Lighting

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radio-popper-px

Just so that it's clear, you don't need a set of RadioPoppers to enter the RadioPopper Contest. You don't even need to shoot a video outside of your bedroom. All it takes is a simple 30 second video of you talking about your favorite photography lighting tip. Here's a bit from the contest website:

Contest Instructions
Submit a maximum 30 second video showcasing or explaining your best photography tip. The tip does NOT have to involve a RadioPopper system, it just needs to be photography related in general (lighting, post-production, promotion, composition, etc.) The video production quality is not as important as the originality of your tip and presentation.

Today is the last day and you've got until midnight to enter the RadioPopper contest. You can also check out some of the other entry videos already posted found here: http://cheesycam.com/radio-popper-photography-contest/

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180-LED-Work-Lamp

Halogen shop lights are used for budget video lighting all the time, so why not LED shop lights? Alan Silva picks up the 180 LED shop light from Home Depot and seems to be pretty happy with it. I guess you can't complain picking up a 180 LED light with built in rechargeable battery for under $60 bucks. This light has actually come up a few times on this blog before, but as often as I go to Home Depot myself, they were always out of stock. Not sure what the temperature is, but if it's off, hopefully someone's going to come up with the right pattern of gels for color correction. Maybe Alan will send in some samples of this light in use, as i'm curious about it's light output. Unfortunately it's not sold online, but here's a link to the description: https://www.homedepot.com/Electrical-Electrical-Tools-Accessories-Work-Lights/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xgtZbm8p/R-100655277/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

Not something you'd throw on your camera, but there is several ideas that come to mind. A buddy of mine talked about shooting late night bike rides and meet-ups in the city, and was thinking about what portable lighting solution would work to help bring in some additional light. Throwing a few of these on some tall stands, i'm sure would do just fine. Since they would all be the primary source of light, white balancing would be of no issue. Designed to be used as tools, i'm sure they are durable for tossing around and hopefully with a bit moisture proof. The built in rechargeable battery keeps things pretty compact and beats dragging around a generator to the site. [Thanks Alan]

Closest thing I could find online were these:

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find-price-button LED Shop Light Rechargeable Battery Work Light

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If you're looking around for some great fresnel lights the first name anyone usually drops is 'Arri'. Above is featuring a three piece set of 650w Arri Fresnels. I've worked with these lights on a few sets, and they are everything everyone says they are. They do come in at a pretty penny too.

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find-price-button 3 Piece Arri 650w Fresnel Kit

Now check out the claims about these lights below. These are a couple of lights that i've been getting questions about, but i'm not familiar with them myself. Sometimes going by Blueline or JieTu, this three piece set of 650w Fresnels is a direct knock-off of the Arri kit going for a third the price. No joke when I say it's a direct knock-off, as it carries the same (looking) housing, and available in all the same sizes from 150-2000 watts Fresnel heads. All descriptions claim to be 'Like Arri', 'As Arri', or 'Perfect Clones to Arri'. Looking at the different retailers and sellers i'm curious as to why there isn't any negative reviews on these items.

There's not too much information about these 'other lights' on the web, but here's a video showing off one that's 'Arri-Like' going under the brand CineLight. I'm not saying CineLight is the same, but looks close enough to me and it definitely isn't an Arri. Has anyone used these, seen these, bought these? Leave a comment and share some info, since I can't answer the questions coming in.

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find-price-button Tungsten Fresnel Lighting Kits as Arri

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light panel 12 x 12 BI Color
find-price-button LitePanels 1x1 LED Video Light Color Changing Dimmable

If you aren't familiar with Bi-Color LED lights, these are the ones that allow you to change color temperature so you don't have to fully fuss with color correcting Gels to match ambient. Some very low tech tricks by just using two different colored LED's with a dimmer to mix and match. You can find some information about Bi-Color LED lighting here: http://cheesycam.com/color-changing-variable-color-led-video-lights/. Unfortunately, don't bother looking for those lights on Amazon they are only found on eBay since the worldwide shortage I was talking about.

On auction now is a BI-Color LED from LitePanels. Some of you might already be rocking these so it could be a sweet deal to add in to your existing collection. Cheapest you'll find these right now is still over $1500 each. Yeah we all know this 'particular one' won't sell for that starting bid of $100 US, but you still might be able to grab this used piece cheaper than it's retail price of $2500+ US found here on B&H Photo Video. Perhaps play that 'Price is Right' strategy and bid $1 dollar over the next guy...

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Light Camera Slider - Build from Martin Roberts

Martin Roberts is at it again with his interestingly suspenseful DIY videos. A short while back, he showed us a build video with his light portable DIY Crane, and this time he's back working on a lightweight camera slider. The entire video doesn't just show a budget DIY in the works, but is also shot using some budget techqniques. A bike LED lamp for lighting, a DIY crane for some shots, Canon T2i, the uber cheap Canon 50mm F/1.8 lens, Macro step up filters, and even the Sony NEX-5 was used.

[Thanks Martin]

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500-LED-Video-Lights

LED video lights are great not only because they are well diffused, durable, and generate low heat for close encounters. They also have a huge advantage when it comes to power requirements. If you've ever been out to a location shoot with some super hot tungstens, or HMI's you'll have to calculate the wattage of each head and seperate them into different power outlets so you're not blowing out fuses and circuit breakers. Blowing out the power in your location is bad news, and just brings things to a halt. Just one of the things you'll learn in Film School Lighting. Now that prices for LED tech has dropped, the cheap LED video panels I showed a while back pretty much flew off the shelves. It definitely seemed like it, but after talking to a few sources, it appears that the popular LED Video panels are now at a worldwide shortage. Looks like there is so much demand the manufacturer can't keep up. Part of the shortage is because many big name companies have bought these panels in huge amounts rebranding and marking up prices. Hopefully you're not depending on these things being available when your next project comes around, as they are slowly disappearing as we speak.

