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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 :)

The "LED" light Group Buy

KETCH ROSSi said:
How many others so far had a chance to see the Area 48 Soft LED fixtures @ NAB and what are your impressions, please share?
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I went to see them at Prolight&Sound in Frankfurt/GER today just because of this thread. I can confirm the positive feedback already stated here. The guys are very cool as well btw, they knew about this thread ;)
I'm a huge fan of soft diffused light and these fixtures deliver. Around their booth there unfortunately were a lot of club/event lighting fixtures flashing around in all sorts of colours, but I still got a pretty good idea about the output and quality (especially on skin) and I guess it's safe to say these produce great looking light on the subject without much additional tweaking.

Ketch, I'll have to check my balance to see if I can afford to order one right now, but I also have asked their German retailer to send me a demo-fixture so I can show it to our gaffer who couldn't attend me today. I hope I can get this done before the group-buy ends and will get back.
 
Great to hear Michael, I hope you do get in as the discount is substantial for lights such as this, and even so we are already at 20% Discount I wish to pass the 30 Units sold so that this Group Buy gets the full 25% Discount of the total Packages including accessories, and additionally I am awaiting confirmation for a possible equal discount on V-Lock Blue Shape Batteries and charger as part of this Group Buy, so that every one can have their Batteries too.


The fact of their even illumination spread and beautiful rendering on skin was what sold me immediately, the power, the portability, 0 to 100 digitally dimmer got me interested and all other qualities including very high true CRI and True Color rendering at both 3200k and 5600k via a use replaceable Phosphor Media was just acing on the cake, and this is why I got immediately a set of 3 for my self and tested on the Monochrome on the shot I posted at the beginning of this thread.
 
KETCH ROSSi said:
How many others so far had a chance to see the Area 48 Soft LED fixtures @ NAB and what are your impressions, please share?
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I did.
eventhough the person I talked to at the booth was not aware of the group buy but he did go through the whole aaspects of the light.
I am very much impressed by this light.
eventhough Ketch's words were enough for me to make my decision but now, having seen the product up close, I can't wait to have my hands on it.
thank you Ketch.
 
Not every one at the company is aware of the Group Buy which was arranged directly with the chief at B.B&S and Ulrik, their representative in Italy.


Shapour, I also like to thank you for the vote of confidence and trust in my words about the Area 48 Soft, since you wet the very first to participate in this Group Buy.
 
Only two temperatures James, 3200k and 5600k.

Again, this are via user replaceable Phosphor Media, so if you want both the 3200k and 5600k all you need is to buy only the exact amount of units you'll use in your set ups, and buy both versions of kelvin, that you'll replace accordingly to your shooting needs.


BTW, make sure you guys all provide me with an email address and quantity of fixtures you are good for in this group buy, then I'll pass them on to the guys in accounting at B,B&S and they'll contact you individually to take your order of units and accessories.
 
Ketch, What is the equivalent Watt output from the softbox ?

Rivai
 
Took a look at these wednesday morning. They looked GREAT!

I'm in for 2! Will send a PM, Ketch.
 
Actually I had almost completely forgot about the lights and this thread. Then Blair mentioned it to me at RED's member's only gathering tuesday after the show, so I checked them out wednesday morning in my whirlwind tour before heading to the airport. They looked good and I like the option of being able to use my VMounts to power them. I did check out some of the other remote phosphor lights on the floor and these looked like a great all-around solution. They're a good size with good output, reasonably priced, especially with the group buy. The light seemed to provide good coverage and was nice and soft for a compact LED fixture. Definitely one of the best thought-out remote phosphors on the show floor.

Thanks for putting this together, Ketch. :)
 
Thanks for sharing your tough and impressions about this fixtures Jeff, your opinion is highly valued of course and such nice things said by you about them, should surely say something about them.

Again, it is my pleasure and hope to continue to be able to put Group Buys together for this great community... ;)
 
Ketch,

You'll be happy to know that I have finally decided to buy TWO x lights.

It took me this long to read up on (almost) every other light on the planet.

What helped me decide in the end was:

+) I wanted a light source that is battery operatable.

+) The brightest output of LED (Remote Phosphor) lights is generally Daylight@5600k - but most of these lights have lower light fidelity @5600K than at Tungsten@3200K.

+) Ketch (and others) have (I believe) switched to 5600K over Tungsten. Also read (or should I say saw) that Tungsten on dark skin is not exactly flattering.

