Can you guys recommend lights that are battery operated?
I need on or two for outdoors to fill in the shadows.
Thanks
Kathy

There are numerous options depending on your budget. I'm far from a lighting expert but I use 3 Yongnuo YN-600 LED lights. They are around $130 US or so on Ebay each.

They take the Sony NP-F style batteries, I get around 1.5 hours runtime from the NP-F970.

They are cheap lights but they do the job for me.

what do you mean by You Guys?

oh yea that's right it's a meatfest in forums.

i see you're in NYC. B&H is always a good idea to check out. for small stuff i've used z96, cn160, and, the newer h160. i just worked with a fellow who had a bunch of the really cheap 500led lights, and even they get the job done. the main things to keep in mind are color temp and color shift. the z96s are definitely higher in kelvin than my other leds, and most LED have some green shift which you can correct with a bit of magenta gelling.

It is difficult for a light to compete with the sun. I have had the most success with a reflector outdoors. I like this one:
Amazon.com : Lastolite LL LR3636 30-Inch TriGrip Reflector (Sunfire/Silver) : Photographic Lighting Reflectors : Camera & Photo (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007KHVPU)

Regardless, you'll need as much light as you can afford. HMI type are typical for outdoor applications. There are some focusable LEDs that *may* let you concentrate their light enough to give you some fill as long as your framing allows them to be within 6' from the subject.

As mentioned, color temperature and green shift issues abound in LEDs. Some lights let you dial in color temp. Take a look at the Zylight F8 for a high powered example. I used a Zylight Z90 for fill (off camera left) in the attached interview setup in a very bright Africa (south east region) in the afternoon. Barely noticable effect. Not constraining your choice for travel will help you get more light per pound. YMMV.

Unless you've got a rather large budget or can rent an HMI, take Les' advice. Start with a bounce card or disc (silver will give you more punch and can be placed further from the talent...but it's harsher on the eyes.

The Zylight F8 fully spotted has some good punch, is battery powerable and focusable, but at a price $2500.

what do you mean by You Guys?

oh yea that's right it's a meatfest in forums.

.

Literally laughed out loud. It's a shame more females don't come forward and contribute.

In regards to lighting ... i've used Amaran 512's which are very poor in comparison to the Yongnuo YN-600's. These Yongnuo's in my opinion are very good portable lights. I use two of them myself.

Hey Kathy,
As has been pointed out before the sun is a very bright source so it can take a lot of power to fill in. Sungun name is kind of a misnomer as the sun is much stronger than any on camera or battery powered light. If you are in direct sunlight there are some smaller HMI's which can be battery powered for shot times but bigger is better. Also they are pretty expensive. LED lights can battery powered and the bigger ones can make a a small difference against the sun. Reflectors help and can be inexpensive and relatively small silks are also very useful but rigging is very important as they can become sails in the wind. Flexfills, showcard and bead board are my run and gun reflector staples. Usually need someone to operate it separately. Something like this is useful for a lot of different situations inside and out. Interfit Collapsible 5-in-1 Reflector Kit with Bracket INT270

I have a Chinese made 6 Power LED light that I got on Ebay for about $40.00 that I could never use indoors as the light was way too harsh but outdoors as a fill up to about 8 or 9 feet...it worked better than even my old Anton Bauer Ultralite with an 85W bulb. Plus it runs off the Sony batteries. Great light? No...Worked as a decent fill when needed and close enough? Yes and for $40.00 I couldn't go wrong.

Keep in mind that outdoors subject placement to the sun is very key and if placed in the wrong position it doesn't matter what you use it won't be right. Like I said no more than about 8 feet away. Over that and you need some big lights.

I'm a big fan of the Fotodiox 508A. A lot of people are using the smaller bi-color 312 LED. This is the same as that, only bigger and with only daylight LEDs.

Amazon.com : Fotodiox Pro LED 508A, Photo, Video Studio LED Light Kit, with Dimmable Switch and Removable Diffusion Panel, 2x Sony Compatible 750 batteries : Photographic Lighting Soft Boxes : Camera & Photo (http://www.amazon.com/Fotodiox-Removable-Diffusion-Compatible-batteries/dp/B0054EI7GQ)

I have a couple of the same lights as Don and they have run well for years. They are as cheap as chips and often include a generic Sony battery. I haven't needed to use them outdoors as yet (no time to start setting up lights at weddings as everything happens so fast!) Indoors I find they work well but I only tend to use a light for a bit of fill at weddings during the dancing when they turn out virtually all the lights!)

