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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

News from Cool Lights

Richard Andrewski said:
Alex, that will give you a bit over an hour on a 2500 or 2 hours on a 1200, is that enough time?
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Richard, I think that's a fair trade off to reduce the weight of the unit. An hourly swap of bricks shouldn't be a problem whatsoever.

It would also be great to be able to power the unit via a battery plate attached to the external power box and include a carabiner or preferably a belt clip to allow for a lighter load in case the need to "Hollywood" or walk the lamp presents itself.

That is assuming of course that the unit won't be much heavier than a 4x4 kino or the like.

I think one of the LED600's strongest points is its portability in regards to exterior night shooting.

One question, have you ever considered (And please forgive my general lack of knowledge on the topic) using the titanium turbo led's? I believe those are the led's that the LEDZ brute lights use? They seem to pack a punch to say the least for their small size. I do remember inquiring about them and finding them to be quite costly per lamp though?
 
How will the 2500 light output compare to that of your 4bank fluoro? Basically compared to 4 of those 55w biax bulbs
 
Hi Alex,

The weight of the 1200 is about 6.6 lbs. I just realized I didn't weigh the 2500 yet and I don't have it at the moment but I'll check it again next time I go back to the factory.

I think its not the weight so much as the bulk that will make it more awkward to walk with it than with the 600. The 2500 will be probably be tougher to walk with but also not impossible. We won't mount batteries directly on the plastic type units for various reasons but will on the external power converter.

If we make a way to attach the converter around your middle through a belt or something and with a couple of batteries, that unit is likely to be very heavy but its doable too. I'll have to look at how we can use a belt with this unit.

On the other LEDs, you're talking in general about 1w to 5w (high power) types regardless of what particular brand they used. We have considered LEDs of that type but thought the 5mm types were the best bang for the buck so to speak for our intro products. And those LEDs have much more stringent heat sinking requirements than 5mm types do. I think a fixture that's as well appreciated as the LED 600 just wouldn't be quite the same as if done with the higher power LEDs. More heavy certainly.

Yes, I will come back at some point and do a fixture using probably the 1W types because they are the most efficient at the moment. The 3W and 5w all seem to drop in output vs. power used as they progress and don't seem to be such a good deal to me.

10w, 20w, 50w, etc. single high power LEDs are on the horizon as well and we've looked at some of those but they're not quite ready for this type of serious use yet in anything but a street lamp. And the price goes up quite a bit plus the fixture gets so much more heavy because of the needed heat sinking.
 
The final model with the LEDs I want to use isn't quite ready yet so I'm reserving announcement on photometrics but it should be close to a 575w HMI or 2500w tungsten in power. It certainly won't have the "shadow rendering" capabilities of the 575 or 2500w tungsten though. Shadows will be vague and undefined just as they are with fluorescent but the throw will be longer though.
 
Richard Andrewski said:
The final model with the LEDs I want to use isn't quite ready yet so I'm reserving announcement on photometrics but it should be close to a 575w HMI or 2500w tungsten in power. It certainly won't have the "shadow rendering" capabilities of the 575 or 2500w tungsten though. Shadows will be vague and undefined just as they are with fluorescent but the throw will be longer though.
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Okay, now you are just teasing me! I can't wait to hear about the photometerics and pricing. :)
 
Richard Andrewski said:
The final model with the LEDs I want to use isn't quite ready yet so I'm reserving announcement on photometrics but it should be close to a 575w HMI or 2500w tungsten in power. It certainly won't have the "shadow rendering" capabilities of the 575 or 2500w tungsten though. Shadows will be vague and undefined just as they are with fluorescent but the throw will be longer though.
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Holy shit! GREATER light output than a 2000w tungsten??

Any ideas on pricing yet?
 
The first unit I made had 60 degree LEDs on it so like a flood panel and was bicolor. Output was 19000 lux at 2 feet, 7000 at 4 feet and 2400 at 6 feet. Color was 6000K with all LEDs on. Color rendering was great and didn't need any minus green at all. Output was probably comparable to a tungsten 2000 or a bit greater in medium flood mode. The next prototype will have spot 40 degree LEDs in it and should definitely rival at least a 2000w tungsten and probably a bit more.

I think we may skip the flood panels and just do 40 degrees for the sake of most output. The beam is still pretty wide but the throw is a bit better than the 60 degree ones.

No pricing just yet. We'll save that for last.
 
As someone who ones the 4 bank and 2 bank CoolLights flos as well as 3 of the LED600s, I can say without reservation that I am as happy as a little girl with these latest developments.

Richard's customer service is also FIRST RATE!
 
Richard Andrewski said:
Martin, as always thanks for your design contributions. You are definitely thinking deeply about it and we appreciate that. That's a great idea, I just am not sure about what kind of control you'd need to do that and it almost sounds "digital" which brings us into a whole other development domain beyond just analog and would stretch out the development time and budget and also the ultimate price of the fixture as well.
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Richard,

I just love the fact that some producers of equipment have a direct channel to us "mere" mortals. You and RED are primary examples of this new breed. Thank you for being open.

It's been many years since I have done any serious work with electronics, but basically I thought you could have two potentiometers in line. The first one would control the overall light level, while the second one would divide the flow between "warm" and "cold" LEDs.

