What on-camera light do they use on xxx tv show?
 

So just seeing what on camera light they use on say:
Dirty Jobs
Anthony Bourdain
Ace of Cakes
etc...

whats the industry standard?

Not the thread i expected...

:-D

Hard to say without seeing it. It could be Anton Bauer Ultralight, any one of a number of Frezzi's, could be any one of LitePanel products.
There is no industry standard per se in TV work for on camera lights not even in the news business. Some use AB, some Frezzi, a few use LP stuff.

In my experience in shooting TV, the most popular light lately have been the LitePanels. I shot a cocktail party with impromptu interviews for Paramount last year and used the LitePanels on camera, it worked out great. Reasonable size and weight, long battery life, little heat.

Tungsten, as Don says, it still pretty popular but they suck down the power much quicker than LEDs. Also, most the shows you are mentioning don't use on-camera lights that often. Dirty Jobs does for tight interiors where there is no room to light it with traditional lights. Bourdain rarely uses on-camera lights from what I have seen and read. Ace of Cakes is lit much more like a studio show since most the action takes place in the main workplace. They might use an on-camera light or two when they deliver the cakes to functions?

Typically, as a sole lighting source, on-camera lights look terrible and most DPs don't use them except as an Obie/eye light or when they just can't physically fit real lighting into a location. I know that Bourdain uses an entire traditional small lighting package including Flos and some homemade sources that run off of DC since they are traveling and moving.

Dan

On Dirty Jobs, it seems like one of the cameraman uses something like the Litepanel miniplus, at least some sort of a rectangular LED light.

I frequently shoot doco style tele programs. For on-camera fill, the most common light is the litepanel.