The lights do have dimmers too but overall I find that all LED lights are very harsh and cold!! During speeches at weddings I tried an LED setup and it looked terrible!! I went back to using 4 x CFL's bounced into a brolly and only use the LED's if I really have to ...My fast lenses usually handle indoor lighting on their own.

Just a point about fill in daylight? Do you really need a fill light? I would rather re-direct daylight onto the subject using a reflector. All you need is a simple lighting stand and a reflector rigged up on a little ball head so you can angle it exactly where you want the light.... it's hands free if you are working solo and provides great fill without needing someone to hold a reflector.

Chris

Can you name these $40 lights? Thanks.

Search Ebay for Power LED 5080 I don't know the name of the light and it took about 3 weeks to get to me AND the shoe broke pretty quick but I think I definitely overtightened it BUT the light did throw a lot of power. Again I tried it once at an indoor even and that only last until th efirst break I could remove it and use a different light BYT to light a small space as a bounce OR close outdoors work as a fill (8 feet or closer) it works fine. At least IMO it does.

They make a whole batch of them Reg.

Probably the pick of the bunch is the 5010A which is a 6 x PowerLED light not 8 and works very well indeed. I have a 6 and an 8 and the 6 is a wee bit neater. Note that these guys also make a 5010 which is round and the 5010A is rectangular and better.

Here is one on our eBay LED 5010A DV Camcorder Video Light Lamp FOR Video With Battery 4400 MAH Charger | eBay (http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/LED-5010A-DV-Camcorder-Video-Light-Lamp-For-Video-with-Battery-4400-mAh-Charger-/280868584467?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_15&hash=item4165127c13)

I find it's better to search on eBay for "Video Light 5010A"

Chris

What cameramen/camerawomen sometimes fail to understand is that when using any kind of fill light for outdoor use is that when you want to fill in some light, or rather introduce extra light, you are also adding that extra light onto the existing brighter areas and the highlights will get that much worse in brightness. Adding light to the shadows will also add that light to the highlights so that the contrast ratio is the same. What is needed is a selective spot light that adds just to the shadow area to fill in. I have made many portable led lights for myself just for that exact problem. I used 10 degree narrow beam tie optics with 12 lighting class leds in a battery powered enclosure delivering the equivalent of a 2000watt filament. It is so bright at times that at 25 feet distance I had to dim it down a bit. That was in direct overhead sunlight without clouds. This unit measures only about 6 X 4 X 3 inches deep and accepts AB type 14.4 volt DC batteries. It consumes only 100 watts from the battery making it last over 1 hour at full pop with a 120w/h batt.
The sun is extremely bright and using reflectors can be the ideal way but you must fill in only the shadow area or else the highlights will be blown out. A small reflector which reflects a narrower beam would do fine in many cases.
Even panel type leds with them 512 teenie weenie leds do diddly squat in the sunlight at distances over 8 feet from the subject.

Thanks for the tip Don and Chris. I just bought the 5010A from an ebay seller based in California. I'm anxious to see how bright it is outdoors. I recently purchased an RS-5610 100w (also known as Alzo 3000) light that crowds 100 leds onto a single chip. It throws the equivalent of a 1K tungsten which can be shaped with barn doors, snoots, etc. It had a noisy fan but I found a replacement that is inaudible. I love its portability but I would have to drag a big jump start battery and inverter to use it in remote areas without ac power. I am very interested in seeing Arthur's light.

Hi Reg

I honestly have only used my light indoors at wedding receptions. I use pretty fast lenses on my Sony's so normal indoor lighting is plenty light for me. It's only when the bride (maybe she is shy?) wants the lights almost dimmed to nothing for their first dance so I need a fill just for the couple ..In my case it's always on the camera as they move around! However in your case they could easily go on a light stand and be positioned to give a little shadow fill. Just for interest I see more and more photographer now using small video lights for stills as they are convenient as a nice fill usually held by an assistant. Outdoors though if they want fill they tend to use a remote flash if they are working solo or a reflector if they have an assistant but outdoors I don't see a lot of photogs using fill of any sort never mind videographers.

You must let us know how it works?

