What would you want to see in a lighting fixture? You had a magic wand that you could wave and... poof!... your dream light is before you. What would that be?

The new Litepanels Fresnels. The big one that is the equivalent of a 2k tungsten and it would cost $299.00.

Dan

And it's got to run on 2 "D" cells for 12 hours. ; )

Throw in a remote switch.

I have to say that I am REALLY, REALLY happy with my two Coollights LED 600s and my LED 256. These three lights have basically taken over as my interview kit and my travel kit. Inexpensive, daylight balanced, cool, almost no power draw, very portable. My tungsten lights and fluoros have been lonely this year, they are getting left behind in the equipment locker most of the time now.

New lights are always fun but I have to say that overall, I am pretty happy with what I have. I am not finding that I am pining for anything new that I don't already have these days.

Dan

My fishy wish would be for a 18"x18" LED softlight that quickly folds up to a 9"x9" size for storage/transport. And with output close to that of a Litepanel 1'x1'. And dimmable, of course. Might as well also ask for switchable between 3200 and 56K.
I don't ask for much. 8-)

Ken

My fishy wish would be for a 18"x18" LED softlight that quickly folds up to a 9"x9" size for storage/transport. And with output close to that of a Litepanel 1'x1'. And dimmable, of course. Might as well also ask for switchable between 3200 and 56K.
I don't ask for much. 8-)

Ken
Actually... you're not.

Making it fold into a 9" x 9" square is perhaps a bit of a reach but a 9" x 18" rectangle is perfectly feasible. As far as having the output of a 1' x 1' Litepanel... well... Litepanel isn't exactly using the latest and greatest LEDs available.

I recently tested out a 1200 LED Bi-color fixture that was surprisingly small and light, about the size and weight of Kino Diva 200. Stuff like this is coming to the market soon.

Dan

Does 1200 mean it had 1200 thru hole LEDs?

Hi Chris:

Yes, it had 1200 5mm LEDs. Half were tungsten balanced and half were cool white, probably 6,600K. So when you turned on all of them, the blend resulted in pretty close to 5600k.

Same company is working on a 2400 LED package that I am looking forward to. The 2400 will be useful as a key source when used in a medium or large Chimera.

Dan

Hey Dan,
I was wondering what you use to diffuse your led lights or favorite gels you have for them?

Thanks

mb

Hi Mark:

For my Coollights LED 600, I fabricated a square speed ring out of steel and I use my small Quartz Chimera with a 40 degree eggcrate.

For the 1200, I tested a prototype and I rigged it into my medium (36" x 48") Quartz Pro Chimera. For the medium, I already have a huge, square aluminum speed ring for my Mighty Mole 2k so I just rigged the 1200 into the medium Chimera. Once you move from a small Chimera to a medium, the medium is really too heavy to actually rig directly to a light unless the light is large, pro and heavy duty like my Mighty. And even with that, it still sags down.

For my Coollights LED 256, I rigged up a small, cheap Photoflex still softbox, it is about 12" x 12". It works really well. I believe that Coollights might be developing a slip on softbox for the LED 256 that might be similar to the slip on softbox that they currently sell for the LED 600. I also use a 42" Flexfill as a fill source. I bounce the LED 600 flood into the Flexfill and it works well as an underneath soft fill source for interviews. I don't use LEDs directly on talent, I don't like the way the multiple 5mm LEDs resolve on people.

Dan

Can you post pics of your LED 600 and 256 rigs?

I'd love to see what the lighting looks like.

Hiya:

As far as the rigs themselves, here are some images of the LED 600 speed ring that we fabricated
Want to see my Cool Lights LED 600 Speedring? - DVXuser.com -- The online community for filmmaking (http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=162917&highlight=speedring)

Here are some stills of the LED 256 speed ring and softbox that I put together
I mounted a softbox on my CoolLights LED256 - DVXuser.com -- The online community for filmmaking (http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=192316)

As far as screen grabs from the shows, I will have to obtain permission to post, the latest and best looking one was for a PBS show a few weeks ago that I shot that is still in post. Not sure if the producer or PBS will want me to post any stills from it since it is unreleased. Same with the green screen stuff I shot for Fox a month ago, still in post and I don't think I can post any stills without violating an NDA. I'll see what else I can dig up for my own productions that I can post.

Dan

Nice rigs Dan. Thanks for posting these

mb

I'm doing an interview on Thursday for a documentary I am producing about a musician, I will be lighting with all LEDs other than perhaps a fresnel for the BG. I can definitely post these as it is my company's project. Stand by for stills on Friday.

Dan

Cool !