I'm looking for an on-camera light for use outdoors at night for my HMC-150. I have seen many suggestions/threads for lights, but I'm not sure which ones would be good for nightime lighting. I'm not even sure what makes a light good for nighttimes lighting, but i figured someone here might have an idea.....

What kind of subject matter do you want to light? How far away will you be? Will there be anykind of ambient light, IE street lights. automobile headlights, lighting from a building? Is the subject matter moving? If not will you be on a tripod which will allow the use of slower shutter speed?
Outside sucks up lighting. Outside at night really sucks it up. The throw on most on camera lights is quite limited, 8 to maybe 15 feet. When I did news stuff I used an Anton Bauer with and 85 watt bulb and at 1/60--F/1.8 (wide open the camera I was using) I was pushing it trying to get 20 feet. 15 was more like it. Most news stations would use something between 300 to 800 watts off camera powered by the generator on the live truck but that's not always feasible. There are some battery powered on camera lights that will give you 100W but you'll go thru batteries pretty fast.
give us a little more information and let's see what we can come up with for you.

I highly recommend the comer 1800 its now my go to light ,it also a very useful flashlight too

It's doc stuff I shoot so it's variable. I assume I'll always be within 5 feet of the subject. I dont have a budget to get anything that's going to light me farther away. I'll going to be following someone around for a bit in August filming them for a week, so I want to be able to get useable footage at night if we're some place with no lighting. Would more information be helpful? Thanks in advance!

Well if it were me, (and I have done it) and having used both non dimmable and dimmable, I would go for something in the 50W range that's dimmable and has the ability to hold some filters, be it diffusion (or TuffSpun taped to the housing) and even perhaps a filter dpending on the color temp of the light.
For example I used an Anton Bauer with a daylight filter because it used a tungsten bulb.
LitePanel, Comer, Bescor all have lights that would fill the need, prices vary, power vary's.
It sounds to me like you just want to get light on the "talent", nothing too creative so pretty much any light will do it but make sure it's dimmable so you have at least some control over the light.

Hi Noam

I use the eBay variety!! my main light is a 160 LED Yongnuo YN-160 which will set you back under $70.00 and at weddings runs all night on a 2640mah camcorder battery. It has 16 intensity settings and also barn doors! The Comer 1800 is better quality of course but will cost a bit more.

Might be worth getting a real cheap one to test the waters and see what you need...My dimmable 126 LED light I think was around $35.00!!! Worth having even as a standby!!! Just search eBay for "126 LED" and they are there all over!!

Chris

+1 for the Comer 1800.

Fully dimmable, color filter and spot built in.

Great light.

Cheers,

Vaughan

I have used the PAG light C6 for a number of years. Its not cheap, but not outrageous. I find it to be a very robust light which I have used on documentary shoots, interviews and ENG style filming. The bulbs seem to last forever, and the battery lasts for hours and hours (not sure how long; in fact I have never depleted it in a shoot) - its a big shoulder slung battery (or belt clip affair though). The kit comes with a number of accessories including barndoors, diffuser, and daylight filter. Lots of accessories available for it.

The light is strong, and you get a lot more distance with it than you would with the LED lights that seem to be popular at the moment. A very good run-and-gun light for all types of fluid situations.

I'm thinking of going for the Comer 1800. Seems like a good long term investment. Quick question: it does two color temperatures as far as i can see. For those of you who have used it, are those two temepratures enough to get you through what you do? Will they be good if I want to shoot outdoors in the dark and this is the only light source I have?

Noam,

The light is easily the brightest I have used of any LED.

It is very versatile, and the outdoor colour temp is 4500, whereis the Sony (similar) light is 5200, which is much bluer. If you need a lot of light at night, you can use the spot mode, but I use it a lot at wedding receptions (including outside interviews with bridal party) and my usual method is to frame the shot, then turn the light on with maximum dimmer, and wind in the amount of light I need.

I've never had that luxury before, and it doesn't blind the talent when used that way.

I must add that living half way around the world from lacoloronline.com, the sellers, I have had excellent service from them when I needed it also.

Cheers,

Vaughan