video: Alzo 3000 LED fan noise when used as a backlight, snoot, and key light

B

BrownCowVideo

Active member
Since there has been concerns voiced here on the forum about the constant internal fan in the Alzo 3000 LED unit possibly be too noisy to able to be use the unit in sync-sound production, today I made a video with my Alzo 3000 LED used in a typical interview-style shoot. I used an AT 803b omni lav mic hard-wired into a JuicedLink preamp and then into my DSLR (Canon 5D Mk III)... my typical interview setup.

I filmed three different placements... a hairlight/snoot about 6' (2m) away, a backlight overhead about 3' (1m) away, and as a keylight or fill about 3' (1m) away. In each case, I switched the light on and off to test for the ambient noise of the unit into the noise floor of my setup.

http://youtu.be/oYuhYFs6DoQ

I hope this helps folks determine if this would be a candidate to use in these situations.
 
Thanks for this test!

I guess this light can be great for certain audio setups and not so good for others. As you demonstrate, it can be used for interview setups despite it's physical noise. If the specific microphone doesn't pick it up it should work well.
 
Great test, had to really crank up my system to hear the difference between on and off, but from your test there is definitely a difference depending where it is placed in relation to the mic.

Interesting indeed.
 
browncow-

very thoughtful and helpful test.

thank you for the effort and the sharing.

i could definitely hear the fan hum, which was made more obvious when the unit was shut off.

that said, the alzo 3000 does throw a ton of light!

(and i was also impressed by how much light the 2-bank flow produced.)

if you are ever in nyc, i owe you a cup of coffee.

be well.

rob
smalltalk productions/nyc
 
Happy to help, Rob. Yes, I can really hear the fan in the room when I'm using the Alzo, but only a bit of it bleeds into the mic. By the time I add a music bed (which I do in most of my work), I really don't hear it.

The Alzo Pan-L is a Diva knock-off, and I really like the unit. Here's a grab from the shoot I did today in the same room, right before the fan noise test. Key light is the Pan-L (you can see the reflection in his glasses). I used a flag to give a little negative fill on the right side of his face. The Alzo 3000 is the blue hairlight (with a snoot & gel). ISO was 500 @ f2.8. I'm currently going through a Christmas light bokeh phase, so that's the silliness in the background.

grab.jpg

Best,
Brian
 
If it's possible and/or easy to replace the fan in the unit, then I'd guess that a 92mm Noctua NF-B9 fan might be the best replacement. There are two versions, a 4 pin PWM and a plain old 3 pin.

I build computers, so I deal with a lot of different fans, and even though they all look similar, their sound characteristics and also the way they blow air differs greatly from fan to fan (no seriously, I've become obsessed with computer fans). :)

Noctua is known for being the "quiet" computer fan, though some argue they're overpriced for what they do compared to the competition.

Just wanted to throw that out there.
 
BrownCowVideo said:
Happy to help, Rob. Yes, I can really hear the fan in the room when I'm using the Alzo, but only a bit of it bleeds into the mic. By the time I add a music bed (which I do in most of my work), I really don't hear it.

The Alzo Pan-L is a Diva knock-off, and I really like the unit. Here's a grab from the shoot I did today in the same room, right before the fan noise test. Key light is the Pan-L (you can see the reflection in his glasses). I used a flag to give a little negative fill on the right side of his face. The Alzo 3000 is the blue hairlight (with a snoot & gel). ISO was 500 @ f2.8. I'm currently going through a Christmas light bokeh phase, so that's the silliness in the background.

View attachment 79779

Best,
Brian
Click to expand...

brian-

again, thanks for sharing.

the frame grab is the two bulb alzo flo unit, right?

approx distance 6-8 feet?

open face or with diffusion?

and if diffusion, what type?

alzo 3000 did its job so that should be pleasing.

as for the shallow dof and out-of-focus holiday lights, i think they look great.

i've read all kinds of lighting thread where they are employed in ever lighting capacity.

where i am in my work and life, silly is good.

and when you get paid because of your silliness, clients call it creativity.

silly away!

ymmv

be well.

rob
smalltalk productions/nyc
 
rjp85 said:
If it's possible and/or easy to replace the fan in the unit, then I'd guess that a 92mm Noctua NF-B9 fan might be the best replacement. There are two versions, a 4 pin PWM and a plain old 3 pin.

I build computers, so I deal with a lot of different fans, and even though they all look similar, their sound characteristics and also the way they blow air differs greatly from fan to fan (no seriously, I've become obsessed with computer fans). :)

Noctua is known for being the "quiet" computer fan, though some argue they're overpriced for what they do compared to the competition.

Just wanted to throw that out there.
Click to expand...

Thanks.
Physically it's possible to replace the fan, I've checked that.
The built in fan is this one:

http://www.cwc-group.com/ds5.html

Brand:AVC
Model: DS09225R12HPFAF
Volotage:12V
Current:0.41A
Size:92*92*25mm
RPM:3200RPM
CFM:60.5CFM
Noise:17dBA


It runs at full speed on the Alzo I assume, probably 35dBA like all other fans I've researched that put out that much air flow.
The problem is that it's rated 60.5CFM, which would be around 100 m3/h, almost double the Noctua.

I have no idea if that much less air flow would significantely hurt the LED or 'just' shorten the lifetime ect?
 
The Nice Photo, which consumes 150W instead of 100W uses a 40CFM fan @ 35db. The airflow design is poor and I'm sure well over half the airflow is wasted. I bought a replacement fan @22db (there is also one at 17, but I thought I'd try the 22 first).

