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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Lot's of neat stuff!

Jay A. Kelley

Jay A. Kelley

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Hey guys,

So you know I spent a lot of time at NAB speaking with some great vendors. We all have our favorites for accessories, ET, RedRock, ARRI, etc.. But I wanted to find some new guys who may be intereresting.

And I did! Looks like everyone and their uncle made an LED light this year. I still think coollights rules the day, but there are some good companies for non-standard shapes and sizes you can look at.

Also I went looking for the best heads and sticks, matteboxes (Not much new, waiting for RED's...)

I spent time looking for vendors that had a good attitude, were intense on getting new business, and had great prices.

Lot's of good stuff this year!

I'll keep you informed as we put it all together. You guys know I am very loyal to the vendors I pick because I go through a lot to get to know them. I've done the same this time. If they are on my list, they are someone you need to get to know!

Jay
 
Jay A. Kelley said:
Looks like everyone and their uncle made an LED light this year. I still think coollights rules the day, but there are some good companies for non-standard shapes and sizes you can look at.
Click to expand...

Jay, do you prefer Cool Lights over Litepanels? I've been looking at both and trying to figure out what makes Litepanels cost so much more than Cool Lights for a comparable product.

Did Coollights have anything new at NAB?

Looking forward to your report.
 
Thanks Jay.

One reason Cool Lights doesn't cost as much is we don't go to NAB ;-) because customers ultimately pay for that. Plus that takes away time from R&D which is very important to us at this time. Marketing hasn't been an issue so far.

Other than that, perhaps size and overhead play a large role. Cool Lights is manufacturer direct while Litepanels uses the traditional dealer system so you have a dealer price and MSRP. With Cool Lights you are effectively paying the price a dealer would pay if we had dealers then the end buyers would pay a higher price.

Anyway, we're still in work on the followup models to the LED 600. The LED 1200 bicolor is getting closer now but still not quite there yet--waiting for some sub assemblies to be finished. Should be really worth waiting for though.
 
Richard Andrewski said:
Anyway, we're still in work on the followup models to the LED 600. The LED 1200 bicolor is getting closer now but still not quite there yet--waiting for some sub assemblies to be finished. Should be really worth waiting for though.
Click to expand...

Hi Richard,

I didn't realize Cool Lights had a presence here, I'll PM my specific questions.

A 1200w equiv bi-color LED would be particularly attractive.
 
Cool lights is one of my favorite vendors. They usually have a strong presense in the DVDs, and I have used them on a LOT of jobs. Their new softboxes are simply amazing.

I cannot say enough good about them.

Jay
 
After following the discussion about Coollights for some months now, I finally decided to spend some money on a few items they make, like LED600, 650W fresnels and probably a couple of 6 bulb fluo lights.

I haven't received them yet, so I can't speak about the quality of the lights yet, but I can say Richard's customer service so far has been very impressive. He answered my questions faster than I could ask them, and my order has been handled very efficiently, sending some items directly from China to reduce the shipping times/costs and shipping the items as they become available instead of waiting and shipping everything at once.

I'll post again when I receive them, but I'm not too concerned about their quality, from what I've read so far.

Can't wait to see what the LED 1200 is all about...
 
Ryan S said:
Jay, do you prefer Cool Lights over Litepanels? I've been looking at both and trying to figure out what makes Litepanels cost so much more than Cool Lights for a comparable product.

Did Coollights have anything new at NAB?

Looking forward to your report.
Click to expand...

To answer this question: I think litepanels is a good product. It would just be false to state otherwise. They are trying hard to paint themselves as the "ARRI" of LED lighting.. Professional, tough, and damn expensive.

That's fine, that's their choice, but a lot of us cannot afford ARRI, so we look to good vendors that make fine equipment for less money (Sometimes a lot less)

I think Richard has a unique understanding of how to get good things made for low cost. This is why Cool Lights has been doing so well.

If I had a complaint, it would simply be that it can take Richard a little longer than I am happy with to get new stuff out the door!!! However, speed costs money. So I think I will just have to learn to be a little more patient.

I have no doubt we're going to see some neat stuff from Cool Lights in the near future!

Jay
 
Just chiming in to say that I love my Coollights LED600's... I too considered LitePanels at the outset, but the price/performance equation made Coollights a no-brainer, and Richard has been a pleasure to deal with.

