LED Lights

[Dean Harrington]

In a dark room, they throw about 3 meters of usage light ... no where near tungsten level. I'd say these lights might work for highlighting.

[Michael Chenoweth]

How's the color temp?

Would you consider it roughly a 250 watt softlight or fluoro equivalent? I know they won't compare to the output of a tungsten lamp.

At the amount of LEDs, I figured it would be nothing more than a small fill or kicker - can't expect much more than that but was interested in it comparing to the other LED lights that claim about 1 watt per LED equivalent.

mike

[Dean Harrington]

Like I said, not much light ... less than 250 watts. I don't have a light meter but that's my guess.
Color temp. runs toward blue ... about what you'd expect from super white LEDs.

[Richard Andrewski]

Unfortunately, what you find with those 5mm LEDs once you start experimenting with them is the best CRI comes from many in the higher color temperatures. Particularly with the 10 to 30 degree ones--which you'll choose if you want a spot with some throw. The 5000K to 6000K range has a terrible CRI normally and is very greenish in many cases. Choose a wider beam angle and of course the light falls off quickly and will have about the same throw as a fluorescent. You can get a decent CRI though with the wide beam LEDs in daylight range. For spots with a lot of power though, 8000K to 9000K is the best range for an LED that has a great CRI, lots of power for the wattage used (yes the lumen values even seem to go up in this range) and in general looks great. You can also find some decent CRI values down in the 3000K range too.

No matter what, you need a good smooth beam with no green or yellow tinged corona or fringe around the center of the beam and thats tough to find in the sharp beam angle 5mm LEDs.

[Michael Chenoweth]

I may pick one up just to play with - worse case it becomes a work light in my garage ;)

We're all anxious to see your new LED offerings shortly, Richard!

mike

[Bill Pryor]

I'm happy with my three 500LEDs, but if I gel them down with CTO full to cut in with tungsten, that cuts the output significantly. I'd think with a smaller output unit in that 6000 to 7000 range, it might not be good enough except maybe for just a little fill for certain closeup situations.

[Bob Grant]

Mine arrived today. Pretty much as others have already said.
The unit is very lightweight. The housing is plastic made to look like aluminium.
The back panel is thin MDF, would not withstand much abuse.
Should be easy enough to adapt to fit light stands etc due to the light weight.
The beam is quite narrow, CT as advertised i.e. rather blue. I don't have a means to measure CRI but I'd say no different to what you get with the cheap LED torches.
If you can find a use for it good value for the money.
I'm thinking to buy 10 units. Using industrial Velcro on the sides they could be joined together in a 5 x 2 array to create a large light source.

[Michael Chenoweth]

Care to post any pics, Bob?

I may pick one up just to play with. I have one of the Flolight 500's and absolutely love it for portability. I know Coollights is working on some LED solutions that will probably match anything out there currently but this particular aquarium panel was interesting to me.

Could it be gelled down to 5600k or thereabouts and still maintain any output?

mike

[M. Paul El-Darwish]

Been doing it for a while now. I rigged a Lupine Wilma to my camcorder to great effect. Soon to be upgrading to a Lupine Betty-X ...
Betty X Pro - GRETNA BIKES LLC, LUPINE North America
LED-Z is pretty good too.

[Alex Raskin]

Is there such thing as LED fresnel at this time?

Mainly interested in high output, hard light for backlight/hair/accents.

Trying to move everything from tungsten to Fluorescents, but what to do with hard lights?

[Richard Andrewski]

In the summer of 2007 I had great hopes of making a fresnel with a 60w LED from Taiwan but there were a number of issues that kept it from happening. #1 issue -- the cost was too high. By the time we got through this thing would have been close to a $1000 selling price and we just don't see the value there. A $1000 fresnel that puts out about the equivalent of a 300w tungsten. Also, the surface area emanating light was not a true point source and it didn't work correctly with the reflector that came with it. Color temperature was in the 4000K range and CRI was terrible. On top of all that, the heat sink had to be super big to keep the LED healthy so I gave up on that.

Next, we found that Luxim Lifi unit which has some promise, but its current form isn't suitable for stage / studio lighting IMHO. It comes in a fairly large package with heat sink and fan built in. The package alone keeps it from being in a fresnel type fixture. The fan was also a deal breaker.

So, for now, metal halide continues to be the king of energy efficient point light sources for fresnels and pars. Any LED or similar type advance needs to not have such high heat output requiring a huge heat sink or fan and we also need to be able to focus it into a beam as necessary whereas the high wattage LEDs come in a wide beam pattern of 90 degrees or above in most cases today and that won't work for a fresnel.

[Bjorn Lardner]

Hi all, first post after lurking around here for two years.

Saw that the Betty Pro mountain bike lights were mentioned, so I thought I'd chime in.

I shoot nature stuff - mostly close-ups and macro (snakes, lizards, frogs, evertebrates) but also animals not so close. I wanted a small and lightweight but powerful lighting system, so ca half a year ago I invested in two Lupine Betty Pro (1400 Lumen each) lightheads. I power them by one small Li-ion battery strapped to the handle of my EX1. These lights have a narrow beam that is un-suitable for anything but telephoto, so I have opaque diffusors attached ca 5 cm in front of the lights. Gives very soft and even light for macro shots. If there's a mammal or bird at greater distance, I tear off the diffusors and go tele.

These lights have a very blueish light, some 8600 to 8800 Kelvin. That mostly works fine for me since I rarely have other (disturbing) light sources when out in the field.

The biggest problem with these lights is the dimming circuits. I get rolling interference patterns - you know, like shooting a CRT screan - when dimming the lights. Haven't been able to get around it by any trick. But that's manageable: I just go full power and kick in the ND filter or make aperture adjustments.

The good thing about these lights is the small form factor and their high power.
They are not cheap, though.

Cheers,
Bjorn

[Alex Raskin]

Can high output flashlights be used for this purpose?

[Michael Chenoweth]

I've used high output LED flashlights in a pinch and one just a few days ago as an on camera light - I built a little softbox for it and threw on some CTO to color correct it. Worked like a champ but a bit more directional than I wanted.

There are some good flashlights that can be had for fairly cheap and work fairly well for on camera type work. I wouldn't use them for lighting talent in an interview situation but I have shown in some lighting classes 3-point lighting with an LED flashlight, mirror and pizza box lid ;)

[Richard Andrewski]

Originally Posted by Bjorn Lardner

I shoot nature stuff - mostly close-ups and macro (snakes, lizards, frogs, evertebrates) but also animals not so close. I wanted a small and lightweight but powerful lighting system, so ca half a year ago I invested in two Lupine Betty Pro (1400 Lumen each) lightheads. I power them by one small Li-ion battery strapped to the handle of my EX1. These lights have a narrow beam that is un-suitable for anything but telephoto, so I have opaque diffusors attached ca 5 cm in front of the lights. Gives very soft and even light for macro shots. If there's a mammal or bird at greater distance, I tear off the diffusors and go tele.

Those 1400 lumen ones claim they draw something like 24 watts at full power. I'd love to know how they do that without a big heatsink. Do they tend to run hot?