Litepanels Micro - Lighting Test Results
 

I've used my brand new Litepanels Micro at several weddings now, and each time I've felt like the light output was aenemic. So, I decided to do a straight up test between my brand new Litepanels Micro LED light and my 2-year-old Bescor tungsten light.

Below (attached to the post) are images from the tests. I with the Litepanels Micro on full intensity in a pitch black room 5 feet from the subject. I then tested my Bescor with a 20 watt bulb from the same distance. Then I moved the camera back to 10 feet from the subject and repeated the test. The shutterspeed, iris, gain and focus were all locked down on the camera to ensure that the results were perfectly unbiased. Both lights had diffusion filters in place, and the Litepanels Micro was using new (nonrechargeable) batteries.

As you can see, the Litepanels Micro was virtually unusable from 5 feet, while the 20 watt Bescor light provided a usable image. At 10 feet the LitePanels Micro was completely unusable, while the 20 watt Bescor unit still gave a usable image.

As you can imagine, I am VERY disappointed in the performance of my Litepanels Micro. The worst part is that I paid just under $100 for my Bescor light and just over $300 for my Litepanels Micro. For an extra $200 I should be getting a far superior light, but in fact I've received a far inferior light.

My $80 Bescor unit has 2 bulbs (currently 20watts each), and using just one of the bulbs the Bescor put out much more light than the Micro - plus I have the option to turn on the other bulb and go with a 40watt light if I want. My Bescor also has solid construction, whereas the Micro's construction is borderline laughable (the filter unit has a poor design, my battery compartment has a poor design, and the whole unit just feels cheap and breakable). The Micro touts dimmability, but with the low output I never see any need to dim the light. I always need it on full power just to get a little light. For what it's worth, as I turn the dimmer the light doesn't dim at first, then goes from full power to almost nothing very quickly, then hangs at virtually no light until the switch hits the 'off' position. The dimmable range is very, very small.

My opinion is that for $300 my Litepanels Micro has been a complete waste of money.

Something else to add. I just noticed that the Micro also puts out a circular spread of light. This is strange since the LED's are arranged as a square. What's also interesting is that the Bescor unit, despite only using a single bulb, is not producing a circular spread of light. The spread of light seems very even in the images.

Holy Cow, Travis, that's a pretty ugly test! Any chance you can just return your Micro? You could claim it doesn't work as advertised, considering your description of the dimming 'capability.'

On the plus side, perhaps, is the Micros less annoying to guests at the reception? Perhaps it's the perfect light for capturing dance footage close up, or whatever...

I did send an email to Litepanels with my concerns about the light. I hope to hear back from them this week. I further tested the "dimmer" and it basically produces no light until the 50% mark, then it ramps from "barely lit" to "fully bright" from 50-70%. The final 30% of the dim range is full brightness. Very odd.



After running this test I thought of that too. So I turned both lights on and looked at them. Neither of them made me feel the need to squint, and had I not done the previous test I don't know that I would feel that one was brighter than the other. And honestly, if the light isn't lighting anything up, then it doesn't really matter if it's less annoying to the guests, ya know? d;-)

At this week's wedding the lights were basically off for the dancing, so I had no choice but to use the Litepanels Micro. I was severely disappointed in it because it was generating basically useless footage; just picture a dance floor that looked like the image from 5 feet but with a ton of grain (had to go with +18db to even get an image).

Oh, I also noticed (after further inspection of the light) that some of the LED's have a "greenish" hue to them, while others have a "magenta-ish" hue, and still others have a "white-ish" hue. I've noticed that the "whiter" lights are also brighter. This doesn't seem normal. Shouldn't all of the LED's have the same color hue and brightness?

Good Lord, I'd be dissapointed, too, if I spent that kind of money on a bad light. Hope you are able to get some satisfaction from them. Stick to your guns and get your money back!

Best of luck,
Vito

That might have something to do with dimming while retaining the same colour temperature.

