Testing the Ikan ID1500 & IB1500 LED Panels

[Michael Morlan]

Hi all,

I tested a couple LED panel instruments recently introduced by Ikan at NAB 2012. Full review at;

Testing the Ikan ID1500 & IB1500 LED Panels | Tall Tale Pictures . Blog

Here's the summary:

I measured color balance, brightness, and beam spread for each instrument. Obviously, I measured both colors for the bi-color instrument.

The daylight-balanced ID1500 measured 60 foot-candles (fc) at 10 feet, which is very favorable when compared to the Kino-flo 4ft 4BANK which comes in at 28fc @ 10ft. It has a narrower beam than the Kino, coming in at 45 degrees along its long axis and 30 degrees across the short axis (measured at 5 feet.) I often prefer a more directional source which can be flooded by adding various choices of diffusion. The light displays no noticeable color shift when it is dimmed to 50% – one of the advantages of LED lighting. There is a mild green spike as measured by the RED One camera.

The bi-color IB1500 predictably has lower output due to dividing the available LED’s between daylight and tungsten colors. It measured 32fc @ 10ft daylight and 42fc @ 10ft tungsten. Still, that’s better than the comparable Kino 4-BANK. It’s beam spread is slightly smaller than the ID1500, coming in at 30 degrees along the long axis and 25 degrees across the short axis. The daylight side exhibits the same correctable, mild green spike of its cousin but the tungsten side suffers a much more pronounced spike, requiring an aggressive minus-green gel correction to eliminate (at the expense of output.)

Both instruments are robustly constructed for use on set with only a couple minor issues to watch out for. More on that in the full review.

Best,

Michael Morlan