New Coollights LED600 Arrived Today

Ned Soltz · February 24th, 2009, 02:51 PM

Thanks, Richard

Then all who are making such a cable should not this.

Hence, ground and control from Tekkeon need to go to Pin 1. Positive to Pin 4.

Nicholas de Kock · February 25th, 2009, 01:56 PM

Could someone that received their LED600 Flood lights do a side by side test with a 500W work light and post a few photos please?

Dean Sensui · February 25th, 2009, 02:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nicholas de Kock

Could someone that received their LED600 Flood lights do a side by side test with a 500W work light and post a few photos please?

You mean a 500-watt fluorescent worklight or tungsten?

Because the spectral qualities of the LED light aren't anything like that of a tungsten light. And the application for a daylight-balanced source is different from a tungsten source.

I might be able to write up a comparison of the CoolLight and a fluorescent worklight. I don't have a wall big enough to provide a photo of the quality of coverage, however.

Nicholas de Kock · February 25th, 2009, 04:21 PM

Tungsten. I'm know they are very different lights however I'm currently using cheap tungsten 500W work-lights, I would just like to know if the LED600 would be worth the investment, the 5600k color temperature is also something I have been dreaming about. The comparison does not have to be very scientific, just light up a large room. I shoot mainly weddings so I need a light that will be able to handle a few meters in the chapel, lets face it my current cheapo light solution is no good so I guess anything would be better, the light quality of a 500W work lights is not wonderful either. I basically just want to see the light in action before I order, maybe your thoughts on a direct comparison between the two, I think a lot of tungsten work-light shooters has their eye on the LED600.

Dean Sensui · February 25th, 2009, 04:38 PM

Not to hijack a thread, but for your purposes a tungsten light would be better. That's the predominant light in most chapels, unless the ones you work in are daylight balanced, and you'd want something to match.

For that kind of lighting I'd recommend a couple of Lowel Tota lights. Various lamps can be used, depending on how much light you need. They're compact and can cover a very wide area.

Nicholas de Kock · February 25th, 2009, 05:15 PM

Many of the locations has more sunlight for this I require a balance light, sometimes we shoot outside. I basically need a decent fill light, my real question is will the LED600 light be up for such a challenge in terms of brightness? Being portable would also be a plus, I'm sure I could gel them in tungsten conditions. I know there is no such thing as an all purpose light however I would use them on a range of shoots from interviews to small corporates, music videos aswell.

Dean Sensui · February 25th, 2009, 05:19 PM

Here's a spectral analysis of the Cool Lights LED compared to daylight.

The yellow line on both graphs is daylight. Full sun.

One graph has a blue line. That's the Cool Lights LED without any filtration. Note that it doesn't have a green spike that's common to a lot of fluorescent lights from 540 to 560 nanometers. From 515 to 585 nm the characteristics are pretty close to daylight.

Note how the longer wavelengths beyond 600 nanometers start to drop off. That's the red part of the spectrum.

If it's noticable in the footage (I haven't shot with it yet so can't say if it matters), white balancing a camera might compensate for the reduction of red in the light source. It might also be accomplished by increasing the red saturation in post. Video tends to saturate red quickly, so this probably won't be much of a problem for most cameras.

The other graph has a magenta line. This what the Cool Lights LED looks like with a 1/2 minus green filter in place (Lee 248). The range from 515 to 585 nm is a lot closer to daylight with a better match in the middle of that range. It also helps extend the lower end of the spectrum, beyond 600 nm, just a tiny bit.

Overall, the "look" of the light is cool, a bit cooler than the FloLight LED. But in terms of spectral qualities, both lights are very similar.

The third graph, with the green line, is a Kino Flo with 5500k lamps. Just for comparison. Note that it, too, is deficient in the longer wavelengths, but not until 660 nm. Based on this I would say the Cool Lights LED with a 1/2 minus green gel would be a fairly good combination with daylight Kino Flos.

The Cool Lights LED is brighter than the FloLight LED but I haven't measured exactly how much brighter. I'll probably do that tonight.

Richard Andrewski · February 25th, 2009, 08:53 PM

All that's about what I'd expect. Good work Dean. Like we've been saying LEDs aren't full spectrum. Another way to put what Dean said, to make the LEDs mix more with other light sources and simulate full spectrum a bit more, they need a bit of minus green to do that. Pretty much all daylight 5mm LEDs will at this point.

