Which Low Budget Led Lights for Outdoor Use?

Michael Carter said:
For reflectors, a 4x4 sheet of 1/4 plywood with a bolt through it to a griphead is about as cheap as things can get. Paint both sides white, and then stipple one side with gold or silver spray paint. Not as fake as silver or gold foil reflectors but a nice look.
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While not as rigid, I grabbed a sheet of insulation board at Home Depot. Basically "styrofoam" with silver stippled mylar type laminate on one side(clear plastic membrane on the other). I think they are eight or 10 feet long and I cut it into two even pieces. About $10. Lowe's had similar sheets, but useless because of printing on the silver side in big blue letters ALL over it.
 
The stuff they sell at rental houses and expendable shops is much more rigid than the insulation you'll find at home depot and the silver side is more favorable & won't peel off. It's about $40 a sheet, I'd imagine if you could find it from a building supply place it would be a lot cheaper though.
 
Ken1212 said:
So I went ahead and bought a two piece set of the 25 degree spots. Comes with yokes and stands for $300. It's such a good deal makes me a little suspicious !!!!!!!!! They have the 60 degree floods same model for $700 total for a set of two. My guess they are discontinuing the spots as most people would want the floods. However for my outdoor needs I am hoping that I would get enough punch out of them to replace using reflectors. If any of you interested in the spots let me know and when they get in I will let you know how they perform.
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Prompted by this thread, I ordered a pair of the Camtree Superspots too - they just arrived (7 day delivery time, signature required). Each bag (including the yolk but not the stand) is 11.7lb. The filters are surprisingly heavy - the light plus yolk is only 5.5lb.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CAMTREE-2x-...ith-gel-filters-for-Video-shoot-/281745559765?
 
I ordered mine a week ago from cinemall19 on ebay and they only went out yesterday. Had to e-mail 5 days after sale to initiate the shipping as no tracking was showing on ebay, they shipped out yesterday and should get them within a week too. Mine are the 25 degree spots not the 15 degree. Let us know what you think of yours. they should have a nice punch for a key light indoors, but would like to know how far can you get them away from a subject in a shaded area outdoors for a fill light.
 
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Great, let us know what you think!

I remember looking into these but was afraid light quality couldn't be good given the nature of these LEDs and the company known for cheapo Indian gear.
Would be glad if you could share your impression of light quality too, output should be great for the money anyways.
 
Here are a few first impressions. Build quality of these lights (LED housing, yolk, barn-doors, etc) seems fine. There is a slot for the sturdy filters - those slide in and out fairly easily. The cable from the 15V power supply to the DIN plug is 2', so the power brick will either dangle or will need to be strapped to the stand. The AC cord into the adapter is 9' long and ends in a regular US 3-pin plug. The adapter accepts 100-240VAC; a multi-country travel plug is included. The light does not show any signs of running hot, even though it is fanless (i.e. silent). It dims fully without noticeable flicker.

Powered from the mains, my initial impression is that the light is not particularly bright -- however I have not used other mains-powered LEDS so haven't much to compare it to. At 8' distance, at full power and with no other light sources and no filter, correct exposure for a head-and-shoulder shot was 1/50 sec @ f5.6 @ 200ISO on my Panasonic G7; that put Caucasian skin at 56IRE on my scope. How does that compare with other LED panels - anyone have any thoughts?

Unfiltered, the light output is very blue. Their ad says it is 5900K, but in the first photo attached, shot at 5900K, you'll see it still looks blue. With the yellow filter inserted, it is warmer but as you will see in the second photo a green spike is now evident. I'm going to need to add some additional gels to fine-tune the light.

With the yellow filter applied the light loses about 1 stop of output, and I anticipate it will need to lose another half-stop to fine-tune the output. The advertisement clams an orange "3200K" filter is included for each light, but the yellow filter is nowhere close to orange.

PROS: You receive a mains-powered LED panel for only $135 shipped (i.e. $270 for the pair, without stands). Silent-running, cool, decent build quality, nice carry-case, potential to use with V-mount batteries (although the batteries will cost you more than the lights!).

CONS: Not particularly bright? Will need gel-ing to achieve a useable 5600K output. Advertised "3200K" filter is not even close colorwise.

Explanation of the photos - I don't have a proper color card, so tonight I shot some paint swatches stuck on a white card (the closest swatch to neutral gray is located center-bottom). Photo 1 is unfiltered, shot at 5900K on my Panasonic G7. The second is with the colored filter, shot at 5600K. Both photos were pulled into photoshop, a central rectangle selected, and 'autocolor' applied within that rectangle to give you a rough idea of the true colors of the swatches and their white background.

5900K.jpg


5600 and filter.jpg

Happy to answer any questions. Will try an out-of-doors, shaded, shot tomorrow and will post the results.
 
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The gels supplied with the Camtree lights are strange. The ad claims the lights are natively 5900K, that the "soften" filter drops them to 5600K, that the "zigzag"(=stippled?) gets them to 5300K, and that the "orange" filter gets them to 3200K.

In reality, the LEDs are bluer than 5900K, the first two supplied filters don't change the color temperature at all as far as I can tell, and the pale yellow (!!) filter warms the light only 500K or so.
 

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Cheap LEDs are a total waste of money. Spend the cash on decent grip gear instead. I have a 2m x 2m Lastolite butterfly for example, which has a mirrored silver reflector that can basically do the job of an 18kw Arrimax when the sun's out. Good grip is always useful. Cheap, crappy LEDs? Not so much.
 