I'm going to see if an IR thermometer will read the surface temperature running both fans and compare.
 
Fan specs don't tell the whole story, you really have to listen to them with your ears. I'd also argue that airflow doesn't matter much. I'm guessing static pressure is more important, if the fan is sitting on or close to whatever it's cooling.

For example, the 120mm and 140mm Noctua fans on my CPU heatsink are silent and feel very weak if you put your hand up to them and compare them to my high airflow case fans, however, they actually outperform other high airflow fans on the heatsink due to them being designed for static pressure, while being much quieter, and keeping the CPU temps way down.

As long as there's some sort of cooling in that Alzo unit, I doubt anything would fail (fingers crossed).
 
Thanks, good input.
I think I'm willing to risk it and replace the Alzo's fan with the Noctua. May not find the time before the end of this year but will report back.

Alzo fan has 0.41A, does a replacement fan need to have the exact current or can I just plug in the Noctua? I'm willing to test, not to destroy :)
 
robfilms said:
brian-

the frame grab is the two bulb alzo flo unit, right?

approx distance 6-8 feet?

open face or with diffusion?

and if diffusion, what type?

alzo 3000 did its job so that should be pleasing.

as for the shallow dof and out-of-focus holiday lights, i think they look great.

i've read all kinds of lighting thread where they are employed in ever lighting capacity.

where i am in my work and life, silly is good.

and when you get paid because of your silliness, clients call it creativity.
Click to expand...
Hi Rob:

Thanks for the kudos. Yes, the Alzo Pan-L-Light has a well-made built-in eggcrate that I always use for interviews. This tends to keep the light on the subject and off the background. I pull that off when I just need some general, broader lighting. The barn doors on the Pan-L-Light also help control spill. The light is dimmable, too. I own two, and am very pleased with the price vs. performance. The light works best about 6' from the subject. For flatter, softer light I will usually set both up, but the single light with a flag for negative fill can create some contrast and drama on the face.

I do indeed like the look of bokeh, I just know that it's trendy and will likely chase other trends as they develop. Years ago, DPs went with muslin backdrops that could transform any space to look like a photo studio. These days, it's a more environmental/ editorial trend to help put the subject in their own environment. Large sensor cameras mean the backgrounds can melt away, more like they do on 16mm or even 35mm film and we can avoid aggressive gelling of backgrounds and adding a lot of cucalorus (window frames, tree branches, shapes, etc.) that used to happen with deep DOF.

It's fun talking about lighting!

Best,
Brian
 
stip said:
Alzo fan has 0.41A, does a replacement fan need to have the exact current or can I just plug in the Noctua?
Click to expand...

Can someone answer the question? The Noctua NF-B9 fan has a maximum of 0,08 Ampere. Can it just be plugged in instead of the 0.41A original fan? I have no idea about electricity stuff :(
 
stip said:
...

Alzo fan has 0.41A, does a replacement fan need to have the exact current or can I just plug in the Noctua? I'm willing to test, not to destroy :)
Click to expand...

No. It should be rated at .41 or less to be safe. Slightly above that (10%) should be ok.
 
Thanks Paul!
So the Noctua's 0,08A should be ok - I will try to replace the Alzo's original fan with it and report back.
 
The Noctua rating of .08 Ampere ( kind of low ) is what the unit draws as current from the source. The voltage may well be 12 volts as both fans are but the power draw which is volts X the amperage is different for both units.
The Noctua will draw 12 X .08 = .96 watts and the stock fan draws 12 X .42 = 5.04 watts. The stock fan uses over 5X the power than the Noctua.
That is perhaps the stock one spins much faster and consumes more. What is important is the voltage rating, the unit will draw it's own current as required.
I have swapped many OEM fans without any problems as long as the volts are within +- 3v tolerance.
 
Thanks Norman, good input.

The Noctua is already on the way to me, let's hope swapping works out and it can make the Alzo less loud.
 
Ok, so the Noctua that rjp85 recommended is installed and running and I can say the Alzo is now dead silent. Completely silent!


The Noctua is half the RPM and half the airflow - but it's static pressure is better and it sits in the middle of a big heat sink - , so I'll have it running for a couple of hours while checking occasionally to see how it handles the heat.

Just a reminder though that this mod surely voids the warranty.

Update:

Little over 2 hours running non stop at full power.

After about 10-15 minutes the temperature of the unit seemed to reach it's peak and haven't been changing since.

The heat sink in the unit is built symetrical with the fan sitting in the middle, sucking in the air from the right side of the unit and blowing it out to the left. The right side of the aluminium chassis stays very cool. The left side gets hot. You can keep your hands on it with no problems though, so it's rrather somewhere between 'warm' and 'hot'.

I never had the light with it's original fan on long enough to see how it usually reacts, but I feel pretty confident at this point.

I'll let it run for a couple more hours.
 
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That's great news, stip! It would be very scientific and "nerdy" to take a stock unit and your modified one and measure heat at various places on the units with an IR temperature gauge for comparison. It's likely that Alzo sourced an inexpensive fan over a quiet, efficient one.

Only time will tell of any if you end up reducing the life of the LED array. But it's rated at 50,000 hours. Even if you cut that number in half, who would ever use a professional light for 25,000 hours?

Nice work!
 
Good stuff.

The Nicephoto unit has a temperature sensor on the heat sink. I assume it shuts down if it gets over temperature. Maybe the Alzo has the same thing.

I'll read the temperatures and compare when I get the replacement fan for the Nicephoto.
 
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