Ahh, maybe. I hadn't thought of that. But yeah, at the moment I'm pretty disappointed in the light. I mean, for $300 it should be built better AND outperform my $80 light, but it actually doesn't do either. That's pathetic.

Oh, and I can't just return it because I've missed the 15-day return period with B&H. It took me a few weddings to realize I wasn't imagining the low output.

True, but you could return it and ask them to, pretty please, fix the dimmer that doesn't work. I assume it has a warranty longer than 15 days. If they can't fix it, get your money back.

No, it does have a warranty through Litepanels, and at this point I'm hoping the unit is just defective in a number of ways because then maybe I'll get a replacement that actually works. If they say it's not defective, then they can be sure I'll be letting everyone know not to buy one of these.

Even if it's not defective, the light is not constructed in such a way as to be worth $300. Considering my other light was less than a 1/3 of that cost, and was built significantly better, the $300 Litepanels pricepoint is a joke.

Hope it all works out for you. While you're at it, though, shoot some bad stuff using the LP and post it, so I can tell you it lacks contrast :-)

Hey Travis. I am shocked by your results! I bought one after reading all of the threads on the Wedding forum and I LOVE IT! I used it this past Friday at a wedding where they literally turned all of the lights off and only had candle light during the dancing and I thought the results were quite amazing. I totally forgot to change the batteries from the last wedding too, so we went for well over 4 hours on this set and its still burning bright. I will try to download the video so I can show you a pic in the near future. I am thinking that you just got a "dud"! I think if you get it replaced (atleast I hope) you'd be a little more pleased! Again... shocking!

not to defend the lite but I also have the bescor and an AB that I ran tests with before I ever put my LP into play. My results were far different than yours. I ran the Bescor and AB with softboxes and 35W bulbs and the LP with the diffusion filter and 1/4CTO and the LP was a far more pleasing look than either the Bescor or AB. Not to mention the exposure was right where it was supposed to be. Perhaps you got a bad unit? In any case as I said many times before the construction leaves something to be desired but IMO the quality of the light it throws makes up for it. Last thought. 2 weeks ago on the job my camera took a tumble and hit the floor litepanel micro first. Not only did the camera survive but so di the light. It might be 'cheap construction but it held up. Believe me I've broken far more expensive gear doing less on the job.
I thought you saw the freeze I post a while back from a reception I did with the LP? If not let me know and I see if I still have it on the computer if not I'll pull another one to post. Some real world stuff.
Don

Yeah, I'm hoping I just got a dud unit. I'll know more tomorrow. Don, I did see your screenshots earlier, which is one of the reasons I bought the unit in the first place. So you feel your LP matches your 35w Bescor in output? If that's the case, then this one MUST be a dud. My light light is probably worth about 3-5w.

Guess we'll see what happens when I hear back from Litepanels.

Funny man! Actually, it would be more funny if I hadn't needed this light to perform at this last wedding. Forget lack of contrast. I had lack of image.

well I can't remember the specifics but IIRC the 35W AB and Bescor ran about 1 or maybe 2 stops hotter than the LP. Again going off of memory from 5 months ago so maybe it was 3 stops or maybe it was a half stop. I really can't remember. I KNOW it wasn't anything like you got. I've now used the LP on about 25 or so weddings and frankly I couldn't be happier (well I could be but that's another story) The lite you got has to be a dud cause man, that just ain't right. The one thing I will say is the LP doesn't have the strength at say 10 feet as the Bescor or AB lite but frankly I really don't worry about that. If it's a bit weak I kick up the gain a notch or just walk in a bit closer. Everything else about the lite makes up for it's weaknesses in my mind.
I hope Litepanel comes thru for you.
Don

Glad to hear that Don.
I was beginning to think the LP was garbage...

It's just a misunderstading then, nice.

Litepanels has responded and has asked me to ship the light back to them. I plan on repeating my test as soon as the replacement light arrives. I'll update this post.

