Lights like a Jo-Leko?

[Ashley Stracke]

Anything out there that's cheaper than or similar to a Jo-Leko? Doesn't have to be HMI, just like to easily cut and bounce light without a lot of setup

 

[M Harvey]

I guess the characteristic you want would be optics that allow you to focus the beam, which means you can cleanly cut it and also have a defined edge to the beam so that you're not spilling a lot of light when you bounce it. I don't know of an alternative that's equally bright, but there are a lot of less lights that can do similar things.

There are standard tungsten lekos, like the Source 4, of course. ETC now makes LED versions, too. The standard versions takes 500- and 750-watt bulbs.

Dedolights are smaller and lower powered, but even more flexible in terms of beam size (the design incorporates a zoom lens). It produces a very high quality, cuttable beam with clean edges. Original is tungsten, but also avail in HMI and LED.

There are some new LED options as well. Aputure and Nanlite both have leko-type attachments that work with their COB LEDs. Aputure also has a new 60-watt model that has dedolight-like zoomable optics and also works with a leko-type attachment.

Fresnels also, of course, have a simpler optic that allows cutting and bouncing. But they're typically not as effective or clean as a leko or dual aspheric lens like the above. That said, tungsten fresnels typically give a more defined beam than LEDs (though the newer COB designs allow a lot of the benefits of a traditional tungsten fresnel).