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LED's or Fluorescents for DSLR shooting?
  • vicharrisvicharris

    So I'm sitting here looking at my 3 knockoff, Kino-Diva like fluorescent kit and wondering if I really need or want it anymore. They are big, heavy and pretty much a pain in the ass to set up, break down and god forbid we need to change the color temp on set! They do produce a great light and alot of it! Has anyone dropped the Flo's altogether and gone with LED's since they are getting better? I see the great deals on here now for the 302's and the 500's and wondering if they would produce a good enough light to take over what the Diva knock offs. The Diva lights are the 4 bank, 55 watt bulb ones btw. I already have a cheap 500 watt one I bought from someone a few months ago and of course it needs the minus green to not make it look like the opening of Joe Vs The Volcano but I love the fast set up and break down and added durability of no flo tubes. Thanks for any advice from ya'll out there!

  • 7 Replies sorted by
  • GabelGabel

    I have 3 Coollights and one LED. LEDs are awesome in that they are small, easy to setup and can use batteries. But the light from flos is MILES ahead of LEDs. LEDs have really bad color rendition, an ugly curve, green-spike and are far from being nice and soft. On a pro shoot LEDs are sometimes used as on-board lights, but never to big extents, because the only benefit is their size, not their look.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    I'll say you one thing. Current LEDs have one big disadvantage - phosphors. They are not good, they degrade other time due to heat.

    I am sure new trend in cinema lighting will be to separate light source and place phosphors far from heat, so you can use much cheaper materials, get very good CRI, and get this soft light you like so much in fluos.

    We saw some examples at NAB.

  • vicharrisvicharris

    @Gabel

    Yeah, I love the soft Kino light I get and they are great for GS of course. I also use the little 160 LED's when I need to punch in some light in a tight area but wasn't sure for lighting up area's like the Kinos. The 500 LED I have is great for a day fill light.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    You can try 900 led light (as I know it has one of the best quality) plus some 312 ones.

  • vicharrisvicharris

    @Vitaliy

    I'm probably going to grab the two pack of the 312's to take with me on a shoot in MIami to see how they perform. Should be more than enough with my 500 to give a little boost when I need it. Thanks for all the great deals!

  • alcomposeralcomposer

    Those 312's are a VERY good deal. May want to get 4- they are easy enough to set up, and suck almost no power- just make sure you charge up the batteries till full, as when the light runs down, it only illuminates half of the panel- so you may not notice that the light is dead straight away...

  • DrDaveDrDave

    I like BlueMax CFLs with different umbrellas, some reflecting, some translucent. High CRI 92+ makes the colors really pop, and I like just a bit of random reflections caused by the different types of diffusion of the umbrellas--softboxes give a bit more light but are too "beamy" sometimes. I'm sure high CRI LEDs are around the corner, but the ones I have tried are a bit mushy compared to the the High CRI CFLs. Now it may be that CRI is not so important in CFL, and this may be true, but if you AB the high CRI to the Home Depot special, I personally see a difference. Not to mention I like totally silent bulbs (which is a strong point on the LEDs). Buy one of each and see--cheap as chips.

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