I don't own the Litepanels but I did get a chance to play with one, but not on a camera. My recollection is that it was bright enough to make me wince when I shined it in my eyes full-up, and it cast an even, broad pattern. How bright was it? That's where I don't know, the room was well lit with daylight.

But it seemed like it could be used up close without overexposing the subject, and probably isn't as strong as an incandescent type beyond 5-8 feet.

I'd like to see that G90 Zylight in person.

This may be a horses for courses situation.

Here's a short clip of raw footage I shot for a documentary on my local volunteer fire company.

http://www.vimeo.com/1220448

It's lit only with a Light Panels micro on top of my XH-A1 and ambient lighting. The Lite Panel is doing enough to bring out some detail that would otherwise be lost in shadow. Of course it works for the subject matter and the style of what I am doing . . . and perhaps is not suited to the average wedding.

Hey Travis - I used the light this weekend with a GL2 at 1/30 (12 gain) and it seemed to be okay. The entire reception was pretty dark. I was pleased with the results - still not the greatest - but I still left with usable footage.

We had a total of 350 guests and the bride and groom greeted them came as they in through the door. I had the unit on for a full hour at 100%. I wanted to see if the light bothered them, but I didn't see any squinting or covering of eyes. That's one of the big reasons why I like this light.

Looking forward to the new LP test. Hopefully it's more successful.

Peter, it definitely looks like you're getting more out of your LP than I am. With any kind of usable ambient light I generally can't even tell if my LP is on or not, but I could actually see the light from yours.

Nick, I'm looking forward to the new light as well. I just got back from shipping out the other one.

Travis, I think I am in the same boat as you with the LP-Micro. Wasn't that you that wanted to buy it from me? Good thing you didn't :p

Like you, I'm getting poor results even at a reasonable distance of 5-10 feet. You have to be like, 2 feet or closer to the subject for it to work well. And I think it's COMPLETELY useless for weddings.

So maybe mine's a dud too?

When you hear back, please post your results (and updated pics if you can) and well, from there we'll see how it goes :D But for now my Canon VL-10's are doing me wonderfully, and they use the same batteries as my GL2/XHA1 so I'm happy with that.

Yeah, that was probably me. This is why I was concerned about not having a warranty and didn't want to spend much on a used unit, lol. I should be getting my replacement soon. They received my other unit last week. I'll try and run another test and post pics.

I agree that my LP Micro was turning out to be completely useless at weddings. Hopefully the replacement will shine like the sun, heh.

I got my replacement Micro today. Didn't have time to run a straight up test, but I had time to throw the batteries in and check it out. This one is definitely brighter than the other one I had. Much brighter. I think a test will show it much more comparable to my 20w Bescor.

I tested one n it was pretty bright. I went for the Sony in the end as it was more ruggard and brighter. I do love the weight of the litepanels Micro but we r always in a hurry during weddings n I'm really afriad to break it. Last of all, it makes the whole cam look a little "cheap". In my country, folks get really "pleased" when u show up with nice looking gear unfortunately.

So, Travis, any real-world results with the new replacement light?

I'm really interested in buying one of these, but I'm worried. Don really helped set me at ease, but I hear bad things from so many others.

I have a wedding today, so we'll see. Unfortunately (or fortunately) the much of the reception is going to be outside, so I might not have much use for the light.

On another note, I was contacted by someone at Litepanels and I can say nothing but great things about their customer service so far.

I wanted to update this thread with my experience with the light at this past weekend's wedding. The light worked great. It definitely has much higher output than my original Micro, which must have just been defective. I'd recommend this light now, although I still feel $300 is a bit high given the plastic construction. If nothing else, LP customer service makes up for the light construction.

So Travis, how would you compare the performance of your newly replaced Litepanel Micro vs. the Bescor?