Chris

Since my days doing news I have always had a light on my camera. Depending on the camera I was using at the time I could simply pull it up right, turn it on and get a little fill, IF the light was strong enough to do that.
The 8 Power LED light is certainly strong enough to throw a little sparkle in the eyes IF I was close enough (usually within 8 feet) and honestly in all the years I used some sort of light outdoors as a fill, I never saw any kind of spill on the highlights. In sunny places I only used it if the sun was behind the subject and I was close to them OR on an overcast/dark day to open up shadows or put a little life into an other wise drab look.
BTW, this was something I learned to do back in the early 70's shooting stills for news papers as well as fashion shoots except for those I used a 200watt second strobe unit off the camera on a 42 inch white umbrella. Worked great and when I started shooting video I figured if it worked for stills why not video.
I still believe in it when applicable and the conditions are right. but that's just me and hell, I'm retired now so whadda I know? ;-)

There are many lights that claim the 1000watt equivalent to the tungsten filament bulb but the real value of measurement or the photometrics of brightness is measured in lumens. Lumens is the TOTAL radiated "light" or in a simplified terminology, photons from the source (led). A 100 watt common kitchen filament bulb consumes 100 watts from the electric company and thus rated as such, but in actuality is around a 1700 lumen source. A 1000 filament tungsten is 10X that amount and therefore 17,000 lumens. LED technology as of present, even with the best led dies (emitters) produce about 120 lumens per watt of power input TO THE LED, so if you have a 100 watt going into the led, you will get 12,000 lumens out or roughly the equivalent of a 700 watt filament bulb. But wait, that 120 lumens per watt emitter is for single large die emitters and not the cluster ones with the 100 small individual grid array ones or otherwise known as 1" chips. Them chips are in the 60 to 80 lumens per watt at best when driven at their maximum brightness. Leds lose efficiency gradually as they approach their maximum brightness, so that the chip led may just deliver perhaps 70 lumens per watt for the 100 watt total input to be equivalent to 7000 lumens or a 400 watt filament. You can easily see that the 1000 watt bulb claim goes to 400 watts when all else is considered.
The only way that it cam be equal to a 1000 watt bulb is if the beam angle is reduced to "concentrate " all them lumens into a tighter spot like a 20 degree. Now you have an intense spot that projects farther and may be suitable for outdoor fill. When you have the specs of the light's lumens along with distance and beam angle, you can easily calculate the LUX value of the unit. There is a simple lux to lumen calculator here : LedRise - Lumen / Lux Calculator (http://www.ledrise.com/shop_content.php?coID=19)
You can see that if the beam angle is narrowed, even a small led flashlight is brighter than a 1000w bulb when measured as a spot point source either by incident or reflected AT THE SAME DISTANCE.
A unit that claims 1000 watt filament does indeed have to either post it's lumen value OR it's LUX value with distance and angle, or else it can just be a small flashlight.
Another thing is that if a led light unit claims a 100 watt power consumption, perhaps only 70% or 70 watts actually go into the led itself due to conversion electronics, led driver circuitry, wiring loss etc.
A true measure of brightness is really the photometric specs with distance, beam angle and lux given on the graph. Wonder why so few give that ??

OK, for those curious to see what I use for bright cloudless days as a spot fill. The diffuser will widen the beam to 40 degrees with 1.5 stops less light.
The leds are lighting class 2000 lumens each. 6 leds are 3200K and 6 are 5500K. The switch allows 3 color choices, 3200-4000 and 5500K. Dimmer id non PWM type without banding or flicker issues at high shutter speeds. Small bettery plate is for the Sony BPU series 14.4 volts. The fan is Papst ultra silent, the casing is T6061 aluminum, the unit weighs 2 lbs without battery, all wiring hard soldered teflon, dimmer pot is mil spec Allen Bradley 500K turns.
Sorry, not for sale. Just showing what can be possible with high grade leds and components.

Arthur, The light looks very useful. Are you sure you don't want manufacture them!
As far as your idea that fill light won't change the ratio of light on the subject because the rest of the picture will also be brightened I would say that is not the best explanation I have heard. Angle of light for fill can be different than the key of the sunshine and should be softer as well if possible so it doesn't necessarily hit the background highlights the same way as say the sun. Yes it can look artificial if overdone or hitting some object which isn't flattering. Usually outside my background is much larger than the area I can fill with reflectors or small lights that it is more of a matter power than a lack of one. I like my fill light to be a softer source than my key indoors and or outdoors. Now if I want something to be brightened up in the background of the picture I might use a very sharp source if I need to control the spill. I don't call that a fill light though.

