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

J.Brown said:
Have you measured them with no difference in light output?
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I have measured both the 4x (Daylight) and 6x (Daylight) with a lightmeter as various distances and found the max light output to be same on both of them. So I find the marketing claim that the 6x is 50% brighter than the 4x to be a lie, and very frustrating since the only reason I bought the 6x was because of this marketing claim.
 
Well that means I should have bought the 4x when it was cheap vs paying more for the 6x. Unless there is an output difference in the bi color versions. Or unless the 4x had the board frying problem and the 6x doesn't.
 
markfpv said:
I know lots of folks on these boards bash them, but the Dracast 1000 panels have worked well for me over 4 or 5 years now. I have the V-mount bi-colors.
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My producing partner bought a couple, they are okay for cheap lights. A LOT of people had bad ones when they first came out, I think that hurt their reputation amongst a lot of potential buyers.
 
MattWilliams said:
I have measured both the 4x (Daylight) and 6x (Daylight) with a lightmeter as various distances and found the max light output to be same on both of them. So I find the marketing claim that the 6x is 50% brighter than the 4x to be a lie, and very frustrating since the only reason I bought the 6x was because of this marketing claim.
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Their marketing states " It is now 50% brighter than the first generation Astra and 6 times brighter than the original 1x1. " 50% brighter than the first generation Astra. The 4x came after the first generation Astra. There are many iterations of the Astra, but generally speaking there was the "first generation Astra" ( the Astra 1x, if you will ), the Astra 3x, the Astra 4x, and finally the Astra 6x.

Love the 6x or not, it is currently the workhorse 1x1 LED panel in the video production industry. It has become the 1x1 LED panel for news gathering / shooting stand-ups. I've also seen Astra 6x's working on feature films with a multi-million dollar budget. Productions that could afford to rent any light but the DP is still choosing to use Astras. The Astra is working on major filmsets alongside Arri Skypanels, Litemats, Celebs, and its brother the Litepanels Gemini. That isn't the case for the Dracast, Cello, Aputure, Brightcast, Timpani, or other "also ran". Is the Astra flawed? Yes, it is. But like the Sony Fs7, the Astra has become the "workhorse" despite the flaws. Funny how some of the complaints about the Astra are the same complaints we heard about the Fs7- it's plasticky, it has engineering flaws, the color isn't the best, you have to buy accessories to complete it, yadda yadda yadda. The fs7 went on to become the most widely used pro video camera anyway. Likewise, the Astra has become the most widely used 1x1 LED panel despite its flaws.

As for the striking issue, I own two Astra 6x's and it is rare that I encounter the issue. Maybe 1 out of every 20 strike attempts? So far it hasn't been frequent enough of an issue to cause me to seek remedy. A second attempt at striking usually fixes things. I've never had either one of my Astras outright refuse to strike after a second attempt.
 
JP, I suspect that you've been lucky with your Astra's . There is a long thread on "cml lighting" right now that mirrors the complaints here. Quite a few long experienced shooters have had to repeatedly send in their Astra's for repair.
 
JPNola said:
Their marketing states " It is now 50% brighter than the first generation Astra and 6 times brighter than the original 1x1. " 50% brighter than the first generation Astra. The 4x came after the first generation Astra. There are many iterations of the Astra, but generally speaking there was the "first generation Astra" ( the Astra 1x, if you will ), the Astra 3x, the Astra 4x, and finally the Astra 6x.

Love the 6x or not, it is currently the workhorse 1x1 LED panel in the video production industry. It has become the 1x1 LED panel for news gathering / shooting stand-ups. I've also seen Astra 6x's working on feature films with a multi-million dollar budget. Productions that could afford to rent any light but the DP is still choosing to use Astras. The Astra is working on major filmsets alongside Arri Skypanels, Litemats, Celebs, and its brother the Litepanels Gemini. That isn't the case for the Dracast, Cello, Aputure, Brightcast, Timpani, or other "also ran". Is the Astra flawed? Yes, it is. But like the Sony Fs7, the Astra has become the "workhorse" despite the flaws. Funny how some of the complaints about the Astra are the same complaints we heard about the Fs7- it's plasticky, it has engineering flaws, the color isn't the best, you have to buy accessories to complete it, yadda yadda yadda. The fs7 went on to become the most widely used pro video camera anyway. Likewise, the Astra has become the most widely used 1x1 LED panel despite its flaws.

As for the striking issue, I own two Astra 6x's and it is rare that I encounter the issue. Maybe 1 out of every 20 strike attempts? So far it hasn't been frequent enough of an issue to cause me to seek remedy. A second attempt at striking usually fixes things. I've never had either one of my Astras outright refuse to strike after a second attempt.
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In the larger sense JP, your post perfectly illustrates what I have encountered in this industry for two and a half decades, the "industry standard" often turns out to be a compromised piece of gear overall. While there are often better, different, more flexible solutions available, Producers, uninformed clients and Directors often pigeonhole users, mostly at the low to medium end of things into HAVING to buy/rent/use something that is sub-par based upon vague name/advertisement recognition. Inrterestingly, this doesn't seem to happen at the high end as much, most DPs/Ops I know are happy to shoot with any high-end camera, I know I am, as long as it's the right tool for the job at hand. This "industry standard" thing often reflects the Lemming-like behavior that we see driving the FF craze, the 8K craze, the uncessary or detrimental use of anamorphic craze.
 
The ASTRA's has served me well. Yes the plastic casing sucks but the simplicity of use is a big deal. No ballast hanging. The battery attaches to the fixture. It's clean and fast to setup.
 
MattWilliams said:
I have measured both the 4x (Daylight) and 6x (Daylight) with a lightmeter as various distances and found the max light output to be same on both of them. So I find the marketing claim that the 6x is 50% brighter than the 4x to be a lie, and very frustrating since the only reason I bought the 6x was because of this marketing claim.
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Boy I've been missing this site. I came here today to see if there was any discussion on adapting softboxes to 1x1 panels and I see this thread is current again.

JPNola already addressed this above (in greater detail) but yes, LitePanels doesn't claim the 6x to be 50% brighter than the 4x... All the "x" factors are based on the original LitePanel (honestly, they should bail on this as it's a goofy way to measure stuff... although we still use "horsepower" so... *shrug*)... however, I have verified that the 6x and 4x are nearly identical output. I see 200lx more from the 6x at 7.5' (arbitrary distance between two fixed objects in my house, so the light and meter are in identical positions).

Considering the cost of the snapbags, I find it surprising that nobody has done a DIY (or a factory product) to adapt 1x1 panels to standard softboxes.

B&H has had really good prices on Impact Duo boxes (with free grids included)... so that's what I'm working on now.
 
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