VisionSmith LED bulbs

Josh Bass said:
I guess the simple question is...are the relamps a better deal than any of the other LED fresnel products currently out there (or coming soon) in terms of price, CRI, control, etc.?
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I think along the same lines Josh. I love my Arris, love using them, how they are built, the quality of the lens and output but losing output because of the loss of the reflector bugs me. Sure, the only other way to turn your Arris into daylight is with dichroic filters or full CTB, whih loses output but I rarely used either back in the pre-LED age because you are then losing about half of your output. In those cases, I would use HMIs.

To Josh's point, it would be great Erik, if you can or when you can, do a quick side by side with the Arri 650 with the Relamp versus the Nanguang CN-60F, which costs much less. I think the Relamps are a great idea but I have to look at value per dollar versus nostalgia in using my older Arris. The Nanguang will not be built as well and the quality of the light output from the Chinese fresnel lens vs. the Arri glass lens would possibly be inferior but I bet the output from the CN-60f would be higher. Also, I would be much more interested in a relamp for my Arri 1k open faced light that is the big gun in my Arri kit. Then I would not have to deal with any FC output loss by relamping. Any indication from VisionSmith if they habve plans to introduce open faced LED Relamps?
 
Well let's not forget that there's nothing stopping you from carrying both the LED bulbs and the Tungsten globes as well, only takes a minute to switch them out. Best of both worlds.
 
Grug said:
Well let's not forget that there's nothing stopping you from carrying both the LED bulbs and the Tungsten globes as well, only takes a minute to switch them out. Best of both worlds.
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It takes a few minutes. The reflector has to be unscrewed from the frame to get it out. On the ARRI it's a little tougher to get to but the Mole is much easier.

As for The Nanguang fixture I don't have one to test sorry.
 
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Grug, I'm surprised about your CDM's falling apart. Mine has been fine though actually I should say that when I bought mine second hand it was very badly packed and I had to take apart the power supply and power supply do some kind of very simply repair that only took a couple effeminates. Can''t remember what I did and it was definitely a shipping problem. Basically no soft material in the box. Re the Color being 80-90- I have never gelled it at all. Seems fine to me.

I am very intrigued by the Nanguan Fresnels though , especially the 200 W. That sounds stronger than a 575 HMI for $1500!
i don't care much about bicolor as I don't have m,any lights so I'd like to get the most out f anything daylight I have. Easy enough to use gels and all the bicolors have less output. Hoping they will at NAB. I think they have been in the past.
 
Not sure how special the Vision Smith LED's are, I suspect, not very. If you've got some Arri's gathering dust, and a bit of time, it's not such a big DIY job removing the reflector and the tungsten socket, re wiring, and attaching a 50W LED onto the reflector holder, save yourself over $500.
 
It's a bit more special than that, you need a power supply because your led takes anything from 12 to 52v DC and you need a cooling solution too. I'm in the process of rebuilding some lamps with LEDs and the hurdles are definitely there. A drop-in replacement such as this is very cool.
 
Rainer said:
Not sure how special the Vision Smith LED's are, I suspect, not very. If you've got some Arri's gathering dust, and a bit of time, it's not such a big DIY job removing the reflector and the tungsten socket, re wiring, and attaching a 50W LED onto the reflector holder, save yourself over $500.
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You are way off, but if it's so easy and only cost $100 go make one and post it here.
 
Eric Coughlin said:
Can the Vision Smith's be dimmed? Is it with a typical dimmer you'd use with an Arri 650?
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Yes, they are dimmable, my cheapo Harbor Freight Router Speed Controls can live on. I spoke with them to ask some of these questions. Great product, just not sure if the value equation works. Perfect for rental houses and networks that have dozens or hundred of instruments in play on a daily basis and don't want to buy cheap Chinese stuff that will not last as long. For those of us who just have an Arri kit though, not sure if the value equation works? They only have these for two of my five models of Arris too so at the moment, it would be an incomplete solution as well for me. The Chinese stuff is getting pretty good quickly and is much cheaper although I doubt it will last as long as the Arri lights. Tough decision.
 
puredrifting said:
Yes, they are dimmable, my cheapo Harbor Freight Router Speed Controls can live on. I spoke with them to ask some of these questions. Great product, just not sure if the value equation works. Perfect for rental houses and networks that have dozens or hundred of instruments in play on a daily basis and don't want to buy cheap Chinese stuff that will not last as long. For those of us who just have an Arri kit though, not sure if the value equation works? They only have these for two of my five models of Arris too so at the moment, it would be an incomplete solution as well for me. The Chinese stuff is getting pretty good quickly and is much cheaper although I doubt it will last as long as the Arri lights. Tough decision.
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Nailed it!

The actual purpose of the LED drop ins was for studios that have a good amount of tungsten in the grid. Cooling a studio with 15 to 30 1K and 2K fixtures is expensive plus taking all the lights out and replacing them isn't much fun. Lowering the wattage is a big savings on the electrical bill too.

With that said I like the 1K a lot. Not so sure I would get another 650.
 
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Erik Naso said:
...I like the 1K a lot. Not so sure I would get another 650.
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I am right there with you Erik. If they make one for my 1k open face Arri and it's around $500.00 to $600.00 with no FC output reduction, I would buy that. As far as my 650s and 300s, I will probably go Chinese and try the Nanguang CN-60fs, less money and greater output. Arri probably still has superior build quality and a more refined beam but when you are punching it through a cucloris or have it barndoored within an inch of it's life to make cuts and slices, I think output wins over the other factors, at least for me. If I was still hiring gaffers and grips using my gear a lot of the time, I would use the Arris but these days, when we hire grips and gaffers, it's usually on a stage where we are renting their lights or I am doing small crew stuff where I can make sure my gear isn't being abused. I just remembered, I have a Mighty Mole 2k sitting in my kit too, would be super cool if they figured out an LED relamp with massive output for that light. I love that light but it instantly heats up any room and usually throws breakers because it's 18 to 19 amps nominal but that kick on takes more. Just not a practical instrument any more but an LED Relamp could give it new life, especially if they could make something that has some huge output, like a from a 400-500 watt LED draw.
 
Erik Naso said:
You are way off, but if it's so easy and only cost $100 go make one and post it here.
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Fresh out of old Arri's, but a few years ago I replaced the tungsten in a Chinese Arri knockoff with a 30W LED downlight ($20), wasn't intending to use it as a video light, but worked better than I expected. Nowadays, if i didn't want to wait for Chinese LED tungsten replacements to come along at a reasonable price and still wanted an LED Arri , I'd try rehousing a 50W LED worklight (well under $100) comes with transformer and the Arri housing can easily handle 50W without a fan.
https://photos.google.com/search/_tra_/photo/AF1QipPfdc7-98J3aKSYgUDr6Qh-6rkQWuX6G_hHbwnH
 
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