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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

Love the products you're offering, especially at such great prices...

Two questions:

1) How long do you expect to be offering the discounted prices? I'd like to pick up a few fixtures, but need to make it through the holiday season first...

and

2) I was perusing your website, and the LED600 only allows the choice of Spot configuration in the 5600K (according to the drop-down box), with flood only being available in 3200K, though it says in the write-up that Spot and Flood should be available in both 5600 & 3200...is this just a glitch? Perhaps something to do with stock availability? Just curious, as I'd probably be inclined to stick only with daylight balanced, but would want both flood and spot configurations.

Keep up the good work!

Cheers,
Clint
 
Ketch, thanks for the offer, will consider ;-)

Clint, thanks for your comments. We generally don't raise prices too much, just to cover whatever improvements are made in each generation or other overhead issues. Exchange rates have been putting a lot of pressure on us in the last couple of years as well but we're holding pretty steady for the moment. I would expect the prices are okay at least through 1st quarter next year.

On the 5600k flood availability, we just recently ran out of them. One thing to note though, we made a small quantity of 5000K (a bit warmer than our normal panel in other words) floods and spots last time. I didn't put them in the drop down box but we do have a few that we keep around for people that like the bit warmer color temp. So if you're interested in that, let me know and we can put together an order for you.

Thanks again!
 
So as to widen our audience a bit on this thread, what fixtures are other Redusers using? What are their pros and cons when comparing to Cool Lights, Kino Flows, ARRI, Mole, etc? Other than name regognition, how do the "big boy's" lights stack up to Cool Lights? When I was at this year's Cinegear, I was disappointed at how fast the lumens drop off from most of the manufactures--like really fast. Having to keep your lights 4-6 feet away from the subject might be fine for still photographers, but they limit their usefulness. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this topic.
 
Hi,

Just do a search here, on dvinfo.net and dvxuser. Plenty has been said about what people are using and how they like them.

As far as drop off in lux as distance becomes farther you can get a pretty good drop off if you add a softbox or other diffusion to a fresnel or open face tungsten. The dropoff is steeper also for a tungsten or hmi fresnel in flood mode. Its all about how concentrated and narrow the beam is. The same photon energy available in both spot and flood but more concentrated forward in the spot mode to give that throw. Take a diffused light and the same happens or can even lose some photons if diffusion material is being used.

The diffused nature of fluorescent is such that it can't really be well concentrated into a beam for long throw and doesn't have the hardness necessary to get well defined shadows. Same for LEDs but a little better than fluorescent if you have a good enough beam angle on the lenses of the LEDs.

If you want throw, you need a good fresnel (hmi or tungsten) in spot mode and its hard to beat that small point source in combination with a good lens and mirror.
 
Alexander Nikishin said:
I'm still putting my LED600 to good use, can't wait to test out a 2500!
Click to expand...

Same here. We use your lights A LOT and they are great to us. I don't miss the Arris we used to rent, ever, at all, and teh LED has been a lifesaver for us many times, especially when working in buildings with poor electrical.
 
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Thanks guys for your comments.

Lots of things take up my time including making sure current production of our growing catalog is still quality. So I don't always get to work on these things full time but we do have engineers at various suppliers working in parallel under my guidance.

I basically started over on the larger LED models as I wasn't happy with the heat vs. light output. Using a new kind of PCB to experiment with that and see how well it does in heat management. Also re-designed the power supply as well again. So we're behind a bunch on it but it will be a better product for the polishing. Better to wait and get it right but it will be worth it.
 
I'd like to order a 256 LED Spot. Which battery option NP-F970 or D54S? I currently don't have either type of battery. This will be used low budget indie films. So which battry type is the most economical but still reliable?

Thanks Tiana
 
I personally like the Sony better myself. If I didn't have either one and just was buying one for the fixture, I'd go for the Sony--longer run time than the Panasonic too.
 
Thanks for your reply. I'll go with the Sony.

With the LED600 is the V-mount the best to go with? Also if I bought the LED 600 now could I buy the battery mount later or is it best to buy together?

Also since the Red cameras are optimized for daylight the 5600 K lights would best?

Thanks Tiana
 
Vmount is best to go with only if you already have V mount batteries, as with a RED camera for example. Personally, I prefer AB mount types, I like the 3 large contacts better.

On color temperature, yes I think the consensus is that something in the range of 5000K to 6000K is best for the RED camera as they say their sensor is optimized for around 5000K. We do have a few 5000K LED 600s left at this time as well for those that like a bit "warmer" daylight than the normal 5600K. If interested in those 5000K units (its a special order item, not available for ordering online), just send an email to info@coollights.biz. Thanks and let me know if you have other questions.
 
Why cool mounts are cool... they run on Red Bricks... a long time.

LOVE LOVE these lights.
4336247147_cc60ff8a21_o.jpg
 
Shout out

Shout out

And one more thing...

Richard stands behind his products.

I had a power supply for one of his LED panels fail on me a couple of weeks back, and he took care of me pronto.

Thanks Richard, I look forward to the new shipment coming in.

