z96 led and mkiii test
 

I didn't know if this belonged in the 5d forum or lighting, but I put it here because I think its more interesting from a lighting perspective.

I occasionally host a "video geek hootenanny" where a group of film/video geeks get together to play with gear. In the most recent one we were toying with the new 5dmkiii and a set of z96 led panels.

i LOVE the z96s. I use them on every shoot in some way, tucked in a nook, as a quicky rim or most commonly as a super fast adjustable fill. I've loaded them with AA and taped them to the wall, camera mounted them and used them with the tungsten filter as a lovely warm fill on a red epic commercial shot entirely at 240fps (where small tungstens were giving us flicker). I wouldn't reach for them as key lights, but it dawned on me that many times i've had my other fixtures barned and flagged to the point where they weren't much more than the z96. I've forgotten to recharge the batteries for 2 shoots in a row (doh) and they powered a third shoot without any dramas. I'm estimating about 8-10 hours off of a charge.

I think multiple sponsors sell the z96 so i won't link where I got them. In my case it was a light, a knockoff sony 970 battery AND a charger on sale for us$79 (now $99).

As cameras gain sensitivity, the power needed from lighting instruments drops... to a point. There are practical reasons to keep light levels a little bit up (so the actors don't trip over furniture in the dark, for example ha!).

In this test we were pretty sloppy with light levels and keeping looks across settings. Although, in the case of the highest setting on the mark 3 (way too grainy for use anyways) the lowest dimming setting on the z96 is what we used with the light against the wall. The next brighter dim setting on the led blew out the image. ha!

Here is the test video. The compression is pretty tragic. I'm not sure what he used. Take from it what you will! Cheers! The lighter and iphone tests were "illuminating". wakka wakka.

Low Light High ISO Test | Canon 5DmkIII - YouTube


Here are some pics for reference:
lights on:
http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/attachme...1&d=1335476665

z96 setup as seen in video (the mark iii makes lisa look a bit like a hairy man)
http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/attachme...1&d=1335476665

front and back of the z96 with the cartoony large 970 battery
http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/attachme...1&d=1335476665
http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/attachme...1&d=1335476665

z96 in a cheap case. whole kit was around us$450 or so.

Hope that helped or something! Anybody around Christchurch, New Zealand next month, stop by!

Cheers!
-Andrew