Flicker Free Lights for under £400?

[Leonard Levy]

Last night I tried testing the color of the YN-600 and the results were peculiar.
I compared the color to a tungstun light with and without Lee 201 daylight gel. I like to compare to tungstun because because it is a known quantity without any green or magenta spikes .I just compared it visually without a camera or a color meter because the color meters seem quite inaccurate for matching and because different cameras sometimes seem to react differently. (Actually I just didn't feel like setting up a camera and a monitor last night.)

Anyway the peculiar thing was that at 5600 the YN600 seemed if anything to need a little 1/8 - green added to it to match the tungstun w gel - also it seemed to need an addition al 1/8 CTB - though interestingly what made an apparently good match on the white wall wasn't always a good match on my own skin.

The odd thing was that to match tungstun it seemed to only want a 1/2 Lee CTO (205) + a 1/8 magenta! The magenta I understand since actually a true 85 gel is slightly more magenta than a CTO , but why only 1/2?

I've done similar tests for my other LED lights ephoto CN900 and a nameless 312 LED and they both require full 85 correction.

Any of you guys have similar experiences? I prefer to stick to the full Daylight LED , so I can dim it without screwing up my color and so I have maximum daylight punch when I need it.

I guess the FS700 forum is an odd place for an extended discussion of an LED light but what the heck.

Lenny

[Alister Chapman]

You really need to evaluate with a camera or spectrometer. I don't believe you will see the spectrum of the lights in anyway near the same way as a camera does. I've lost count of the number of times I've seen light sources that look perfectly OK visually only to look terrible with a camera. There are not just spikes but also holes in the spectrum that our visual system will compensate for without us knowing.

[Leonard Levy]

I guess you'reour right about that Alister. I tested it today with a PMW-700 and it looked pretty good. Still somewhat odd but much closer to what I would expect. A little bit green and it seemed to take 3/4 CTO to match a tungstun light through a silk. I think that actual 85 will be better for this light than CTO for going tungstun though.
Actually I've also seen the opposite - lights that look way off to my eye look fine on camera.

[Colin Elves]

It'll also change from camera to camera - I'm guessing because the CFAs are all a little bit different in their transmission characteristics and the sensors likewise react slight differently to different wavelengths (and the there is the different approaches to colour processing!) at present there is a drive to develop a successor to CRI as CRI is simply not accurate enough a measure with modern digital cameras, but even the successors seem a little inadequate, so there is even something of a project underway to try and identify which pro lighting fixtures work best with which cameras. ie if you're shooting I an Alexa, choose a kino celeb, if your shooting on a Red, choose a tru color (or whatever).

[Leonard Levy]

I use the YN600 daylight on a job today and it worked with Diva lights and tungsten great never needing any correction for green spikes. Shot with Sony 700. Also tested it at home with EX-1 and found with a 1/4 CTB added it was perfect at the cameras 5600 preset.

Oddly I found with a RED EPIC that I needed to add 3/8 minus green ( magenta) to make flesh tones look good at lest on the Red Color Red Gamma out put.

I did have some problems with the fan though . Ran it at first with the plastic diffuser in and found that after I put a stick in to disable the fan , it began to smoke after a while.I had better luck taking the diffuser out as that must allow it to breath more, but i was still very wary of letting it run for a long time with the fan disabled.

I am considering getting another and mounting together on a double header type arm for exterior fill- but I am concerned about the fan.

Update - tested it without any diffusion at home with a stick in the fan and no problems. Might be worse in the sun though.


There is now a YN900 in both all daylight and adjustable color for around $180 on the web. However its practically the same size so I'm concerned that the fan issues would be even greater. 2 if those would be killer though. I guess you could always dim it down to a 600 if the fan was a problem.