Toss the yellow filter. For 5600K I'd recommend gel-ing these at 1/8 Minus Green and 1/8 CTO.

For 3200K-ish, gel at 1/8 Minus Green and 1/2 CTO. Double-sided tape some Rosco gels onto the "soften" filter that comes with the lights and you'll be good to go.
 
@Ken1212, here's how the Camtree light looks out-of-doors. These were taken under a small awning at 11am with full sun. The first shot, without the LED light, is at 1/50, f4, 400ISO, 6500K on my Panasonic G7, the second and third are with the LED switched on, full power, 6' to my left. Shot 2 is at the same exposure as shot 1, shot 3 is one stop down to correct for the extra illumination.

At 6', the light has more than enough power to act as a fill for the kind of shaded setting you were asking about.

Beamlight.jpg
 
As for LED's outside maybe take look at the Alzo 3200/3300's, maybe someone who has them can better explain these Alzo LED fixtures to you.

I live in the Caribbean, and most of the time nothing works better than a good small daylight grip package. Overhead scrims,nets , bounce boards, stands, rope and sand bags.

Sometimes it's good not to have to be running power cables and mounting hmi's etc.
 
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Michael Carter said:
Funny how 1/2CTO and 1/8 minus green seems to be the ranch dressing of cheap daylight fixtures…
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Totally.

But I find it worth it.
It's a quick cheap addition that can turn super inexpensive lights into something usable.
If the end result of the gels looks good then I see no practical difference between the cheap and the more expensive - especially if the cheap is at least constructed well.

I have several lights that have gels of one form or another pretty much permanently attached to correct for deficiencies, and once the gels went on they are no inconvenience in use whatsoever.

We spend so much time and effort customizing our grip and rigging that to me, one or two small steps to correct a light fixture is really nothing at all.

GrahamH's pictures at the top of this page show the success.
TWO lights that will clearly work just fine for the intended purposes - for $280 (including gels). That's insane. That's a steal.
 
This is pretty good for the price, they are very easily usable around 10 ft as fill outside in the shade and that's what I was looking for. I am assuming you only used one light in this setup. I already have some reflectors but in very shaded settings they are only good for closeups and medium shots.
 
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Ken1212 said:
This is pretty good for the price, they are very easily usable around 10 ft as fill outside in the shade and that's what I was looking for. I am assuming you only used one light in this setup. I already have some reflectors but in very shaded settings there are only good for closeups and medium shots.
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Yes, for those shots I was using only one light of the pair.
 
DPStewart said:
Totally.

But I find it worth it.
It's a quick cheap addition that can turn super inexpensive lights into something usable.
If the end result of the gels looks good then I see no practical difference between the cheap and the more expensive - especially if the cheap is at least constructed well.

I have several lights that have gels of one form or another pretty much permanently attached to correct for deficiencies, and once the gels went on they are no inconvenience in use whatsoever.

We spend so much time and effort customizing our grip and rigging that to me, one or two small steps to correct a light fixture is really nothing at all.
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I completely agree - 400 watt mogul grow lights in a photoflex starlight? HMI softbox and it's got some oomph to it.

I just bought several colors of RIT dye (the kind people tie-dye with). Going to try to make some 1/2CTO + 1/8 minus green softbox faces and a 4x4. Gelling a large softbox is kind of a pain...
 
Michael Carter said:
I completely agree - 400 watt mogul grow lights in a photoflex starlight? HMI softbox and it's got some oomph to it.

I just bought several colors of RIT dye (the kind people tie-dye with). Going to try to make some 1/2CTO + 1/8 minus green softbox faces and a 4x4. Gelling a large softbox is kind of a pain...
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Ha! Dude, that's brilliant!
ive never even heard of anyone trying that!
It...just...might....WORK!
 
GrahamH said:
@Ken1212, here's how the Camtree light looks out-of-doors. These were taken under a small awning at 11am with full sun. The first shot, without the LED light, is at 1/50, f4, 400ISO, 6500K on my Panasonic G7, the second and third are with the LED switched on, full power, 6' to my left. Shot 2 is at the same exposure as shot 1, shot 3 is one stop down to correct for the extra illumination.

At 6', the light has more than enough power to act as a fill for the kind of shaded setting you were asking about.

View attachment 103282
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As promising as this looks (and I just picked up two of these) this does not represent full daylight or even normal shade. Yes, the sun is out, but the subject is in heavy shade and the background is mostly in shade.

In full day light you'd be shooting at f44, not f4. That's a full seven stops.
 
I got my lights a week ago and just got a chance to test them. In any case I don't believe these lights are worth their full price of $500 each but for the deal I got I am very satisfied. (I got a set of two with stands shipped for $300). The test Grahm did above is very representative of mine too. They will service my purpose of shooting with them as fill in the shade in late afternoons before sunset, they will definitely be more effective than a reflector in the shade. I do own reflectors and use them when I can have them in the sun. I had a 12v battery belt that I plugged into the lights and only gave me half power since it requires 14.8v. So now I need to buy 14.8v portable power whether a V mount battery system or xlr. So keep that in mind as you calculate cost.

Concerning power output I don't own any other led's of similar size to compare to, but I believe this is a great deal if you are looking for led lights and can grab some for the same price I did (even at $200 each they are still very worth it). Of course you can also utilize the lights indoors. By the way I do like the photoflex starlight idea but will require much more juice to power them in the field.
 
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