Hi everyone,
I'm about to buy my first lighting kit. I did a lot of research in the last month and I kind of made up my mind and decided to buy 3 or 4 dedolights. I intend to use the lights to shoot video AND photos and because of this, I might need from time to time a fairly high output for stills.
However, I read a lot about the coollight led panels and nothing but good things which is great.
Can anyone tell how the Coollight LED panel 600 performs compared with a hard dedo DLH4-150W in terms of quality of light and light output? I really like the dedolight's option for focusing the light from flood to spot. On the other hand I really like the LED technology and because of this brand they are now more accessible to mere mortals :)
I would like to have in my future kit some very cool light panels (no pun intended), but I can't decide which dedolights to cut from the list OR if i need to cut anything for that matter.

Right now my list is as follows:
1. Key light - DHL1000 PLUS + Dedo Octodome
2. Fill light - DHL1-300DIM + mini softbox OR DHL1-150 W + mini softbox
3. Hair & background light - 2 x DHL4 150W + Projector + Zoom lens 70-120

Many thanks to anyone who can give me some advice and put some light on this subject (again no pun intended) :)

Petre.

You might want one of each ;-). Kidding aside, these are two completely different animals with different types of light. As we've said here before many times, an LED panel is a group of small hard spotlights that together make a big source so its a more hard than a flo but softer than something like the Dedos. Has more throw than a flo but less than a fresnel or other light from the spotlight class like Dedos.

For instance the LED 600 would be good where you need batteries, the Dedo setup wouldn't excel at that at all--its tungsten so it sucks power quick. Heat output is another obvious drawback with relatively little from an LED setup but a lot from any tungsten setup (you already knew that I'm sure).

On the other hand, as we've seen, if you need to project a cookie on the wall or need well defined shadows on someones face for more drama, the Dedo (or any single point hard light source like it) would win out in that case.

They both have their places.

Thank you for your answer Richard and I take this opportunity to congratulate you for your products.

Although it is not crucial I would like to know if I would be able to properly lighten a scene for a photo session because I occasionally take studio photographs as well. Can I let's say, blow out a white background using 2 panels when photograph a person? Are they powerful enough for this?

I'm thinking about giving up on the second light from my wish list and use maybe one panel for the fill light. In this case which one should I choose? Flood or spot, 5600 or 3200?

Hi Petre,

Thanks for your kind words. The floods should work fine for lighting a white background. How much of the person is showing of course dictates how many panels you would need to light the area behind them.

I think there was someone else here (Michael Lahatte) was doing the same thing:

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/photon-management/467928-apple-behind-scenes-white-background-question.html

On which one to choose, I generally favor the spots myself, they're stronger. Some like the floods better. Its mainly beam width and strength between the two. 5600k is more versatile than the 3200K version but we still keep some for those die-hard fans of 3200K. The 5600K for example comes with a full CTO to turn it down to 3200K but the 3200K, even if it did come with a full CTB would be too weak to use for much afterwards.

Hopefully he'll come back and share his thoughts on how that's going.

Petre – I am not entirely clear on what you are doing or what your background is, but here are some thoughts for you.

We use both Dedo and Coolights LED products in both stills and motion photography and as Richard says they are very different animals.

You mention doing portraits (for still?), not sure what else you are doing, but I have to say that next to a photographic flash (strobe) head, constant light sources are much less user friendly and while we do occasionally use them, it is definitely not my first choice. Blowing a background with flash heads is an easy task and colour correction is not an issue. Of course flash head work is a different discipline to using a continuous light source.

ELINCHROM (http://www.elinchrom.com/)

If you do not wish to purchase a flash head kit, then certainly the LED panels which remain cool will stop your subject (portrait) from going lobster red compared to using hot tungsten lighting.

While Dedolights are versatile they are usually not the first choice as a starter kit and I say this as an owner of 4. There are just so many options, for some situations we will use a Dedo shot through a cookie and for others we will use an Arri Fresnel head shot through a cookie.

If you are going to be doing a lot of stills work with a stills camera then perhaps you need to look at this again?

Regards: Stu
www.studioscotland.com

Hi Stewart, thank you for your answer!
I intend to use the lights mainly for video. However, from time to time I take photos of small items for catalogs and brochures. In my previous post I was talking about a portrait shoot just to give a reference about the size of the background.

For photo only, continuous lights wouldn't be my first choice either. I'm a photographer and I know a lots about photo lighting equipment, but I just try to save some money and not investing in additional dedicated flash units for this more-than-hobby of mine. My wife wouldn't accept it. No wife on this planet would :)

I find for tripod product still shooting, "hot" lights or continuous lighting is easier to work with as the feedback is instant when positioning.

I agree with Tim. For still product shots, it generally doesn't matter if your exposure is 1/60th of a second or or one second. A lot of this depends on your still camera though. I am shooting interviews in a few weeks for a museum, using my LED600s. The client is also requesting still portraits of the same talent we are interviewing. I know that what I would really like to do is bring my Nikon D300 and some of my strobes but since I am working alone, dragging all of my video gear AND all of my still gear is too much.

My solution will be to shoot my Canon 5D MKII. This camera has a full frame sensor and is totally usable to about ISO 3200. Since my video camera is rated at ISO 500, I am confident that the light that the LED600s will be outputting will be sufficient for some quick portraits. I would rather use my strobes and Nikon because the Nikon flash system is superior to anything Canon has but it is too much gear to haul. I am using the video lighting as a compromise, I would much rather shoot these portraits with proper strobes, I would have more control and flexibility but I am hoping to obtain acceptable results just using the video lighting.

Once you are talking about product photography, I think video lights can work out just fine. Dedos vs. LEDs, I agree with everyone else, I can't think of two more different types of lights. Ideally, I would make a kit with both. This year, I have been using my LED600s to light talent in interviews, but still use my Arri fresnels to throw patterns and to light the BG elements. As long as you are not mixing the LED and tungsten lighting on the talent, I like the warmth of the tungsten on BGs. It seems that all of my clients NEVER request that I cool down the BG, they all like the warm look.

Dan