Comer On-Camera LED Lights

[Taky Cheung]

I ordered these lights at the NAB show. They arrived today.

CM-LBPS900 with 5 LEDs

[Taky Cheung]

CM-LBPS1800 with 10 LEDs

[Taky Cheung]

A few more photos =)

[Oren Arieli]

Taky, I can't find specs or site for these lights. Can you share some info? They look like Sony knock-offs. What batteries do they use? How many watts output? Battery life? Hope you're willing to share some footage soon.

[Taky Cheung]

I think the large one with 10 LED light is a Sony knock off. I am not sure about the small one.

I will post some footage later.

[Taky Cheung]

Oh, they have models using Panasonic battery or Sony batteries. I bought the one using Sony batteries.

[Roddy Graeme]

Hi Taky,

how much were they? How do you find the build quality and output?

Thanks

[Taky Cheung]

I found the Comer lights build quite solid (definitely not like LP Micro.. plastic-y and flimsy). I put together a video to show the difference

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/photon-ma...-shootout.html

[Barry J. Weckesser]

Looking up the details on the Comer lights - they are exactly the same as the
Sony HVL-LBP - I'll bet that Comer is the one who manufactures them for Sony
or it could just be a knockoff - but the resemblance is uncanny.

[Taky Cheung]

Yeah I believe the light are the same design. But the Sony light only works with geniun sony battery. That's really a rip off.

[Galen Rath]

I read elsewhere on this forum that the SONY light's mount is underdesigned for its weight, increasing the chances it will snap off. Is the Comer light better in this regard?

[Taky Cheung]

I also read about some of the shoe mount broke from the Sony unit. So far, I found the Comer light has a very sturdy and solid built. But it shall takes time to find out. Anyway, the lights come with 1 year exchange warranty.

These lights are awesome. I worked in a wedding reception over the weekend. The client only pay for a few wall lights. I used 2 CM1800 lights one on each side. Without those, the event was very dark. People can't see the MC or the married couple face.

You can see the before and after shots below.

[Evan C. King]

Yeah this definetly looks like the spitting image for the sony light. It's either a rebrand sold by the people to who make it to yet another company, or the company that makes it for sony looking to make some direct money. Either way is there a dvinfo sponsor that sells this as well? I'd like to know how much they charge for it, I'd feel safer with a sponsor. And I need would need the ones that take a panasonic battery if I decide to get one.

[Taky Cheung]

Those that I'm selling are using Sony batteries. Comer does manufacture models that take Panasonic batteries.

I myself are Canon. I ended up have to get the NP-F970 battery and a charge but they are relatively not expensive.

[Barry J. Weckesser]

Originally Posted by Taky Cheung

I found the Comer lights build quite solid (definitely not like LP Micro.. plastic-y and flimsy). I put together a video to show the difference

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/photon-ma...-shootout.html

Taky - I tried the same type of shootout you did using 3 lights to decide if the new Litepanels Micro Pro was better than the Sony HVL-BP (same as Comer 1800) or the Litepanels Mini Flood. I did the tests in a completely dark room at 6' and 9' from a corner wall and using a PMW-EX1 camera set at F 1.9, 0 db gain, shutter 1/60, and white balance at 5600K.

The new Litepanels Micro Pro does provide somewhat more light than the Sony (in regular mode) but if you flip the lens on the Sony in place it clearly outperforms the Litepanels Micro Pro (I assume you were using the regular Litepanels Micro in your video). Until I did this test I didn't realize just how anemic the Litepanels Mini Flood was - there was no comparison to the other two (and I am in the process of selling it)

The biggest thing I noted between the Sony and Litepanels Micro Pro was the wide field of light with the Sony - there were no sharp lines demarcating the field of the beam and it filled my entire field of view even at 9-10 feet. If you use the lens with the Sony light the beam field narrows but not that big a difference compared with the Micro Pro. With the Litepanels Micro Pro - while the light output is somewhat higher there is a definite narrower field. The Sony does seem to have a different color temp than the Litepanels - at 5600 K WB - the Sony was much "warmer" - face tones looked better and using the lens it became even warmer.

If one uses the photometric charts from Litepanels as well as those found in the Sony brochure for the HVL-LBP you could be completely mislead - going into this I thought the Litepanels Mini Flood would perform better and that the Litepanels Micro Pro was completely superior to the Sony light - not so! Just a few observations - I will be keeping the Litepanels MicroPro as well as the Sony and selling the other LP Mini.