Any tried building their own On Camera LED Light?
 

Not talking about LitePanel type ones, I'm interested in building SWIT 2010 or the Comer 1800 ones. Apparently CREE and Luxeon manufactures (100 lumen / 80lumen respectively) LED, around $10-15 USD. 10 of those would be quite bright like the Comer 1800 I hope.. any suggestions? You'll need a LED driver circuit, used for 1-3 high power LEDs each. Around $7.50 USD. each. Initial rough estimate of price for LED & Driver is around $180 USD total, PCB board etc not yet included.

Sure, I've built a couple led lights. The last incarnation I've been using for over a year and love the way that they work. You're right the cree's are the way to go. I made 2 versions one with (5) 3watt crees (3 1watt leds in 1 housing) and an (11) 3watt crees. They are mr16 style mounts that run on 12 volt dc. There is no need for driver circuts or anything external other then connecting them to a 12 volt dc source. I use a 6amp 12volt converter that is commonly used for car coolers etc. They also run (obviously) off of a 12 volt battery pack.
I've been watching these commercially made led lights and they are pretty weak and very expensive. That Comer setup is quite impressive but still too much money.
I also ran across a small battery operated led configuration make by SIMA. I bought 3 of these at about $30 each. They run for about an hour put out an impressive amount of light. I just used them in a very tight environment and they worked great too. The SIMA is Model SL-20X. They come with charger, mounting bracket and camera mount adaptor. Not a bad value.

Hey thanks Gary!
 

What kind of housing did you have? can you draw me a circuit diagram of your CREE light? thanks.

I used a pre-made project that I got at Radio Shack. As far as wiring, it's pretty simple, there are 2 prongs on the end of each of the mr-16. Positive is connected to 1 prong and negative to the other. I did create a switching arrangement where I can turn on either 5 lights or all 11. The smaller light (5 mr-16s) I can either turn on 1 or all 5.
The wires out of the box are attached to a cigerette ligher plug.
Gary

Gary Moses?
 

Gary Moses? If you read this, could you shoot me an email? If you tried to email me earlier I had the wrong email listed in my account info. It should work now.

I have some questions for you! :) Thanks so much!

Sure, what's your email?
Gary

If you click on the name next to the post you can choose "Send email to ..."

I was actually wondering if you could send an email to myself as well. I would like to get as many details, photos, links and/or anything else you have time to share with me about making a light for myself.

Like Gary, I have one of the newer Sima lights and they're very impressive and great value. They are also designed to be connected together so you can use multiple lights. I paid $34 for one.

Thanks Joel, we got connected.
Actually Paul I bought 3 of the Sima's and for the physical size, power and light throw there are really useful, especially in tight quarters.
Gary

They're a great value, light weight too. The 4600K requires a one-push whaite balancing, but I can deal with that. You can buy 9 of them for the price of the crappy LEDs I've seen advertised in the mags.