Hi all,
Here is something I've been thinking about and thought I would toss out to the community to see what people thought. I'm fully prepared to hear that I've gotten everything wrong and why it won't work or would provide significantly inferior results to existing "pro options. But if everyone doesn't jump up and say I'm crazy, maybe I'll do a little experimenting.
Anyway, since Red prefers daylight I've started to look at some of the LED "bulbs" (made up of many separate LEDs) as a simple/cost-effective option to replace some of our tungsten fixtures and was wondering what people thought about options like:
15W Par38 Daylight with 60, 30 or 15 degree spread (dimmable):
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180227606027
or
21W Par 38 with 7pcs x 3W Luxeon LEDs with 30 degree spread (non-dimmable):
http://www.oksolar.com/n_cart/product_details.asp?ProductID=01420
Of course they would need to be tested (especially to make sure they are really the right temperature light) and some of the information on the OKSolar site seems to be inaccurate (info for wrong items on spec sheets). But they do seem like they could be a simple and relatively cheap option. The big plus with these it that they could easily be mounted in very inexpensive fixtures, like the theater style "Par cans" available for under 50$, including a gel holder (for diffusion) and the option of easily adding barndoors. Here is one example:
http://www.music123.com/Lighting-Par-38B-Can-810108-i1156169.Music123
Now, if I understand it correctly, you would expect the general light provided by daylight balanced LEDs to be about 8 times brighter than a HMI, so using these bulbs would give the you the equivalent of a HMI between 120 and 160W - enough for back or hair light, possibly some accent lights and for fill with a small soft-box or diffusion. These, plus our existing Kino with daylight bulbs might make a nice, complete daylight balanced kit. This seems like an easy, inexpensive option worth testing. And you could carry bulbs with different output angles for different uses.
For a broader source or to create a brighter soft source one option might be something like this 28W High Power LED Street Light (non-dimmable):
http://www.oksolar.com/n_cart/product_details.asp?ProductID=01450
These use standard "Mogul" sockets if I read the specs correctly. So for the cost of a socket, plus a small enclosure (ideally rectangular so they could easily be connected in a stack like legos when you need more light) and yoke you could possibly get a 200W HMI equivalent for about $500. Or just have the enclosure hold two or three bulbs for brighter sources. Since the LEDs are close together you would need minimal diffusion to remove any "stepping" you might see in shadows, so this could be used for a relatively "hard" soft-light with a little or no diffusion or as a very soft source with a soft box or punching it through other stonger diffusion. Now this one is obviously more complicated than just dropping the other bulbs into a par can, but I think it might be worth exploring.
The nice thing both of these approaches is that it doesn't lock you into a fixed unit, since the main cost is the actual bulbs. LEDs are getting better and brighter quickly, so it is easy to imagine getting new bulbs in a year that are 2 or 3 times brighter. And there are certainly many more bulb options than the few I've listed that might be useable.
For big lighting jobs, we'll rent the grip truck with all those lovely HMIs, but for smaller shoots and interviews, is this remotely practical? Please tell me why this won't work and why I shouldn't try it before I waste my money.
Walter
p.s. I'm also thinking of having a small batch of smaller LED-based replacements bulbs to use in existing lights on set. The small ones are pretty cheap and it could be an easy way to avoid having mixed sources in the shot.
Here is something I've been thinking about and thought I would toss out to the community to see what people thought. I'm fully prepared to hear that I've gotten everything wrong and why it won't work or would provide significantly inferior results to existing "pro options. But if everyone doesn't jump up and say I'm crazy, maybe I'll do a little experimenting.
Anyway, since Red prefers daylight I've started to look at some of the LED "bulbs" (made up of many separate LEDs) as a simple/cost-effective option to replace some of our tungsten fixtures and was wondering what people thought about options like:
15W Par38 Daylight with 60, 30 or 15 degree spread (dimmable):
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180227606027
or
21W Par 38 with 7pcs x 3W Luxeon LEDs with 30 degree spread (non-dimmable):
http://www.oksolar.com/n_cart/product_details.asp?ProductID=01420
Of course they would need to be tested (especially to make sure they are really the right temperature light) and some of the information on the OKSolar site seems to be inaccurate (info for wrong items on spec sheets). But they do seem like they could be a simple and relatively cheap option. The big plus with these it that they could easily be mounted in very inexpensive fixtures, like the theater style "Par cans" available for under 50$, including a gel holder (for diffusion) and the option of easily adding barndoors. Here is one example:
http://www.music123.com/Lighting-Par-38B-Can-810108-i1156169.Music123
Now, if I understand it correctly, you would expect the general light provided by daylight balanced LEDs to be about 8 times brighter than a HMI, so using these bulbs would give the you the equivalent of a HMI between 120 and 160W - enough for back or hair light, possibly some accent lights and for fill with a small soft-box or diffusion. These, plus our existing Kino with daylight bulbs might make a nice, complete daylight balanced kit. This seems like an easy, inexpensive option worth testing. And you could carry bulbs with different output angles for different uses.
For a broader source or to create a brighter soft source one option might be something like this 28W High Power LED Street Light (non-dimmable):
http://www.oksolar.com/n_cart/product_details.asp?ProductID=01450
These use standard "Mogul" sockets if I read the specs correctly. So for the cost of a socket, plus a small enclosure (ideally rectangular so they could easily be connected in a stack like legos when you need more light) and yoke you could possibly get a 200W HMI equivalent for about $500. Or just have the enclosure hold two or three bulbs for brighter sources. Since the LEDs are close together you would need minimal diffusion to remove any "stepping" you might see in shadows, so this could be used for a relatively "hard" soft-light with a little or no diffusion or as a very soft source with a soft box or punching it through other stonger diffusion. Now this one is obviously more complicated than just dropping the other bulbs into a par can, but I think it might be worth exploring.
The nice thing both of these approaches is that it doesn't lock you into a fixed unit, since the main cost is the actual bulbs. LEDs are getting better and brighter quickly, so it is easy to imagine getting new bulbs in a year that are 2 or 3 times brighter. And there are certainly many more bulb options than the few I've listed that might be useable.
For big lighting jobs, we'll rent the grip truck with all those lovely HMIs, but for smaller shoots and interviews, is this remotely practical? Please tell me why this won't work and why I shouldn't try it before I waste my money.
Walter
p.s. I'm also thinking of having a small batch of smaller LED-based replacements bulbs to use in existing lights on set. The small ones are pretty cheap and it could be an easy way to avoid having mixed sources in the shot.
