HVL-LBP lamp, and batteries

[Piotr Wozniacki]

Ron,

The lamp is solid built, elegant and - using the same batteries as the V1 - convenient. However, it's also quite heavy; also you cannot count on the distance effectively lit to be longer that some 5-8 meters. Anything within this distance is very nicely brightened; you have a choice of a diffuser or concentrator flaps, and a dimmer control.

As a sample, here's a grab from a clip shot with the lamp in otherwise completely dark room - the distance was some 3-4 meters:

[Stu Holmes]

One thing Piotr

The HVL-LBP is renowned to be somewhat cool on the color temperature. i.e. has a tendency to be a little bit blue'ish. It is, after all, daylight balanced and therefore under MIXED lighting (tungsten and the LBP itself) you would expect that people's faces, for examples, end up being slightly cool looking. If the LBP is ONLY source, then the cam's white-balance could more or less fix it, but under mixed indoor lighting, i am wondering if you find it's coolness (5600K balanced) a problem? If I got that light, i would think an amber filter would be needed to warm things up a little, but I have read some conflicting reports on whether thats necessary or not.

I would appreciate any feedback you could give on the LBP with reference to shooting people pics, especially indoors with other (warmer..) light sources in the room.

thanks in advance

[Piotr Wozniacki]

Stu, I personally don't find it to pose any serious problems. I have found this clip as the first one handy, so apologies for the quality - but as you can see, my doughter's skin looks quite natural under the mixed light from a regular (weak) bulb and the LBP LED light... The camera was on AWB, and the lamp's diffuser flap on, if I remember correctly! Please comment - perhaps some flaws are there, and it's just me who cannot see them?

EDIT
I took another look at my own grab, and I can see the effect you're mentioning Stu. Not so much on the skin, but on the wall to the right: the closer to the lamp, the more bluish it is (or due to AWB, it's actually white); further away where the proportion of the yellow light from the bulb above to the LED light from the camera changes in favour of the bulb light - the wall turns a bit reddish...

EDIT 2
Inspired by the above 'discovery', I searched for other shootings with the HVL-LBP lamp. I'm posting a grab from the church where I shot a musical performance a while ago; this is the audience sitting in the first raw, within 1-3 meters from the camera, filmet at the moment I turned the camera on the tripod after the musicians finished, to catch the ovation. The WB I had set manually to objects at a much longer distance, seems completely wrong here - the faces are a bit bluish, indeed (especially when one compares the grab to the right with one of my other church grabs here:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showpost....31&postcount=1)

Also, the grab looks ugly because the lamp's concentrator was on (rigth for the longer disctances, completely wrong here), and the beam was directed too high (also because it was set for the longer distance). These are not real faults, of course - it's just that there's no single setting of the lamp which is always right...

[K.C. Luke]

Soon Im getting the SONY LED light and need sometime to adjust when is when to used :)

[Ron Little]

So, what is the answer should we have an amber filter?

How much would that hurt the lights performance?

Should I look to a more traditional light like the Varalux?

What if you took a Sony HVL-20DW2 20-watt Video Light and mounted it sideways for a more wide-screen profile?

[Piotr Wozniacki]

Ron,
I've tried to answer you original question as exhaustively as I only could; now the decisions are yours;)

I can only add that my previous conventional tungsten lamp wasn't better in any aspect, and I had to carry a heavy bettery around which only lasted for 1/2 hour with a 100W bulb, or some 2 hours with a 35W one. The HVL-BP brightness is more comparable to the 100W tungsten version, and yet - with the 970 battery - it lasts for 3 hours between charges.

[Ron Little]

Thank you Piotr. That was the information I was looking for. Your comparison to a 100w tungsten light puts it in terms I can understand. With the 970 you are getting three hours of burn. Is that continues?

[Piotr Wozniacki]

Originally Posted by Ron Little

Thank you Piotr. That was the information I was looking for. Your comparison to a 100w tungsten light puts it in terms I can understand. With the 970 you are getting three hours of burn. Is that continues?

