comparision of LED, Tungsten & HMI at DVinfo.net

Paul Mailath · October 30th, 2022, 08:24 PM

I've been using a variety of LED lights for some time now and recently came across a DP that was still using Tungsten & HMI (small regional TV station) I had no way of equating my lights with his.

for instance - to match a 1k tungsten I'd need to either gel my Aputure 120 with CTO and then measure the output or gel the tungsten with CTB and do the same.

I'm wondering if anyone has done this.

with that information I can say my Forza 300 is equivalent to a 2k tungsten with full CTB or a 500w HMI - I have no idea if that's the case or not but I'd like to know.

If I'm doing this myself I'll need to hunt someone down with a 1k tungsten and run through all the lights I have to compare output.

Paul R Johnson · October 31st, 2022, 02:33 AM

The thing it took me a long time to realise was that LED is not a replacement, unit for unit. I tried to add in an LED version of what I had and I hated the result. Making LED the same CT as tungsten failed, no matter if I adjusted the tungsten or the LED with gel. When I got to a new studio space I discovered that once I picked the right LED fixture for its purpose, put them in the right place at the right brightness the result was great. However, it meant that the 1K I’d have used as a key, is now a much smaller LED, the soft light’s job is being done by bigger Fresnel, and the LED panels I have are like the ancient floods I used to use for backgrounds and even, wide light. I have a ‘look’ that is similar to the old one, but created very differently. CT appears to be best set on the cameras between tungsten and LED around 4200K. Here colours seem correct on the monitors. Mixing in any tungsten source looks really strange no matter what I hang on the front. Wrong colour and wrong beam quality. I don’t know why the beams make such a difference, but the Fresnel lens lovely beam quality is missing, and if it’s gone, you need to recreate it with different kit. That was a shock. I tried simply swapping like for like and it was disappointing.

October 30th, 2022, 08:24 PM	#1
Paul Mailath Trustee Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Central Coast - NSW, Australia Posts: 1,606	comparision of LED, Tungsten & HMI I've been using a variety of LED lights for some time now and recently came across a DP that was still using Tungsten & HMI (small regional TV station) I had no way of equating my lights with his. for instance - to match a 1k tungsten I'd need to either gel my Aputure 120 with CTO and then measure the output or gel the tungsten with CTB and do the same. I'm wondering if anyone has done this. with that information I can say my Forza 300 is equivalent to a 2k tungsten with full CTB or a 500w HMI - I have no idea if that's the case or not but I'd like to know. If I'm doing this myself I'll need to hunt someone down with a 1k tungsten and run through all the lights I have to compare output. __________________ Cheers - Paul M. www.perbenyik.com

October 31st, 2022, 02:33 AM	#2
Paul R Johnson Inner Circle Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Lowestoft - UK Posts: 4,015	Re: comparision of LED, Tungsten & HMI The thing it took me a long time to realise was that LED is not a replacement, unit for unit. I tried to add in an LED version of what I had and I hated the result. Making LED the same CT as tungsten failed, no matter if I adjusted the tungsten or the LED with gel. When I got to a new studio space I discovered that once I picked the right LED fixture for its purpose, put them in the right place at the right brightness the result was great. However, it meant that the 1K I’d have used as a key, is now a much smaller LED, the soft light’s job is being done by bigger Fresnel, and the LED panels I have are like the ancient floods I used to use for backgrounds and even, wide light. I have a ‘look’ that is similar to the old one, but created very differently. CT appears to be best set on the cameras between tungsten and LED around 4200K. Here colours seem correct on the monitors. Mixing in any tungsten source looks really strange no matter what I hang on the front. Wrong colour and wrong beam quality. I don’t know why the beams make such a difference, but the Fresnel lens lovely beam quality is missing, and if it’s gone, you need to recreate it with different kit. That was a shock. I tried simply swapping like for like and it was disappointing.