Nathan Moody · February 26th, 2009, 08:33 AM

This discussion is insanely helpful; I just got my CoolLights LED600 yesterday and will be doing some still and video tests with it today. Everyone's contributions here, especially Dean and Richard, are really informing how I'll approach using this unit in production. (Not sure yet, but the columns and rows of LEDs so far tend to create multiple, banded shadows (like a quantized gradient) when close to walls when the barn doors are used, so might need to throw some diffusion on the source in such cases.)

Sorry, I have to also join in the shout-out to Richard on a well-designed product. :-) The build and case both exceeded expectations, and the ease of use and flexibility of output levels is pretty great. Superb value for the money, in my opinion.

(Of course, re-watched "Fight Club" last night and was reveling in two hours of super-effective "incorrect" lighting techniques...and love how all the basement scenes were lit with $5 clamp lights...)

Ned Soltz · February 26th, 2009, 02:58 PM

Posting this to "both lists" since there is often not overlap between the two.

Took lights today to my local supply dealer, Kennedys ENG in Euless (TX). We put the Coollight up against a LitePanels 1x1. It is not a totally accurate comparison since we first were just eyeballing the differences and secondly Kennedy's only had a 5600K spot.

Construction of the Coollights compares very favorably to the $1600 LitePanels. One thing we did notice when standing in front of the two lights is that the Coollight 5600K flood did have a slightly more greenish tinge than the LitePanels 5600K spot. We added a sheet of -1/2 green (as Richard had suggested in order to match the LED's with the fluos) and at least visually, the two appeared identical. So, I bought a couple of sheets of minus 1/2 green and will continue to test with and without the gels.

Since I've already concluded that 1/2CTO provides decent tungsten matching and I will possibly be using the magenta gels often, my first suggestion to Richard is to consider a filter holder of some sort.

But the few people who saw the product in the store really were impressed with the output.

I continue to be impressed....

Ned Soltz

Dean Sensui · February 27th, 2009, 02:03 AM

I cut my gels so that they fit nicely in the slot between the Cool Lights and the barn doors. The clips holding the barn doors in place also retain the gels. Quite convenient.

Nice to know that the Cool Lights compare favorably to the Lite Panels. Considering what a 1/2 minus green gel costs, Richard's latest offering seems to be the best bang for the buck.

Dana Kupper · February 27th, 2009, 07:10 AM

Just got my Cool lights LED600 yesterday, just in time for a small job, yay! Love to play with my new toys, er, I mean tools. I cannot say enough good things about it. Super flexible output levels, easy to set up, excellent build quality. I actually like that is a little greener than a normal light, I shoot under existing flouros alot, and I'm thinking maybe this will be a fairly good match to boost up a face. We'll see!

Ned Soltz · February 27th, 2009, 09:51 AM

I've got a shoot coming up in a fast-food establishment where the overhead fluos will need to be kept on. It is, of course, an absolute lighting nightmare and fortunately it is only a pro-bono piece I'm shooting for the young owner of the place to go to the web (I believe in helping young entrepreneurs with great ideas and little money). I do plan to use the LED600's and will see whether I need that minus green. Meanwhile, I appreciate Dean's method of mounting the gels.

And I would say that most definitely these lights compare very favorably with Litepanels for almost 1/4 the price.

Ned

Richard Andrewski · February 27th, 2009, 10:22 AM

Thanks for all your comments, its well appreciated. Glad to hear there actually is a need for the green spike and it comes in handy sometimes ;-)

The barndoors work pretty much the way the barndoors work on our studio models and you can usually slip things behind the barndoors. For instance, I've been wanting to try some of those plastic prismatic diffusion sheets to see the effect. That should fit right behind the barndoors if the sheet is thin enough.

Richard Gooderick · February 27th, 2009, 01:03 PM

Hi Richard
I've just collected my LED600 from UK customs. USPS got it here very quickly and it's been with customs for 5 days. Not so bad.
It looks good but I can't try it out because it doesn't have a UK plug or an adaptor. It looks like a US plug except it's got three pins and I haven't seen that before.
I found a travel adaptor but that doesn't work.
I was really looking forward to trying it out.
Please let me know what I should do.
I am rubbish with anything electrical so don't ask me to do anything too complicated.