Cheers,
Tim
 
Jay,
Curious to know your thoughts on matte boxes, it seems it's Arri or go home, which is very painful at $5300 for an MB20ii setup (from Abel). The Red matte box crushed my hopes when I found out that neither tray rotates and doesnt take a rear round...so there goes any circ pola or rotating any grads. If they add either a rotating round in the rear or change the design to be rotating filters then i'll be interested again. Though, the fact that they dont have a swingaway indicates to me that the Red matte box isn't supposed to compete at all with the mb20, more like a lmb5 competitor. Seems Red expects you already own and mb20 and this will be a field clip on add on. Grrr, gotta find pennies for Arri
 
Shawn,

It depends on your usage. If you rent your camera out, and clients are from out of town (I.E. LA or NY) then I would say it needs to be ARRI to keep from getting looks.

If you work in a closed loop system, where it's mostly you and your stuff hired out, then I think you can use what works for you.

One thing I can always depend on with a lot of LA and NY productions is that money rules (Sadly) if you have an ARRI for $250 per day (Example) and a REDRock for $125. A lot of times they will go for the cheaper if you stand by it and say it will do whatever they need it to do.

Sadly (In terms of money) ARRI is still the gold standard for camera accessories. Now a funny thing is this: I would venture to say that O'Connor may give ARRI some serious competition in the future. Mainly because O'Connor's team is made up of Ex-ARRI folks!

I'll lay you 20 to 1 that Johnston and the boys at O'Connor are already designing a Mattebox which will do more than any other, and (Hopefully) be around $1,000 less (or $2,000!!) than ARRI.

One more thing: Everyone nips at the heels of the leader... Right now, today, ARRI is that leader. And it's going to take some serious time and a lot of successful products to knock ARRI off that perch. I'm also pretty sure ARRI has no intention of giving up their spot willingly.

As of today: ARRI rules.. That may change in the future, but not any time real soon.

As for cameras... That may be a different story entirely. :closedeyes:

Jay

Funny story: an LA producer wanted to rent the Jib arm from me.. They said "how much" I said "$700 for the day with Op" They said "$700?! I can get it in LA for half that". I said "Yeah, and I've seen your economy in LA... It's $700".
 
For an interesting comparison to the RED clip-on mattebox, take a look at the ARRI MMB-1. It can also take two 4x5.6 filters but one stage rotates. It can also mount to rods (lightweight 15 direct and 15 or 19 studio with an adaptor) and when used on rods it can accept a rear bellows back that holds a round rotating filter stage. The MMB-1 is only a few hundred dollars more than the RED mattebox but offers a great deal more versatility. Sure, it's no MB20-II, but it is also a lot less money.

http://www.abelcine.com/store/Arri-MMB-1-Basic-Mattebox-Kit/
 
What is the point of this thread?

You're telling us you found cool new products, but wont tell us what they are or who made them. How silly is that???

Am I stupid? Am I missing something here? Did I miss the link to where we find this info?
 
Chrosziel 840

Chrosziel 840

Shawn Nelson said:
Curious to know your thoughts on matte boxes, it seems it's Arri or go home, which is very painful at $5300 for an MB20ii setup (from Abel).
Click to expand...

You can't discount the Chrosziel MB840; it competes toe-to-toe withe MB20.
 
16x9 Inc said:
You can't discount the Chrosziel MB840; it competes toe-to-toe withe MB20.
Click to expand...

Chrosziel's name isn't that great in the clients I rent to. But I am interested, what does the MB840 cost including filter trays, upper and side flags and 19mm swingaway?
 
Mitch Gross said:
For an interesting comparison to the RED clip-on mattebox, take a look at the ARRI MMB-1. It can also take two 4x5.6 filters but one stage rotates. It can also mount to rods (lightweight 15 direct and 15 or 19 studio with an adaptor) and when used on rods it can accept a rear bellows back that holds a round rotating filter stage. The MMB-1 is only a few hundred dollars more than the RED mattebox but offers a great deal more versatility. Sure, it's no MB20-II, but it is also a lot less money.

http://www.abelcine.com/store/Arri-MMB-1-Basic-Mattebox-Kit/
Click to expand...

Oh weird, I was at the Arri booth and they told me the mmb1 could only take one 4x5.65 tray.

Now that's $1500 but doesnt include any flags. How much to add on a top flag and a 19mm swingaway bracket?
 
Liam Hall said:
What is the point of this thread?

You're telling us you found cool new products, but wont tell us what they are or who made them. How silly is that???

Am I stupid? Am I missing something here? Did I miss the link to where we find this info?
Click to expand...

Liam, if you're mean to me.. I'll tell everyone but you.

:laugh:
 
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