Best V lock LED light panels?

[scott william]

What are the best LED light panels that can be powered by V-Lock battery?

 

[Robert Ruffo New]

Great question. In US only Litepabels are available, in other countries other brands can be had.

CoolLights is coming out with a new model that is promising in terms of CRI (but again, only available outside US)

 

[Chris McKechnie]

Best or cheapest?

For or cheapest with a decent CRI rating, decent output and light, you can pick up a set of 3 1x1's from F&V Lighting. I use them A LOT! Great. Reliable. And hecka cheap.

If you have a bigger budget, the Area 48 lights are amazing! Soft, uniform shadow, variable color temp, battery powered, etc. Great lights but they will set you back a pretty penny with all the accessories.

 

[Matthew J]

Best in terms of what? Light output? Color Rendition? Battery life? Build quality? You can get super expensive led panels or super cheap, so there are some trade offs depending on the price.

I used these on a shoot recently and was super impressed: http://www.fvlighting.com/store/lighting/led/k4000.html

The fixture is really well made considering the price. The fit and finish was top notch and felt very sturdy in your hands. Other Chinese lighting I've used in the past hasn't had the tight tolerance that these have. The only downside in the design that I saw was that the defuser had four, two inch posts that you screwed into the front of the light, then you line up the holes in the diffusion onto the posts and screw little caps on to hold the diffusion on. It would be nicer if they had slide in diffusion like other LED panels, but considering you can get 3 units for $1050, I could live with that (especially since I normally use gels with LED's instead of the plastic filters.)

As far as the light output, they are pretty punchy, although I didn't meter them to see if what they claim (2860 lux at 1 meter) is true. I did test the panels with my Sekonic color meter to see how accurate they were and was very surprised. My meter in digital mode read them at 5590k (10k off isn't too shabby!) and said they ran green (in terms of gel +/- green) at +1/16 green. The green was so slight that I didn't feel like on my Dragon I needed to dial it out at all (the Dragon seems to be so much better about handling mixed color temps and especially green spike than the MX sensor.) They say it's at least 85 CRI, but I felt like it was close to at least 90 CRI.

Super impressed with these panels and am probably going to buy a set sooner than later. Oh, did a I mention that they dim AND come with a v-mount plate built in?

 

[scott william]

I'm looking at the cheaper options. I need to be able to air travel with it. fv lights look like the best in their price range.

 

[Terry VerHaar]

At the higher end of the budget - if we are guessing at "best" - I'd look at the new Cineo lights. The Maverick looks like a real winner.

 

[Savva Svet]

+1 for the F&V Light panels. Used them for multiple sit down interviews and commercial shoots..no issues whatsoever.

 

[Per von Koch]

We use the felloni from dedo. Very happy with it

 

[Meryem Ersoz]

I have 8 used daylight balanced Coollights for sale. with v batt mount. comes with travel bag + CTOs. these are great, I just have too many of them - we lit the side of a mountain for a scene in Colorado, where they don't allow generators on the public lands.

 

[Mark K.]

The 'best' to my mind are undoubtably the remote phosphor options from BBS and Cineo; colour, output, light quality and controllability are simply unsurpassed by any other soft light IMO. BBS have the Area48, and Cineo have just announced their 'Maverick'.

The Area48 lights have totally replaced 2-bank and 4-bank Kinos for me now - they're more portable, MUCH more controllable, a cinch to change colour temp on, and I find the colour rendering more pleasing.

 

[Mark George]

The Area48 lights have totally replaced 2-bank and 4-bank Kinos for me now - they're more portable, MUCH more controllable, a cinch to change colour temp on, and I find the colour rendering more pleasing.

Hey Mark K, I JUST ordered two Area 48s on 5/20, along with accessories. Thank you for all your posts on these lights both here and at DU. You helped me make an informed decision!

 

[Nick Fury]

Hi Mark,

these lights are a very robust construction as well. I have a few that travel in Pelican, with accessories, just fine.

Thank you very much

Fury

 

[Mark George]

Good to know, Nick. Thank you!

 

[scott william]

My F&V lights arrived. Impressive quality for the price. Very happy with them.

 

[Mark K.]

Hey Mark K, I JUST ordered two Area 48s on 5/20, along with accessories. Thank you for all your posts on these lights both here and at DU. You helped me make an informed decision!

Hey Mark, glad I could help! Living here at the end of the world I know all too well how difficult and nerve-racking it is spending thousands on exotic gear that you never get the chance to check out in person beforehand - I've relied on the help and feedback of others on here and other forums to help me make informed (expensive!) purchases, so if I can give a little back that only partly levels the scales.

That said, I think it's a no-brainer with those lights, the benefits they offer are immediately apparent upon working with them.

 

[DC Chavez]

+1 for F&V. I travel all over with them and power them with the same Anton Bauer batteries I use on my Epic. Great light when you take the cost, output and portability to mind.