+) The most recent A48 diffuser is (unextended) 96 CRI @5600K - which is now as superlative as the Tungsten was last year.

+) There is one other competing soft light with remote phosphor that is equally bright. Competitor battery version is due in a few months. I queried some of the CRI data on the competitor site that was incorrect - and they have now updated it (the much higher correct values). @5600K this competing fixtures' Blue seemed over saturated and brighter, the Turquoise undersaturated. My gut feeling (ie guess) is that the lack of Turquoise relative to Blue peak influences skin colour ... and the Area48 must be better in this department as the (unextended) CRI @5600 is higher that the competitor (which in turn had slightly better yellows than the A48).

+) There is a modular system that enables the lights to be used both as soft or fresnel. Those lights have a fixed phosphor, and around 4700 lumens maximum vs the 10,000+ of the A48.
For me, I think next year may be the time to revisit the Fresnels. Next year, this fixture with have some healthy competition, have an additional mix of lower frequency Blue output (from a new Phosphor discovery), and I expect at least 3 times the efficiency (maybe more if Philips makes CREE get their Lab work into the marketplace in under 2 years).


I did have a design thought for BBS. Why not sell magnetic Black shapes that stick like 'fridge magnet' on the inside of the Shiny metal barn doors.
If we want the extra reflectiveness of the bare metal doors, we 'stick' the black out magnet on the Outside.
(this may be of no use!) On the reverse of each of the magnetic sheets - you could even have reflective colours (eg Red, Green, Yellow, Blue) that would enable 'fun' coloured light should the moment call for it.

Thanks,

AJ
 
Great to hear Antony!!

You have been the hardest to convince yet the one that has given the most input to this group buy as al your question have been answered and all others that are interested can read them all thanks to you for asking them, and the fact that you have decided to go with Area 48 Soft fixtures really means a lot and it is a huge compliment to this group Buy and myself but especially to the guys at B,B&S, which they earned a very hard to get Costumer with you!!

And now we are only 10 Units away to get to 25% discount, and still looking in to getting a possible 30% discount on some Blue Shape Batteries and charger too for this group buy!!
 
KETCH ROSSi said:
....
Snap Grid (Honey Comb) Accessory.

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Hey Ketch, when I was at nab i checked out the "snapgrid" and the "snapbox" that you showed at the start of this thread. I really like how quick they were to put on/off (5 seconds maybe), are real easy to transport. and can make huge changes to the lighting feel. I will be getting both the snapgrid and the snapbox after I know what their cost is.

I btw was also there while the high end academy muckymucks (that totally know lighting tech) were checking them out with those fancy light meters (that give the light rating numbers with the luminescence), looking over their shoulders the measurements looked real good considering there were other lights at the same location.
 
Yes Patrick,
this fixtures really did blow me away and feel in love immediately with them and got 3 to test and shoot indoors and outdoors and because I was finally happy with a LED fixture that I proposed this Group Buy so that others here could at last enjoy a truly great LED fixtures for their Film work, Photography work and interviews, both their luminance and color fidelity amongst all other great things about this fixtures got me as an immediate costumer.


that does make the world of a difference, same as when I used to sue Flashes in Photography a Honey Comb, their Snap Grid, makes the lighting controllable to a degree of precision trow to your subject and I love the fill of it, as for pricing I'll have all bits by begining of next week, so that every ne wil have a full list of what to order.

Btw, that SnapGrid is this one 2057 AREA 48 Soft DOPCHOICE 40 Degree snapgrid €250 $315

Awaiting pricing info on the SoftBox.
 
Checked out the Area 48's at NAB primarily to gauge build quality. A deal isn't really a deal if the gear can't hold up in the real world. Obviously I wan't able to drop one on the ground or hit it with a hammer ;-). That said, having used a number of "bargain" fixtures over the years I have a pretty good idea where typical failure points are. The Area 48's seemed solid with enough metal in key places to stand a chance.

Quality of the light is very difficult to determine in a NAB booth, but no red flags (or green spikes) jumped out at me. I asked one of the guys in the booth about throw - the LEDz were great up to about 6' and virtually gone by 10' - as even though the Area 48 is a soft source, it needs to be able to carry a decent percentage of its output at least 10' or I consider it too limited. He didn't have any photometric charts or other notes on throw. What say you on this subject Mr. Rossi?

Cheers - #19
 
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