Fill light in photo/video applications is ,mostly used for lightening the shadow areas of the subject that otherwise would have little detail visible or to lower the contrast ratio between the light and dark areas. A photographer has used a flash outdoors for that reason and for many years wedding photographers have done the same. A typical scene here is a famous park that overlooks the NY skyline and the wedding couple is placed under a shady tree, so by properly exposing the couple would result in the background cityscape being totally blown out/ washed out as they say. A powerful fill flash by the photographer is used to expose the couple while retaining the proper background exposure setting say F11 at 1/250th. The Flash would be based on F11 and output for such. In this case the flash can be said to be the main light for the subject but is also the fill light for the image, otherwise you would have a silhouette effect. Sure, a reflector can be used but the sun's position may not allow the needed reflectance angle to always fall on the subject. Too much fill and the effect looks artificial just like night photography. Fill light when used selectively and with surrounding/background brightness awareness can be a powerful tool. I have also made a few hand held led lights that are exclusively used by photographers to compliment available light and the results are nothing short of amazing. With today's high sensitivity sensors, available light can become the norm in high fashion dramatic shots that otherwise would have been difficult only a few years ago. A fill or accent light. especially with dimming capability can really make the difference between a good shot or a great one.Here is one such unit that was designed and made for a famous photographer to be used as fill in his weddings. It has a dual beam angle select as well as 3 color temperatures. The beam angles are narrow 25 degrees and wide 75 degrees, but when both are on it has a gradual vignette that illuminates the surrounding areas in case they are dark. Also is the perfect video light since it can take Sony L series batteries. Again not for sale.

Don,
I was looking for something to use for brightening talent faces for news or outdoor sporting interviews, etc. Eight feet or so might be just right.

OK, for those curious to see what I use for bright cloudless days as a spot fill. The diffuser will widen the beam to 40 degrees with 1.5 stops less light.
The leds are lighting class 2000 lumens each. 6 leds are 3200K and 6 are 5500K. The switch allows 3 color choices, 3200-4000 and 5500K. Dimmer id non PWM type without banding or flicker issues at high shutter speeds. Small bettery plate is for the Sony BPU series 14.4 volts. The fan is Papst ultra silent, the casing is T6061 aluminum, the unit weighs 2 lbs without battery, all wiring hard soldered teflon, dimmer pot is mil spec Allen Bradley 500K turns.
Sorry, not for sale. Just showing what can be possible with high grade leds and components.

Wow! Mil-spec Allen-Bradley turns! Mbtf is probably >20 years daily use.

I'm a big fan of the Fotodiox 508A. A lot of people are using the smaller bi-color 312 LED. This is the same as that, only bigger and with only daylight LEDs.

I have one of those 312as's and found at least the 3200k leds to be waayyyy green, needing 1/4-1/2 minus green iirc. I greatly prefer the yongnuo yn300ii or yn600 leds which you can just leave 1/8 minus green on the 5500k or bicolor and look great not to mention are remote controlled and less expensive and brighter.

You can do non bicolor daylight only versions but you'll need to use extra minus green if you ever use cto on it...

I recently made this beast for a friend who wanted small as possible with the highest brightness and battery operated. It measures only 12 inches across X 6 inches and 3 inches deep.
3 color temp switch, 580,000 lux @ 3 feet, consumes 200 watts from batteries, 50 minute run time at full blast, 90+ CRI @ 3000K, 85+CRI @5000K, 20,000 lumens or 1.2K filament equiv. 12 degree spot with interchangeable TIR optics for different beam angles, Macrolon Lumen XT diffusion capable, ultra silent Papst Fan.

I recently made this beast for a friend who wanted small as possible with the highest brightness and battery operated. It measures only 12 inches across X 6 inches and 3 inches deep.
3 color temp switch, 580,000 lux @ 3 feet, consumes 200 watts from batteries, 50 minute run time at full blast, 90+ CRI @ 3000K, 85+CRI @5000K, 20,000 lumens or 1.2K filament equiv. 12 degree spot with interchangeable TIR optics for different beam angles, Macrolon Lumen XT diffusion capable, ultra silent Papst Fan.

Stop teasing! Don't share unless you'll sell us one :P

How about these prototypes ? The ones with the rectangular silvered reflector project a 16:9 rectangular beam pattern of 75 degrees with extremely low light falloff from center to edges.
Ok, no more teasing, promise.