Lights for high fps portrait shooting - flicker free suggestions ?

[Daniel Crooks]

wow, the PRG TruColor stuff looks pretty interesting. That HS looks amazing

Rob, what flavour of Joker Bug have you used at 1000? what is the frequency of the ballast ?

[Andy Roberts]

BTW Rob, your PM mailbox is full :) I tried to send you a PM about the Joker-Bugs as well.

[Paul Ellington]

Joker-bug ... just used them awesome and they are coming out with new lights soon, check their specs out. I believe it's K5600 that makes them (:0)

[Mitch Gross]

The Hive plasma lights and the PRG TruColor lights (both the HS and the Foton) are all excellent fixtures and as noted, completely flicker free.

There is some other info in this thread that is incorrect.

LED lights at full power do not flicker. Dimmed they might depending on the technology used. For instance all new LitePanels units do not flicker but older ones do (even the same models as they have changed the driver design).

Using tungsten lights with DC power means no flicker. Using AC power they will dim with the cycling of the alternating current. If the units are below 2000w then the filaments are small enough that this dimming may become visible. Spreading lights across three phases may mask the effect but it will not eliminate it and it cannot be trusted. The dimming is based on heat loss and happens at a different time/energy curve to that of the power phasing. At 2000w and above the bulbs are so hot that they do not get a chance to dim before the power cycles back.

HMI lights can suffer from a phenomenon called Arc Wander, which can appear as a shimmering effect rather than a flicker. This is completely unpredictable as it is caused by a mix of various factors.

Additional information on high speed lighting can be found in the Resources section of the AbelCine website.

[Michael Lindsay]

hi people.

I'm looking at getting a couple of small to medium sized lights for a little studio project I have coming up.

I'm going to be shooting at high frame rates so they need to be flicker free at 100+ fps.

It's something of a portrait project so ideally I'm looking for something soft, or easily diffused, but again due to high fps needs to be fairly bright.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

Hi

I have done a lot of this... couple of thoughts

3 phase spreads with 'large' filaments Tungsten lights (5k+)... PRO cheap, wide spectrum light and it works CON Hot, tricky to set up in a really useable way, and often too Tunsten...

Briese Lights with 400hz ballast PRO works for many frame rates, really easy to use, usefull beuaty light CON a little pricy to buy

Any old HMI head with a chimera or frame PRO Ok on cost and 'may' be flicker for some 100+ rates CON many ballests are really only 75hz or 100hz and can flicker at many 100+ rates.. the newer 300hz, 400hz and Arri 1000hz ballests are rare and costly... AND the 300hz and 400hz do cause pulsing at high frame rates...

I would also recommend looking at a Vista beam 600 which is cheap, flicker free and really easy to use. I have only shot high speed with them twice and there are some limitiations but i really liked them.

Good luck

PS I like the look of the new remote phospher PRC lights (but have no real experience) and maybe a few strapped together might work

[Rob Ruffo]

I have shot high speed with Joker 400s and 800s. No problems. Their frequency, I think, is 1500 pulses per second. I have filmed up 400 fps but they claim 1000 would be OK.

They have new 1600 heads coming out.

k5600.com

Please tell Bryan in L.A. office I say hello.

[KETCH ROSSi]

NO mater what, for your BEST Portraits, always, and I truly mean always use only Direct SOFT lights, and or Hard Lights only Reflected, then chose Daylight, and you'll be fine, the higher the frame rate the more lights you'l need... ;)

[Michael Lindsay]

I have shot high speed with Joker 400s and 800s. No problems. Their frequency, I think, is 1500 pulses per second. I have filmed up 400 fps but they claim 1000 would be OK.

They have new 1600 heads coming out.

k5600.com

Please tell Bryan in L.A. office I say hello.

I believe the only k5600 currently with an above 300 Hz ballest as standard is the new 1600.. Pretty interesting light (I would imagine very interesting in the US)...