The latter potentiometer might have to be a customized double potentiometer, where 0 ohms are applied on either channel when passing the mid section. (A brief discussion with Dr. Google gave this here: http://www.potentiometers.com/series2RV7.cfm -- maybe they could answer if my idea is at all feasible? )

Hope this makes sense at all?


----

For my applications it would be enough with 30-60min of battery power. Light weight would be of more importance than longer runs than that. But like Jarred I'd prefer to not have to carry a seperate box when on location - in studio mode I'd love to be able to have DC power supply; for practical reasons (and weight) I guess that should be a seperate box.
 
Richard Andrewski said:
The next prototype will have spot 40 degree LEDs in it
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Can I ask which make of LEDs you are using? Or is that confidential?

I am trying to make a small light, with a specific shape to fit somewhere, and I am totally confused as to which LEDs are the best these days. It doesn't help that some specs are given in lumen, some in mcd, etc.

Thanks for any advice,
Antony
 
Thanks Martin,

This is how small manufacturers get an edge over large ones--no bureaucracy. We're highly incented to listen to what people want.

Anyway, I forgot about multi-stage pots which is what your talking about. I can perhaps get a custom made pot like that and I'll have to look into it to see what the minimum order is for such a thing. The dimmer for overall intensity is just a normal pot though.

I'm also not sure what the implications of having 3 dimmers like that are--one for overall intensity of all LEDs together, 1 for low color temp and 1 for high color temp. It sounds good but till you try it sometimes you don't know about secondary effects you didn't anticipate.




Martin Weiss said:
Richard,

I just love the fact that some producers of equipment have a direct channel to us "mere" mortals. You and RED are primary examples of this new breed. Thank you for being open.

It's been many years since I have done any serious work with electronics, but basically I thought you could have two potentiometers in line. The first one would control the overall light level, while the second one would divide the flow between "warm" and "cold" LEDs.

The latter potentiometer might have to be a customized double potentiometer, where 0 ohms are applied on either channel when passing the mid section. (A brief discussion with Dr. Google gave this here: http://www.potentiometers.com/series2RV7.cfm -- maybe they could answer if my idea is at all feasible? )

Hope this makes sense at all?


----

For my applications it would be enough with 30-60min of battery power. Light weight would be of more importance than longer runs than that. But like Jarred I'd prefer to not have to carry a seperate box when on location - in studio mode I'd love a seperate box for DC power supply.
Click to expand...
 
Antony M said:
Can I ask which make of LEDs you are using? Or is that confidential?
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You can always ask ;-)

I would try www.superbrightleds.com. Their LEDs are well appreciated by many experimenters. There are also several ebay sellers from hong kong which have good ones too. MCD is the normal spec for the smaller LEDs like 5mm. Normally they don't get into lumens until the higher wattage ones like 1W, 3W, 5W, etc.
 
Matt Gottshalk said:
As someone who ones the 4 bank and 2 bank CoolLights flos as well as 3 of the LED600s, I can say without reservation that I am as happy as a little girl with these latest developments.

Richard's customer service is also FIRST RATE!
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Thanks also for your support!
 
Richard is to lights what RED are to cameras. Can't recommend highly enough.

And how's his Red street-cred: #114! Really hope you're getting a chance to shoot it Richard!
 
Hey Richard I still have the 1200 watt HMI proto in the basement if you need it
it!!

I am putting in my vote for the lollipop and receiver mount for flexibility
of mounting options rather than a standard yolk.

I think 2 of these will serve me better than the one 1200.
 
Richard Andrewski said:
Dale, thanks as always. I guess none of our lighting is keeping you warm up there in Canada.
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No, but they are keeping me "cool" (lights) up here, ha-ha. Always appreciate your great customer service and responsiveness Richard. Your lights continue to prove themselves worthy, so a 2500 (or 4) is exactly what I need right now. Would be a great compliment to my HMI, Flo and LED package.

Cheers,
Dale
 
Paul, maybe keep it for the museum... (haha). I kind of favor the lollipop myself and I like the lighterweight of the plastic version than of a metal one. I think once people see the 2500 (as pictured here) in person they'll agree that it was the best way to go.

Dale, thanks again and I'm working hard on all the next products such as the 2500 so hopefully not too much longer!

One thing that comes to mind after reading comments here about the 2500 is that it might be a good idea to have two "power" options available for when you order the 2500. A normal 24 volt output supply as small and lightweight as possible and my "power converter" model which is the full blown ac to dc or dc to dc conversion which can handle either ac or dc (battery inputs). In this way, those that don't intend to use a battery don't have to have that heavier and larger power unit which also would have the places on it for vmount or ab mount type batteries. Or maybe you might want both because most of the time you operate off wall power but every now and then need batteries so you'd take along the larger unit then. Seems like a good compromise. I think this is, pretty much, what Martin was saying in his last comment.
 
Richard Andrewski said:
I think this is, pretty much, what Martin was saying in his last comment.
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Yeah, us foreigners with our concise grasp of the English language ;)

In my perfect world it would be possible to have one V-lock battery attached directly to the fixture. In my realistic world I am very happy with your alternative seperate box.
 
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