February 25th, 2009, 04:38 PM	#65
Dean Sensui Inner Circle Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Honolulu, HI Posts: 2,054	Not to hijack a thread, but for your purposes a tungsten light would be better. That's the predominant light in most chapels, unless the ones you work in are daylight balanced, and you'd want something to match. For that kind of lighting I'd recommend a couple of Lowel Tota lights. Various lamps can be used, depending on how much light you need. They're compact and can cover a very wide area. __________________ Dean Sensui Exec Producer, Hawaii Goes Fishing

February 25th, 2009, 05:19 PM	#67
Dean Sensui Inner Circle Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Honolulu, HI Posts: 2,054	Here's a spectral analysis of the Cool Lights LED compared to daylight. The yellow line on both graphs is daylight. Full sun. One graph has a blue line. That's the Cool Lights LED without any filtration. Note that it doesn't have a green spike that's common to a lot of fluorescent lights from 540 to 560 nanometers. From 515 to 585 nm the characteristics are pretty close to daylight. Note how the longer wavelengths beyond 600 nanometers start to drop off. That's the red part of the spectrum. If it's noticable in the footage (I haven't shot with it yet so can't say if it matters), white balancing a camera might compensate for the reduction of red in the light source. It might also be accomplished by increasing the red saturation in post. Video tends to saturate red quickly, so this probably won't be much of a problem for most cameras. The other graph has a magenta line. This what the Cool Lights LED looks like with a 1/2 minus green filter in place (Lee 248). The range from 515 to 585 nm is a lot closer to daylight with a better match in the middle of that range. It also helps extend the lower end of the spectrum, beyond 600 nm, just a tiny bit. Overall, the "look" of the light is cool, a bit cooler than the FloLight LED. But in terms of spectral qualities, both lights are very similar. The third graph, with the green line, is a Kino Flo with 5500k lamps. Just for comparison. Note that it, too, is deficient in the longer wavelengths, but not until 660 nm. Based on this I would say the Cool Lights LED with a 1/2 minus green gel would be a fairly good combination with daylight Kino Flos. The Cool Lights LED is brighter than the FloLight LED but I haven't measured exactly how much brighter. I'll probably do that tonight. Attached Images __________________ Dean Sensui Exec Producer, Hawaii Goes Fishing

February 25th, 2009, 08:53 PM	#68
Richard Andrewski Major Player Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Shenzhen, China Posts: 781	All that's about what I'd expect. Good work Dean. Like we've been saying LEDs aren't full spectrum. Another way to put what Dean said, to make the LEDs mix more with other light sources and simulate full spectrum a bit more, they need a bit of minus green to do that. Pretty much all daylight 5mm LEDs will at this point. __________________ Richard Andrewski - Cool Lights USA - RED #114 http://www.coollights.biz

February 27th, 2009, 02:03 AM	#71
Dean Sensui Inner Circle Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Honolulu, HI Posts: 2,054	I cut my gels so that they fit nicely in the slot between the Cool Lights and the barn doors. The clips holding the barn doors in place also retain the gels. Quite convenient. Nice to know that the Cool Lights compare favorably to the Lite Panels. Considering what a 1/2 minus green gel costs, Richard's latest offering seems to be the best bang for the buck. __________________ Dean Sensui Exec Producer, Hawaii Goes Fishing

February 27th, 2009, 10:22 AM	#74
Richard Andrewski Major Player Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Shenzhen, China Posts: 781	Thanks for all your comments, its well appreciated. Glad to hear there actually is a need for the green spike and it comes in handy sometimes ;-) The barndoors work pretty much the way the barndoors work on our studio models and you can usually slip things behind the barndoors. For instance, I've been wanting to try some of those plastic prismatic diffusion sheets to see the effect. That should fit right behind the barndoors if the sheet is thin enough. __________________ Richard Andrewski - Cool Lights USA - RED #114 http://www.coollights.biz

February 24th, 2009, 02:51 PM	#61
Ned Soltz Major Player Join Date: May 2006 Location: Teaneck, NJ Posts: 659	Thanks, Richard Then all who are making such a cable should not this. Hence, ground and control from Tekkeon need to go to Pin 1. Positive to Pin 4.

February 25th, 2009, 01:56 PM	#62
Nicholas de Kock Major Player Join Date: May 2007 Location: KLD, South Africa Posts: 983	Could someone that received their LED600 Flood lights do a side by side test with a 500W work light and post a few photos please?

February 25th, 2009, 04:21 PM	#64
Nicholas de Kock Major Player Join Date: May 2007 Location: KLD, South Africa Posts: 983	Tungsten. I'm know they are very different lights however I'm currently using cheap tungsten 500W work-lights, I would just like to know if the LED600 would be worth the investment, the 5600k color temperature is also something I have been dreaming about. The comparison does not have to be very scientific, just light up a large room. I shoot mainly weddings so I need a light that will be able to handle a few meters in the chapel, lets face it my current cheapo light solution is no good so I guess anything would be better, the light quality of a 500W work lights is not wonderful either. I basically just want to see the light in action before I order, maybe your thoughts on a direct comparison between the two, I think a lot of tungsten work-light shooters has their eye on the LED600.