Frankly, I never actually tried to have it burning continuously for that long, this is what the specs are saying. However, after around 1 h of continuous work, I still saw 3 out of the 4 green diodes...

[Stu Holmes]

Yes i think the ability of the light to run about 3 hours is great.

The problem with tungsten lights is that use much more power (LBP is only 16watts consumption) and tungsten lights need a pretty hefty powerpack which may only last 30-40minutes. And if the event you're shooting lasts longer than that what are you going to do?? Have ANOTHER hefty battery pack ? all a bit of a pain.

I think the LBP is fine, and, maybe, as long as you don't mind a small output loss, an amber gel filter may warm things up a little in certain circumstances.

[Ron Little]

Well, I am really starting to lean toward this light. I will probably buy one next month we have budget for one now and if all is well then the other one the next month. I love having two V1s but buying accessaries are double also. Thanks again for your help.

[Piotr Wozniacki]

Originally Posted by Ron Little

What if you took a Sony HVL-20DW2 20-watt Video Light and mounted it sideways for a more wide-screen profile?

One more word on the ugly spot of light on the right one of the grabs above: it's perfectly possible to cover the whole area with even light, provided your subject is within the lamp's effective distance. To achieve that, it's enough to carefully position the light beam (some degrees downward), and engage diffusor rather than concentrator. Also, the LEDs are placed in a pattern that is well suited to the 16:9 aspect ratio; in fact, even with the Sony 0.8x wa adapter, it's possible to evenly brighten for instance a group of people from some 3-4 meters away.

So, don't misjudge the lamp's capabilities basing on that particular grab - I posted it in order to show possible problems and flaws, resulting from misconfiguration!

[Paul Frederick]

I have this light and cut a small piece of CTO gel to fit against the glass for use indoors. It works like a charm and I just tape it to the glass, the lamp stays cool so it doesn't melt. If I need to use it outside, I just peel it off. I keep it in a small toilet paper roll when not in use!

I found it too blue indoors mixed with just incandescent lights, in a mixed light situation it works well with or without the gel.

I'm using it more and more and really like this light. FWIW! It works well on an overcast day to add that glint in a subjects eyes.

[Khoi Pham]

Originally Posted by Piotr Wozniacki

Zsolt,

The question isn't silly at all, simply there are good lamps and... well, not so good ones. Regarding the light volume, the HVL-LBP is a LED lamp, rated 600 lux; it's also very efficient (3 hours with the 970 battery). Also, its shape is rectangular and corresponds well with the 16:9 scene proportions.

Of course, on-cam lamps are seldom strong enough to lit big areas and at a long distance. However, this one is OK for indoor shootings; for instance at a party in a dim room it's great to brighten people's faces (it has a dimmer, so is not very obtrusive).

Actually this is very misleading, they advertized the light at 600 lux, but forgot to mention like in the manual that it is 600 lux only will the intensifier, and when you use the intensifier it is very narrow beam and not spread out at all, but I still like it, it sure beat wearing a 17lbs battery pack for my old light.
BTW this light is 5600K so if you are using indoor, you should put a CTO filters on it, loose another 1/2 stop with the filter, as for using this with the V1, it will only be good less than 5 feet from your subject, V1 is not sensitive at all unnder low light.

[Piotr Wozniacki]

I don't know if the 600 lux is for the lamp with the concentrator on or off, but I agree there's a substantial difference in the brightness between the two configurations. I'd also add it's misfortunate in that you usually need the concentrator when the object is far away, but then the narrow spot is even more visible...

[Piotr Wozniacki]

The various possible configurations of the HVL-LBP lamp are described in the interesting brochure here:

http://bssc.sel.sony.com/Broadcastan...broch_6-07.pdf

Looks like Khoi is right; engaging the concentrator can indeed output the 600 lux mentioned, while producing spot-light effect (see attached grab from the last wedding party I shot in a very dark room). On the other hand, using the diffuser flap will spread the light evenly, but will only output 300-400 lux (all measurements at 1 meter distance).

Edit: I forgot to mention the diffuser changes the light temperature from 5600K to 4400K, which can be noticed on the right grab - no spot, less bluish...