Lighting

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Canon-T3i_LetusCage-900LED (2)

Canon-T3i_LetusCage-900LED (1)

Because the 900 LED panels can be battery powered, it's fairly easy to use this as a portable On-Camera video light. Here it's shown mounted on the Letus DSLR Cage with Canon T3i + 18-55mm IS II lens. I'm just kidding..it's a joke people. Don't get too serious about this post. You all know I would never be seriously caught going out with this type of setup. I mean, who can take the 18-55mm stock lens seriously? LOL. Now to mount this to a shoulder rig...yeah..now we're talking.. (kidding guys..kidding)

900-500-LED (3)

900-500-LED (2)

900-500-LED (1)

A common question right now is, why the 900's? Well the 900's is a happy medium sitting right in between the 600 & 1200 LED lights. I can't complain since the 900's already push out twice the light as the older 500 LED panels. An upgrade is an upgrade. Also as seen in the images (above) I can fit (2) 900 LED light panels into standard sized Carry On luggage and room to spare for my power cords. The 500 LED panels were a bit beefier and would be impossible to fit two. You can check out more images and specs about these new LED light panels over at Amazon available for Prime - Click Here.

600 LED 900 1200 Video Light Panel
find-price-button Dimmable LED Video Light Panels

• 19 Comments

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900-LED-Video-Light

I setup (3) of my new 900 LED Video light panels against the 500 LED panels. These things really put out some power. Obviously there's more light output than the older 500 LED panel, but the color and throw is a world of difference. The 900 LED panel has an AC power cord that outputs 15V, and terminates to an 'N' size (Radio Shack) pin. This is the same size pin the Z96 and 352 LED Ring light uses. So I quickly threw on a variety of my DIY batteries to test total light output.

With the 900 LED panel powered from a 12V battery, the light turned on but was pretty dim. Using my (2) RC batteries joined together to 14.4V, the light was at full power. The third light I connected to AC power (15V) and was exactly at the same output as the one running on RC batteries 14.4V. I left the LED on full power using the RC batteries (fully charged) and after about an hour the light began to dim.

So it's possible to power these LED lights from a portable battery pack, but you'd need something that was at least 14V and fairly large to get some decent run time out of them. Even though they come with the V-Lock Battery mount, that might not be enough time to be worth the high cost of those batteries. Time to find a solution...

900-led-video-light-panel
find-price-button 900 LED Dimmable Photography Video Camera DSLR 5400K/3200K Lighting Light Panel Sony V Mount battery Adapter INCLUDED 14V OUTPUT 110V-230V

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These 'other style' LED lights are popping up everywhere you look, especially on eBay were most of the LED Video lights start out. At first glance the style is similar to the Comer light, but it's not the same, and it's not even half the price of even the 'generic Comer'. The above video review from Vimeo member Olivia shows some sample use with the LED-5001 (or sometimes called VL5001). Positioned over the GH2 you can see it's relative size, and it doesn't look very tiny. From the review, it looks like it has decent overall light output, but a little spotty without the diffuser.

The LED-5001 video light kit has (3) LED's, comes with a folding Diffuser, Tungsten Filter, and two barn doors. Nice to have all those filters and gels in one place rather than thrown in your bag. The LED kit also comes with a battery charger and Sony compatible 7.2V rechargeable Lithium Battery - and yes it's also Dimmable. Run time? Not sure, but looks like you can still mount Sony's double sized 7.2V battery as opposed to the smaller one provided with the kit. [Thanks Olivia]

LED-5001-DSLR-Video-LightLED-5001-battery-pack
find-price-button Dimmable Video LED Light Lithium battery with Charger 4 Leaf Barndoor For on Camera DSLR Video

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I couldn't make it out to the studio just yet, so I decided to shoot a 'First Glance' video of the new LED Light Panels hitting the market. This one in the video is the 1200 LED version, but they are available in 600 and 900 LED counts. Some versions are available with V-mount battery adapters and all lights are dimmable. We ran some color temperature tests just using the meters in the Sony EX1 and they had excellent results being 5600K and 3100K with the provided tungsten (yellow) filter.

I'll have to do a side by side comparison, but the 600 LED version of this new panel is said to throw light further than the older (more popular) 1000 LED panels. The 1200 LED panel i'm playing with here is 'extremely' light weight. Much easier to pack, travel, and handle than the other versions. Uh and FYI, I'm considering posting my (3)pcs 500 LED kit online very soon to upgrade to more of these. When that happens, you'll find it in the Cheesycam Classifieds.

600-LED-Video-Light
find-price-button 600 Led Light Weight Studio Photo Light Dimmable Video Photography Lighting Sony V mount Battery adapter 14.8V DC 110V-230V

900-led-video-light-panel
find-price-button 900 LED Dimmable Photography Video Camera DSLR 5400K/3200K Lighting Light Panel Sony V Mount battery Adapter INCLUDED 14V OUTPUT 110V-230V


1200-LED-Video-Panel
find-price-button 1200 LED Dimmable Video Light Panel Still Photography Studio Portrait Lighting 24V DC, 110V-230V

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Should the available US links (above) be out of stock, then you can find them over seas (below)
600-LED-Video-Light
find-price-button eBay 600 LED, 900 LED, and 1200 LED Dimmable Video lights

• 29 Comments

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600-900-1200-LED-Video-Lights1200-900-600-LED-Video-Light-Panels