February 25th, 2009, 05:15 PM	#66
Nicholas de Kock Major Player Join Date: May 2007 Location: KLD, South Africa Posts: 983	Many of the locations has more sunlight for this I require a balance light, sometimes we shoot outside. I basically need a decent fill light, my real question is will the LED600 light be up for such a challenge in terms of brightness? Being portable would also be a plus, I'm sure I could gel them in tungsten conditions. I know there is no such thing as an all purpose light however I would use them on a range of shoots from interviews to small corporates, music videos aswell.

February 26th, 2009, 08:33 AM	#69
Nathan Moody Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: SF Bay Area, CA, USA Posts: 78	This discussion is insanely helpful; I just got my CoolLights LED600 yesterday and will be doing some still and video tests with it today. Everyone's contributions here, especially Dean and Richard, are really informing how I'll approach using this unit in production. (Not sure yet, but the columns and rows of LEDs so far tend to create multiple, banded shadows (like a quantized gradient) when close to walls when the barn doors are used, so might need to throw some diffusion on the source in such cases.) Sorry, I have to also join in the shout-out to Richard on a well-designed product. :-) The build and case both exceeded expectations, and the ease of use and flexibility of output levels is pretty great. Superb value for the money, in my opinion. (Of course, re-watched "Fight Club" last night and was reveling in two hours of super-effective "incorrect" lighting techniques...and love how all the basement scenes were lit with $5 clamp lights...)

February 26th, 2009, 02:58 PM	#70
Ned Soltz Major Player Join Date: May 2006 Location: Teaneck, NJ Posts: 659	Posting this to "both lists" since there is often not overlap between the two. Took lights today to my local supply dealer, Kennedys ENG in Euless (TX). We put the Coollight up against a LitePanels 1x1. It is not a totally accurate comparison since we first were just eyeballing the differences and secondly Kennedy's only had a 5600K spot. Construction of the Coollights compares very favorably to the $1600 LitePanels. One thing we did notice when standing in front of the two lights is that the Coollight 5600K flood did have a slightly more greenish tinge than the LitePanels 5600K spot. We added a sheet of -1/2 green (as Richard had suggested in order to match the LED's with the fluos) and at least visually, the two appeared identical. So, I bought a couple of sheets of minus 1/2 green and will continue to test with and without the gels. Since I've already concluded that 1/2CTO provides decent tungsten matching and I will possibly be using the magenta gels often, my first suggestion to Richard is to consider a filter holder of some sort. But the few people who saw the product in the store really were impressed with the output. I continue to be impressed.... Ned Soltz

February 27th, 2009, 07:10 AM	#72
Dana Kupper Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 36	Just got my Cool lights LED600 yesterday, just in time for a small job, yay! Love to play with my new toys, er, I mean tools. I cannot say enough good things about it. Super flexible output levels, easy to set up, excellent build quality. I actually like that is a little greener than a normal light, I shoot under existing flouros alot, and I'm thinking maybe this will be a fairly good match to boost up a face. We'll see!

February 27th, 2009, 09:51 AM	#73
Ned Soltz Major Player Join Date: May 2006 Location: Teaneck, NJ Posts: 659	I've got a shoot coming up in a fast-food establishment where the overhead fluos will need to be kept on. It is, of course, an absolute lighting nightmare and fortunately it is only a pro-bono piece I'm shooting for the young owner of the place to go to the web (I believe in helping young entrepreneurs with great ideas and little money). I do plan to use the LED600's and will see whether I need that minus green. Meanwhile, I appreciate Dean's method of mounting the gels. And I would say that most definitely these lights compare very favorably with Litepanels for almost 1/4 the price. Ned

February 27th, 2009, 01:03 PM	#75
Richard Gooderick Major Player Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: London, UK Posts: 795	Hi Richard I've just collected my LED600 from UK customs. USPS got it here very quickly and it's been with customs for 5 days. Not so bad. It looks good but I can't try it out because it doesn't have a UK plug or an adaptor. It looks like a US plug except it's got three pins and I haven't seen that before. I found a travel adaptor but that doesn't work. I was really looking forward to trying it out. Please let me know what I should do. I am rubbish with anything electrical so don't ask me to do anything too complicated. __________________ http://www.gooderick.com