NAB 2014-Whatcha' looking for?

[Tv Shooter]

As the subject says…if you are going to NAB, what are you looking for to buy? Not think about, dream, or bitch about everything that the new XYZ doesn't do….actual stuff you need to add to your gear package?

Me: I'm looking to add a couple of LED lights, and am looking at Nila Zaila lights as the front runner right now. Also, looking at various pieces to make my New F5 as versatile as it can be. This includes an 3rd party adaptors for my wide angle ENG zoom, as well as possibly pick up some other lenses. Also looking for a new 7-9" monitor (Small HD amongst the main ones) and a slider for time lapse and motion control. I l ike the Kessler that is out, but will be looking for any other versions before buying.

My criteria for buying: it has to be available now. Not 6 months, not Q3, not "soon". My biggest pet peeve aside from lowball Craigslist types, is companies getting me all hyped up about their newest, latest, greatest, and then it's either not delivered on time, or it's not released with full capability that was promised to be.

I'm also looking to pick up some sort of device that will allow me to stream direct from the camera. This looks to be a big year for such things, and there are a lot of options. Teradek has several, as well as a couple others.

Tvshooter
Stimulating the economy, one NAB at a time.

 

[Douglas]

I'm not looking for anything in particular this year, but I always enjoy discovering the unexpected things that you "just gotta have" once you see them.

 

[JordanHall]

Hi Richard,

Glad to hear that you're interested in the Zaila. I am the Western Region Manager for Nila and would be glad to give you a private demo of all of the fixtures in our lineup at the show this year. You are of course welcome to stop by the booth at any point, but if you have any questions leading up to NAB or wish to schedule a private meeting, feel free to reach me at my "jordan@nila.tv" e-mail address.

The Zaila is quite a powerful fixture given the size & power draw, and I think it's also quite a great value as well.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Thanks,
Jordan Hall

 

[Starman]

Those look cool. Anybody have trouble mixing brands of LED's? I ordered a Litepanels Hilio and Sola4 from Bexel's Olympic sale. I'm also looking at trying out the Dracast lights for a demo, boasting a high CRI as well.

 

[Tv Shooter]

Hi Jordan,
I have a friend here in Atlanta that owns a couple of Zailas. I've been to the Nila booth the last couple years, but had other things that I needed to spend money on. I'll touch base with you next week, and definitely look you up at the show.

 

[Run&Gun]

Those look cool. Anybody have trouble mixing brands of LED's? I ordered a Litepanels Hilio and Sola4 from Bexel's Olympic sale. I'm also looking at trying out the Dracast lights for a demo, boasting a high CRI as well.

It's been my experience that you can't mix different brands of LED lighting fixtures. I have some Litepanels fixtures(1x1 daylight and a few Sola ENG's). I demo'd a Philips panel and borrowed a friends Cool Light panel (all daylight) at the same time to see if you could mix them together. You can't. The Philips was the closest to the LP and the cool light was the farthest away, in terms of matching. Individually they are ok, but you need to stick to the same brand if you're going to use multiple LED fixtures together in the same shot. No shocker here, the LP was the 'whitest' and the CL had the most noticeable green push.

 

[The Thing on The Sticks]

It's been my experience that you can't mix different brands of LED lighting fixtures. I have some Litepanels fixtures(1x1 daylight and a few Sola ENG's). I demo'd a Philips panel and borrowed a friends Cool Light panel (all daylight) at the same time to see if you could mix them together. You can't. The Philips was the closest to the LP and the cool light was the farthest away, in terms of matching. Individually they are ok, but you need to stick to the same brand if you're going to use multiple LED fixtures together in the same shot. No shocker here, the LP was the 'whitest' and the CL had the most noticeable green push.

The real question here is that with the High CRI fixtures that are hitting the market now (95)+ Is the green as much of an issue? What little I have seen from these is they are very "white" with very little green push. Or to put it another way will the green tint soon be a thing of the past?

