more lights for me! :)
 
firehawk said:
the 6X bicolor is on for $774.98 now at BH. Super good deal!
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Insane. That was less than half of their original price and ~$350 less than the current price. And I was pretty happy getting them for a little over $1K back before Christmas.
 
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