Litemat versus Kino flo:

[omar robles]

So I am in the market for lights and had my heart set on the LITEMAT 3. However someone is selling two kino flos for half the price of one litemat. I realize in terms of weight the LITEMAT wins hands down, but just in terms of quality of light is there a major difference in quality of light?

 

[Alex Lubensky]

Kino's and LED's do have some variations in the color they output. I've had a shoot recently, which involved Falcon Eyes RX 18 mat (with softbox), KinoFlo 4x4, Arri Skypanel 60C, and a couple 3200 650Watt fixtures. Also, we heavily relied on practicals on each location we shoot at, lighting mostly our actors (cutting off the practicals). In the middle of the shoot moving from one location to another I've noticed that each light had it's own color reproduction.

On the parking lot I've set the camera to 4000K, lighting everything as 3200K, and the practicals were something around 4800K minus 13 green. So I've set the Skypanel to 5000K to imitate practicals on a face, and the RX18 to 3200 to imitate warm car lights on a face. Also I've used 650Watts for additional glare of warm car lamps.

The 3200K on a LED Mat was way cooler than 650Watt fixtures. Totally different output, while Skypanel 60C was almost identical (as expected to be). Kino's and 650Watts matched perfectly as usual.

I bet LitePanels LiteMat would be more of an accurate color output, but still, you may see some variations here and there.

Some links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrxgCNSD2Rs

So, If you're going to light subjects mostly with LED MATTS, you're fine. If you're going to mix them with other fixtures - think twice and do a proper test first. If you're going for tight space lighting it's a no-brainer, they are awesome. Just depends on how and where you are going to use them. On a film set - do a test, on a commercial - better be safe with skypans, on a music video or a run and gun situation - go for it.

I'll post a couple of stills later.

 

[omar robles]

Which light has the most output?

 

[Jon Carr]

In short if you have to choose between kinos or any lite mat, Litemat plus series has the most output. Color wise, the lite mats plus and s2 are more accurate and less magenta shift which your knotice a tint shift on old kino bulbs and the diva series. Ditch the kinos thought. In today’s market of owning G&E, kinos isn’t worth its weight in scrap, which a lot of kinos are. Also depending on your market demands for example in nyc, not even student films rent kinos anymore. So depending on your market kinos might be take a lot longer to make a return in your investment. And as owning equipment factoring longevity the lite mats plus will last longer then the kinos. Especially if you bought used kinos.