Without a straight-up test it's hard to say, but I haven't had time for that. I would guess that the Bescor is maybe still a bit brighter on the 20w setting, although it's probably very close. On the 40w setting I'd bet the Bescor is brighter. But, that said, my Bescor will only run for maybe 30 minutes max on 40w, and maybe an hour on 20w. My Micro will go for a LONG time on full power.

what a disappointment
wasted my time reading thru this whole thread...and no followup test

so travis, are you happy with the litepanels micro?

Sorry you wasted your time. With late fall weddings and a nice backlog (and a 2-week vacation and Christmas), I haven't had time to run a real-world test again. Not to mention in the past month I've had to send cameras in to Canon for repairs 3 times (and about to go a 4th this week). Maybe once I've caught up on my backlog I'll run a test. No promises, though. d;-)

As far as my happiness with the LitePanels Micro. I think it does a good job for what it's designed for. It's designed to throw light a short distance (5-10 feet). The new unit I received performed MUCH better than the original I bought (it was defective).

Since I'm one of the first to use the LPMicro AND have posted a screen shot of it in use AND have been very very happy with it, I thought I step in here.

NO it will not light up a room. NO it will not throw more than 8 to 10 feet and be effective, YES it is plastic and can break (although mine hit the floor twice while on the camera...[dumb dumb dumb] but it never broke and neither did the camera thank goodness.
Like any piece of gear there are upsides and downsides to the light.
I keep my AB Ultralite handy with a Bescor battery to power it from for those time I need more than the LP Micro can give me.
In the last year that I've been using the Micro I have never had to go to the AB light. You gotta know what the light is capable of doing. In the 62 weddings I did last year it was enough to do the job I asked of it.
I use both the diffusion and 1/4 CTO on the light which does cut the throw a bit but luckily, the PD170 is the king of low light so every now and then I have to kick the gain to 6 or 9 but you wouldn't know it. Since I'm not the 'fly on the wall' kind of shooter, the light works very well for me and frankly I am extremely happy with it.
YMMV
Don

holy crap! wow...

Here's a video showing the Litepanels Micro vs the Mini vs the Mini Ringlite. YouTube - Litepanels - On Camera LED lighting for Red carpet Interviews

The camera used is a Sony FX1 and starts out with 9dB Gain

The wide shot is from an HPX500 0dB Gain

Hope this sheds some light on the topic.

<grin>

Nice test. Thanks for the link!

I have two Litepanels and both must be duds. In an hour and a half, both are out of battery power. How long are yours able to go? I can't use them anymore because they consistantly lose potency, and I can't afford that. I don't want to send them back because I don't think a replacement would help the situation, unless I just want to blow through batteries. Thoughts?

yes, for $49 you can get the new adapter plate and use your camcorder batteries. I shot a timelapse video of "AA battery" vs "Sony NP570" (the skinny one). Full bore, 100% open on the dimmer we got about 1.5 hours out of the Duracell ProCell AA batteries and almost 4 hours on the Sony. Litepanels Micro and DV adapter plate

The Duracells we buy in bulk at Zbattery.com by the case. 144 are in a case for $60.65.
So each battery is $.42 or $1.68 per 4. It seems like you could recoup your battery expense fairly quickly with the Litepanel DV adpater plate if you use the free battery that came included with your camcorder.

I'm not sure about the Canon batteries, but the timelapse showed that the Micro stayed the same brightness through the entire duration with the Sony "smart batteries". At exactly 4hours and 6 minutes into the test, the unit shut off completely. The AA's dimmed slowly over time, in fact when I came in the next morning, 16 hours later, they were still on - not useable, but still on. Up to 1.5 hours they were very bright, dimming slightly to about 80% from 1.5hr-2hrs. Hr 2-3 about 50% and 3+hrs at about 5%.

Yeah the aklaline batteries run about 1 1/2 hours. I use 2 sets of 2200MaH rechargeables and get about 4 to 5 hours per set. I tried the alkalines in a test when I first got the light and decided to go with the rechargeables. I bought the 2 sets with a charger at Costco for about $28.00 and they've worked fine for a year now. I'll probably get another kit since even rechargables die sooner or later.

Don