There's been some new LED Video panels floating around the Internet, but mainly coming from over seas companies. Not much has been said about these panels, probably because someone is waiting to hear what the quality is like. Well now it's finally available via Amazon and ships from the US. I got my hands on a set and I'm going to try to make it into the studio today and throw up some examples of these new LED Video Light Panels. So far we've been drooling over them for the past few days. These are from a different manufacturer and priced higher than the popular 500 and 1000 LED panels found here: http://cheesycam.com/bts-sample-with-cheap-500-led-video-light-panels/

These new 600, 900, and 1200 panels are thinner than the other models, extremely lightweight, dimmable, and can be powered via DC batteries. It sits centered in a Yoke mount which makes it easy to reposition and keep the units balanced. The biggest difference with this light compared to other ones is the 'throw' and color temperature. These LED panels throw light much further and is very bright. Putting the 1200 LED panel against a Sony EX1, the temperature was detected at 5600K - Yes! Throwing on the provided Tungsten filter, the Sony EX1 registered it as 3100K - very close. These new LED Panels come in 600 LEDs, 900 LEDs, and 1200 LEDs - all dimmable and options for Sony batteries V mount.

I'll have more information soon, but there's only a limited amount available from Amazon so im just giving you all a heads up. You can find out more information about them here.


600-LED-Video-Light
find-price-button 600 Led Light Weight Studio Photo Light Dimmable Video Photography Lighting Sony V mount Battery adapter 14.8V DC 110V-230V

900-led-video-light-panel
find-price-button 900 LED Dimmable Photography Video Camera DSLR 5400K/3200K Lighting Light Panel Sony V Mount battery Adapter INCLUDED 14V OUTPUT 110V-230V


1200-LED-Video-Panel
find-price-button 1200 LED Dimmable Video Light Panel Still Photography Studio Portrait Lighting 24V DC, 110V-230V

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Should the available US links (above) be out of stock, then you can find them over seas (below)
600-LED-Video-Light
find-price-button eBay 600 LED, 900 LED, and 1200 LED Dimmable Video lights

• 15 Comments

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Yongnuo-RF-603

Thanks to David for reminding me about Yongnuo's new RF603 Wireless Flash Triggers. The new RF603 version (replacing RF602) is both a transmitter and a receiver hence the name 'transceiver', so you can use each one as both. The old RF602 version required both a separate transmitter and reciever unit in order to work. There's a few more new features that make the RF603's a better buy if you don't already own a set, but a bit of bad news is that they are 'not' compatible with the older RF602's. Blah. I have quite a few of the RF602's.

One thing that might be confusing if you're looking at the product pages would be the difference between Canon and Nikon versions. The units are all the same and the difference is the provided shutter cable. The RF603 Transceivers can also act as a remote and receiver to fire your Camera's shutter wirelessly (sorry no video starting). You can find out more information about Yongnuo's RF603 following the link.

Screen shot 2011-02-25 at 11.19.42 PM
find-price-button Yongnuo Transceivers RF603 Wireless Flash Triggers

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Arri Alexa 352 LED RING LITE


Arri Alexa LED RING LIGHT screen shot

Gustavo from www.o2lighting.com writes in and provides a few BTS images of the 352 LED Ring Light on an Arri Alexa! That's one fancy camera, and i'm glad to see this thing in use by these guys. It definitely is a kick-ass ENG Light. Traditionally most people want to use this light by putting the lens through the center, but it can also be mounted as a top light or off to the sides with a light stand. [Thanks Gustavo]

I used my 352 LED Ring light with my lens through the center when working on a Steadicam setup mainly to try to keep things balanced. When the light is used off camera this LED Ring throws a very soft even diffused light that can be still be controlled via Dimmer. I have to say that the bracket that comes with the item pretty much sucks. The unit itself is awesome and very very lightweight. I removed the brackets from my unit and just used a Friction Power Arm to the hot shoe of my DSLR. You might have caught that in my video here: http://cheesycam.com/last-minute-glidecam-mods/

dimmable-352-ring-light
find-price-button 352 LED Ring Light with 12V AC Adapter

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So it was very last minute for me to get a 14v battery pack thrown together for my 352 Ring Light Steadicam project here: http://cheesycam.com/last-minute-glidecam-mods/. Now that I have a bit of time, i'm going to get off these non-pro looking RC batteries and rig up my 2 year old LP-E6 generic non-decoded batteries.

Gutting out some dirt cheap battery chargers and using them as dummy plates, i'll be able to wire two of them together and get a 14.4V power source that looks pretty snazzy. Other people have done this with just one battery to power up LCD monitors that only require 7volts. As you can see my 183 LED light normally powered from a 12V source was easily lit up with just 7V. Now setting them up together for 14.4V should suffice for many of my small items.

Since the guts are ripped out, you can use OEM Canon batteries, no need for Generic stuff, but the Generics run super super cheap too. I think i'll purchase more generic battery chargers + non-decoded batteries and have like 20 of them on hand to power up all kinds of stuff including my Ring Light and Z96 LED's.

Battery Chargers found here:
batteries-charger
find-price-button Uber Cheap LP-E6 Generic Battery Chargers

This link has a decent deal for both a battery + charger: Both LP-E6 Generic Batteries + Charger

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Z96-Powered-RC-Batteries

Remember the batteries I threw together for my Flying Ring Light? Turns out the Z96 uses the same connector as my 352 LED Ring Light. I think i'll stop by Radio Shack to get an exact part number and size on the fitting that's being used so that other people can make a DIY battery pack that will probably run this light for a full day...