Cheers,

Steve
 
Hi Richard,
I have tried to contact you through your site's contact form and directly through the e-mail address you listed above but have had no reply. I presume that there must be a technical problem somewhere as all reports suggest you are very responsive normally. Perhaps there is an over zealous spam filter somewhere in the works?

Anyway, I thought as last resort I would post my questions here.

Basically I am looking to buy/slowly build up a small lighting kit from scratch, on a low budget. As I see myself shooting documentaries esp interviews and projects in remote locations (jungles, mountains and wild places) as a significant part of my work alongside some drama (which I doubt I would be providing the lights for) I was thinking of your LED lights as a flexible, easily powered, lightweight starting point. Would you or other readers of this forum recommend these as a basic starting point? Are they really powerful enough (and durable enough) for these kinds of applications?

As I built out from the LED sources I would like to add a hard light to my kit and was looking at the CDM 150. I was however concerned by the length of the cycle up and restart times. As I am not very experienced with lighting (in the past I tended to shoot available light on docs or be Directing Drama so never had the need to work directly with them often) I would probably find myself trying things out and repositioning lights a lot when setting up. Would I be likely to damage the light if I moved it a few feet on it's stand whilst it's on? I can't see myself being able to wait 5 minutes every time I move it before i can turn it back on and see the results. Any advice/clarification here?

Also, is there anywhere or anyone in the UK (ideally London or East Anglia) who rents these lights or who has samples I can take a look at? That would be really appreciated if possible.

Many thanks, and sorry for the naive/noobie questions.
 
Thanks guys for your comments.

Hi Quentin,

I sent you a reply on 1/5 and then got another email on 1/23 from you which indicates you never got the 1/5 one so there is definitely a tech issue somewhere there. Spam filter perhaps.

Anyway, on LEDs, yes I think the LED 600 is ideal for the settings you described. Many are using it in those kinds of scenarios already and its hard to get much more compact than that.

On the CDM 150, if moving around a lot, there could potentially be problems with the bulb as there could be with any lit fixture moving around from tungsten to flo to HMI (not LEDs though!). In practice, I'm sure many (I've done it too--yes I confess, but I'm super careful too) move the light while its on but "best practices" would dictate turning any light off before moving it and that's the answer anyone would have to give you to be what we would call safe. So, yes in that scenario, being safe, it would be a lot of trouble to extinguish it, move it, then relight after 5m. Hot restart HMIs of course don't have that issue and can be relit immediately but they are also more expensive because of the extra complications involved.
 
Hi Richard,

Just got your latest message, thanks for persisting. I don't know what happened to the earlier replies but I'm glad you finally got through.

Thanks for the advice on the CDM.

Meanwhile anyone else's experiences using the LED 600 in harsh, wet or other difficult environments would be great. Also what kind of run ties are people getting when running off batteries (please mention the battery type you are using and it's age).

Does anyone use these exclusively for their interviews - do they ever find them selves wanting for more power? A softer or harder source?

Would others recommend an LED 600 as a starting point for interviews? I would add a reflector or two and small catch light and combine with natural light in most instances. I guess the LED 600 plus softbox could be a usefull fill when in natural light and with or without softbox provide a key with a reflector for fill and a little catchlight for eyes or hair/rimlight use is my thinking right here or would it be a little underpowered for this?
 
Hi Quentin,

LED 600 spot plus softbox makes a very good key. Many are using them as their first "interview kit". As for wet environments, there are air vents on the top and bottom of the unit, so always use caution around dripping water. Otherwise, it should perform well in high humidity.

I get run times of 1 1/2 hours on my 140WH RED battery and over 3 hours on an AB 190WH battery I have.
 
Interviews

Interviews

Quentin_B said:
Hi Richard,

Just got your latest message, thanks for persisting. I don't know what happened to the earlier replies but I'm glad you finally got through.

Thanks for the advice on the CDM.

Meanwhile anyone else's experiences using the LED 600 in harsh, wet or other difficult environments would be great. Also what kind of run ties are people getting when running off batteries (please mention the battery type you are using and it's age).

Does anyone use these exclusively for their interviews - do they ever find them selves wanting for more power? A softer or harder source?

Would others recommend an LED 600 as a starting point for interviews? I would add a reflector or two and small catch light and combine with natural light in most instances. I guess the LED 600 plus softbox could be a usefull fill when in natural light and with or without softbox provide a key with a reflector for fill and a little catchlight for eyes or hair/rimlight use is my thinking right here or would it be a little underpowered for this?
Click to expand...

The two screen caps are using LED600s only. Two floods on either side of talent. One at 100% with 80% power (in other words not all of the bulbs are on) the other at 40% power.

The hair light is a LED Spot I believe.. VERY low setting..

We don't use the dimmer much to avoid color shift. There's a fantastic video on these things in the RED101 DVD.. But this should at least give you an idea in a "real world" setting..

Ok.. This is not ONLY an LED600 shoot.. We did use a source 4 on the chairs in back.

Very fast setup.. Very light.. Gotta love it

Jay
 

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