If you're a DIY type and are looking to save a few bucks, you might take a peek at some already assembled inexpensive LED light panels that comes complete with an AC power adapter. They are powered via 24v, so not too difficult to come up with a portable power solution as well. All you'll need is to come up with some type of light stand mount, and you should be good to go.

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find-price-button LED 24v Video Light Panel Assembly with Power Adapter

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radio-popper-system

If you missed the announcement, RadioPopper is holding a 'video' contest. RadioPopper makes some super fast wireless flash triggers, and some that maintain communication between the camera & flash without line of sight requirements. With that communication they are one of the rare triggers to support High Speed Sync wirelessly. Don't worry, the contest is not a difficult one where you need to show off award winning Photography skills. Just 30 seconds of showing or explaining your best photography lighting tips. They mention you can do this right from your basic webcam if needed. Since I have several RadioPopper PX's myself, I think i'll have to join in on this one. You can find more information at the link: https://www.radiopopper.com/contest

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One of the most popular inexpensive DSLR Video lights would be the CN-126. It's been featured many times on this blog and to this day is still one bargain that's hard to beat. The CN-126 contains 126 LEDs, hence the name 'CN-126'. If you haven't seen it, this article is a good reference: http://cheesycam.com/calling-all-lighting-experts-126-led-lights/. This was probably my first LED Video light for DSLR videography and still have three of them in use today. I carefully selected the CN-126 because it was cheap (at the time was about 350 dollars cheaper than comparables), was the right size, used several different battery types for more power options, and most importantly was 'Dimmable'.

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find-price-button 126 LED Dimmable Multi Battery LED Video Lighting

Aside from the 126 LED video light, the family of LED video lights available from this manufacturer include the bigger 160 LED down to the tiniest 48 LED.
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find-price-button 160 Dimmable LED Video Light

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find-price-button 48 LED Video Lighting Requires 2x AA Batteries

If you've done your research you'll even find the even bigger '183 LED Dimmable Video Light'. The 183 LED Light didn't fly off the shelves like it's smaller siblings, mainly because it was misunderstood. Unfortunate PR, but this also helped to keep prices down. Recently people have been very interested in the 500 LED Video Light Panels, but because of it's really directional light output (a feature of LED lights) small spaces proved to be work in diffusing the light from the larger panel. Another drawback on the 500 LED video light panels is that they work off of an AC outlet. This means you'll need power at your location, and also travel with tangly extension cords and surge protectors. Even if you can modify a small battery, you might be concerned about short run times from larger light panels. This is where the 183 LED Video light was designed for. A smaller unit than the 500 LED panel and packaged with it's own portable rechargeable power source.

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Because the 183 LED video light resembled it's smaller siblings, I believe people may have misunderstood it's purpose in life. It's not something that would be totally suitable to use on the hot shoe of a camera for Run and Gun. It's a bigger design and also exclusively uses an external battery pack. Instead, the 183 LED Video light would best be used as a portable video light similar in use as the 500 LED video panels. Throw it on a light stand and take advantage of the portable battery pack (included). The 183 'cannot' use AA batteries internally. There is only a connection for the 12V input. A nice addition is that the battery pack was designed with two outlets to power two 183's giving you hours and hours of LED lighting. Unfortunately due to poor marketing, it's been misunderstood, but you can see the design was to support two lights together with a portable battery solution mainly for stationary use like the 500 LED Video panel.
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Straight Bracket with Two Adjustable Flash Shoe Mounts

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(above) 183 LED next to 48 LED and Z96 Video LED Light

So if you've been eyeballing those 500 LED video panels but either couldn't afford it, or are turned off by the the lack of 'portable power' options, the 183 LED might fit the bill. You can travel with these lights without worry of an AC outlet and with it's power pack can shoot for several hours worry free. One thing to mention though is that the cord that comes with the unit is fairly short, but would be an easy task to snip down the middle and add some wire in between to extend. The best deal would be to grab a pair and get you up to 366 LEDs of broad diffused light, and two lights can be powered from a single battery. This setup would still be dimmable and each light can still be individually powered on or off. By grabbing a pair, you'd also have a spare battery set aside for even more hours worry free use. Pack all the items into a nice travel case, and you'll be set to add outdoor fill light or indoor studio video lighting wherever you might end up. While this is not a popular item for anyone looking to mount a video light 'on camera', these would work well for building a portable lighting solution set to be used 'off camera'.


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find-price-button 183 LED Dimmable Video Light Panel Digital Camera Video Camcorder DV Hot Shoe mount lighting Panel

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Canon OEM flashes are no joke when it comes to pricing, but also no joke when it comes to features. Regardless, there's a handful of people who may never even cross those extra abilities and are just looking for a flash that works. You might have caught Aaron's review of the Yongnuo 560 at this article: http://cheesycam.com/yongnuo-560-flash-review/, but now we've got another one to add to the list. Vimeo member Rick Elrod shows a bit of the Yongnuo 468 which supports TTL communication from the Canon camera. In simple terms, the flash meters through the camera in a few different ways and makes decisions for you. This Auto Pilot feature works great and is more often what you need, and very seldom what you don't need. So for those who want to go the manual route in those rare incidents, the flash can be set all manually as well. Got questions? Send them over to Rick via the Vimeo page here. [Thanks Rick]

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find-price-button Yongnuo 468 Speedlite Flash with TTL