 

[2000lux]

I find that the cheaper lights usually have a green tint, but some have a magenta tint. I cary some 1/8th green and magenta gels to counteract either when I have to work with a client's lights.

I too am waiting for NAB before I purchase any LED lights. I want some with a CRI in the 90's. The higher the better (I hope). However, I don't want to spend $2,500 each on LitePanels units.

I was ready to buy some Flolight 800 Bicolor Flood units months ago, but they stopped making them, and I haven't found any on e-Bay. Those would have been about $1000 + each.

I guess a good fluorescent fixture like a Diva is about $1000. Hrmmm.

I just have a hard time mentally justifying paying $2500 for one light when my Arri Soft Bank 1 kit with four lights cost about the same amount.

 

[Starman]

All good points. I am going to try the Dracast for a 15 day demo and I will use them with the Sola4 and Hilio's to see how they match up. I was thinking if the CRI is high for both, they could work well together, but I will test this and if they don't, I can just send the Dracast lights back.

 

[Ken]

I'm just going to follow Richard around and buy whatever he buys.

 

[JordanHall]

Hi Jordan,
I have a friend here in Atlanta that owns a couple of Zailas. I've been to the Nila booth the last couple years, but had other things that I needed to spend money on. I'll touch base with you next week, and definitely look you up at the show.

Sounds great, feel free to e-mail me throughout the show to schedule a private demo. Otherwise, we'll be at the booth all week and I look forward to seeing you there!

 

[JordanHall]

All good points. I am going to try the Dracast for a 15 day demo and I will use them with the Sola4 and Hilio's to see how they match up. I was thinking if the CRI is high for both, they could work well together, but I will test this and if they don't, I can just send the Dracast lights back.

Something that I always suggest is, if possible, test a light with your camera rather than relying on CRI. The measurement of CRI is not as useful for LED lights as it is for CFL or metal halide lights. The result is that even a low-scoring CRI LED may produce beautiful light that renders perfectly on-camera without any green spike, whereas a fixture that quoted a higher CRI may not. As a result, we at Nila do not publish CRI in our marketing materials, though some dealers & competitors have performed this test and found our fixtures to be top notch.

You are correct that fixtures from different LED manufacturers may not always match. Typically, a higher-end fixture will use an LED with a better color rating, which does have an impact on price. With Nila fixtures, and a handful of other manufacturers, the lights are engineered to maintain color throughout an incredibly long lifespan (well over 20,000 hours) without risk of any degredation. Of course your Nila lights will match with each other, but we have also found that many broadcast customers use our lights in conjunction with both Tungsten & Flourescent systems without any issues.

Feel free to email me directly at jordan@nila.tv if you have any questions about our lighting systems. As I said earlier on this board, we'll have a booth at NAB if anyone would like to see our fixtures in person.

 

[JordanHall]

The real question here is that with the High CRI fixtures that are hitting the market now (95)+ Is the green as much of an issue? What little I have seen from these is they are very "white" with very little green push. Or to put it another way will the green tint soon be a thing of the past?

You still may seen that "green spike" on a lower cost LED fixture, as one of the ways to save cost when manufacturing the light is to source lower-graded LEDs in regards to color. With a Nila light, I don't think you would find any issue with green rendering and our Daylight is regarded as one of the highest color-quality LED arrays on the market.

Feel free to email me directly at jordan@nila.tv if you have any questions about our lighting systems. As I said earlier on this board, we'll have a booth at NAB if anyone would like to see our fixtures in person.

 

[Focused]

shopping list

Believe it or not, this year its the simple things.

Looking at battery options. A prompter set up and of course the LED lights. I have a couple but am always looking to see what is around the corner next. Might not buy it or even use it, but just knowing about it helps when talking things over with a producer who read up on the "latest fad."

Going with a friend looking at small multi cam sets ups so we'll be by the studio in a suit case booths.

And Starbucks.