Finally edited the video I shot with these flashlights. Massive difference between video shot with and without. Even though you cannot see a lot of difference with your eyes, the video makes a great deal of quality out of just a few watts of light from this rig.

I might not have bothered with the MR-16 LED setup had I had time to edit this video before I built the newer rig.

<<<-- Originally posted by Mike Rehmus : OK, flashlight adapter #1.

Go to hardware store, get an 2" L-bracket (Stanley part # 75-6371), 2 x spring-loaded broom holders (Stanley part # 75-2025)for hanging brooms on wall. These are the type witha round spring arm and a plastic pad to grip the object in their jaws. Costco 7-LED flashlights fit in very nicely.

Mount broom holders to the L-bracket (one on each side) with 2 screws. You will have to drill one hole. I used 8-32 screws to fasten the broom holders to the L-bracket

Mount L-bracket on camera shoe adapter that has 1/4-20 stud.

Flashlights are now mounted side by side above the camera without interfering with CAC-12 microphone holder on Sony PD150.

I placed two disks of diffusing material and one disk of CC filter material on backside of lens cover, clamped between LED holder and lens cover. Warm White LEDs would be nicer than these Cool White LEDs.

Works very nicely.

Interesting, the LEDs get quite hot in constant use. Burn your hand on the inside metal power connectors hot. Have to turn them off from time-to-time.

Total cost for flashlights and bracketry - About $50.

Run-time is said to be about 140 hours per each load of 4X AA Cells.

Total weight, 1 Lb., 0.7 Oz.

I'm off to Pennsylvania on Friday to try them out. -->>>

thanks for the feedback on this light setup, it sounds like it worked out pretty well.

now to figure out how to control the intensity... maybe turn one light off, leave the other one on? and where to get the warm led's.

LEDTronics sells warm LEDs.

I placed a diffusing gel and a warming gel inside each light to warm them up since they were daylights and I wanted a more difuse light.

They didn't look like they did much with the naked eye but the video really liked the light.

Of course my subjects were of painted metal, not people. For that the MR-16 lamp does very well.

Heya,
interesting developments and posts in this thread. I have also designed an on-camera LED video light, which will be available for purchase in about 6 or 7 weeks. The initial design uses 52 x 5mm LEDs, the next one (available in about 5 months) uses the high-flux LEDs; but that will be a bit more expensive, especially as it also will include a battery pack.
We have selected specific LEDs (both for the 'conventional' and high-flux variety) which are binned, meaning we can deliver consistent performance, colour and brightness.

Indeed, as many have mentioned here, LEDs are not 'quite' as fantastic and wonderful as some make them out to be:
- They are NOT "heat free" as many claim. They produce quite a bit of heat in fact.
- Their life expectancy might well be 100'000 as many claim (for non-high flux LEDs), however, as soon as you turn them on, their light-output diminishes. It does depend on the environment in which they operate, but after about 10'000 they may well be under 80% of their original brightness. Still 10'000 is a heck of a long time.
Having said all that though, they do offer many advantages over incandescent lights, also very well mentioned in this thread.

The lights we have designed will be available in different colour temperatures, and beam angles, all of them are dimmable from ~1% to 100%, and use either 9V to 28V (or 16V to 28V respectively for one model).
And unlike some 'other' LED lights, one model of ours can be used quite well for a tight shot of a subject about 20' to 30' away (we call that one the "Paparazzi Light"! ;-)

Prices will start at around $225 for a warm-white (~2900K), which is MSRP.

I'll be glad to answer any questions, technical or otherwise.

<<<-- Originally posted by moi: - Their life expectancy might well be 100'000 as many claim (for non-high flux LEDs), however, as soon as you turn them on, their light-output diminishes. It does depend on the environment in which they operate, but after about 10'000 they may well be under 80% of their original brightness. Still 10'000 is a heck of a long time. >>>

Err....those numbers were for HOURS of course; I forgot to put "hours" after the numbers, sorry.

I just made a make shift single luxeon star "on camera' light using a 2 dollar flashlight reflector, a 2 AA battery holder, and a mic hotshoe adaptor. I filmed in complete darkness and it worked really well (admittedly amateur stuff). I'll post some pics, complete with duct tape, and some footage.