Quick question y'all...

I am looking to buy an onboard light -- maybe something LED - something fairly reasonable in price -- something that can fit on the HVX and work like a news crew would interview a musician or celebrity...something that puts out some good, solid light but isn't too bulky...?

any recommendations?

curious to hear...

thanks in advance!
j

Well if it's LED you're considering there has been pretty good discussions considering the Litepanels Micro. That is the little brother to the Litepanels LED used by many professionals on network TV. Here are several links to videos of it:

YouTube
YouTube - Litepanels - On Camera LED lighting for Red carpet Interviews (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FucADxQBWL0&feature=channel_page)

Vimeo
Sennheiser MKE400 and Litepanels Micro on a Canon HV20 on Vimeo (http://vimeo.com/463187)

There's also a new LED light called the Microbeam, sold by PrompterPeople.com. One of the guys in the forums just bought and posted a thorough review of it, here's the link:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/photon-management/146122-microbeam-early-impressions.html

And finally there's a third LED light called the Switronix TorchLED TL-50.

EventDV.net: In the Field: Switronix TorchLED TL-50 (http://www.eventdv.net/Articles/News/Feature/In-the-Field-Switronix-TorchLED-TL-50-52444.htm)

Hope this helps, I know I kind of over whelmed you but there's many options you can choose from...from price points to how would want to power them. For example the Litepanels Micro can be powered with AA batteries or you can buy a plate that will fit your camera battery. The Microbeam is only powered by camera battery and I'm not sure about the TorchLED...I think it just uses AA. These three in the reviews I've read, all seem to get the job done.

I'm using this one http://www.avalive.com/Bebob/LUX-DV/52537/productDetail.php (Bebob Lux DV) on the HVX. It's pretty light and you can equip it with a 50W lamp (60° angle).
You'll need a battery belt for the 50W lamp, and you need to gel it down in darker environments - but for shooting news I don't like to go with less, because the on-camera light is the only light I have, and pretty often you'll be happy to have the output of a 50W.

20W is nice as a fill and for darker environments, but not more. The same goes for LED solutions.

I have the Litepanel Micro and a PAG lite (Paglight camera lighting system (http://www.paglight.com/paglight.htm))

not too happy with both: Litepanel Micro is not strong enough, paglite has this bulky battery.
The micro travels with me all the time and is ok on close distance though.