BBS Area 48 LED Light, thoughts?

[Brian Pascale]

I have a chance to pick up a used BBS Area 48 LED Light for a good price. What are people's thoughts on these lights? Have more traditional LEDs caught up with this unit? Have they proven dependable?

 

[Blair S. Paulsen]

They seem to be built well, but no personal knowledge of longer term dependability. The remote phosphor tech used in the BBS Area 48 fixtures creates exceptionally flat spectral output. They have good throw for a "soft" source with high efficiency and a compact size.

Cheers - #19

 

[M Harvey]

What criteria are important to you-- are you primarily wondering if they're as dependable as other LEDs, or are there other qualities? I'll answer as I see it.

Certainly you'll find fans here of the BBS Area 48 lights, and they've been popular in the feature world (at least in the recent past). For most tasks, I don't think you can go wrong in acquiring one at the right price.

More generally: the appeal of the remote phosphor technology used by BBS (and Cineo) has been the quality of the light, both in terms of color reproduction and the characteristics inherent to the phosphor panel, which is soft and produces a clean single shadow.
Traditional LEDs have long been more convenient if you need to change color temperature often and in variable increments (e.g. you want to dial in 2850k rather than choose a single-temperature panel). That said, you may lose more output with a bicolor model than by switching a remote phosphor panel. Traditional LEDs have also generally held an advantage in output, and that advantage has only increased in recent years. Traditional LED has also caught up in terms of light quality with diffusion panels becoming a standard offering, from the Litepanels Soft to the many RGB options in the vein of the Skypanels (Litepanels Gemini, Aputure Nova, Nanlite Dyno, etc.).

I myself have only used the Cineo remote phosphor lights, and those not recently or head-to-head with BBS or traditional LED. So maybe someone else can speak to whether they hold an advantage in terms of color accuracy and reproduction. Either way, the quality you get from the BBS should remain excellent.

One other thing of possible interest is that some remote phosphor units can take chroma green and blue panels. I haven't shot with those, but could imagine those being very convenient.

 

[Michael Lindsay]

Big fan of the remote phosphor Cineos (which I think are very similar..) ... Longevity and quaity of colour output is a issue for normal non remote Phosphor LED lights so I suspect they will be a good buy

 

[Brian F Kobylarz]

I need to align my thoughts with the prior posts.

I own several Cineo fixtures which of course all use use remote phosphor technology.

If you are concerned with a really accurate spectral response, remote phosphor is superior to LED fixtures.
Just because a light dials in at 3200K or 5600K does not mean it is producing as clean a light as an HMI, remote phosphor or tungsten would.

Are LED's catching up?
Not much in spectral response but some offer other features such as effects programming and dialing in a specific color temp or filter.

There are some differences between the Cineo and BBS product lines, but they are relatively minor. - what is important is if you found one at the right price it's a smart investment.

 

[paulcurtis]

These lights are excellent. I have a couple for a few years now.

The light they produce even to my eye is wonderful and very unLED like. The remote phosphor gets the best quality of light by a long shot.

However right now you are competing with some also excellent colour options like the Hive lights (7 colours mixed)

But if they're cheap enough go for them.

Only downsides? They're a bit heavy and the length of the AC cable is a pain and the vlock battery plates fiddly and the button system on the back a pain. But the light, the light...

cheers
Paul

 

[Brian Pascale]

Thanks for all your responses. The seller decided to keep the light for now, but I will buy it if he changes his mind. I really like the quality of the light output and shadow it creates and being able to do so with such a small surface area.