Nino, I was wondering how those Cool Lights LEDs are working out for you? Are you still using them? Are they a good alternative to fluorescents? Do you use the 5600K ones and gel them down to 3200K? Just the 3200K ones? Both? Did they ever come out with a 1K?
After using LED for over a year I came to he conclusion that LED is not substituting any of my lights, it’s a new and very convenient addition to my arsenal of light. For many jobs it a time saver and often the only solution short of placing a generator outside. The low power consumption and battery power is the main advantage. Running cool is also a plus but I get that from my Kinos
LED fixtures don't give me the quality that I look for and get from my Kinos or Rifas, and I don’t see anything in the making that will change that anytime soon.
I don’t mix lights, particularly on the subject, I might use tungsten fresnel on the background as it doesn’t matter if colors are a bit off, I actually like when my background is warmer, when i use my standard 3200 lights I often add CTO to my background tungsten.
With the Cool Lights I use the -green filter that is supplied with the light as I noticed a slight greenish tint on the picture that white balancing doesn’t appear to remove but the filter does. The downside is that the filter reduces the output, is not important when using bare light but with the soft box is sometime a problem.
I've used them only on 5600 so far, the gel cuts the output too much. If I have to combine lights I prefer to add CTB to my tungsten light (mostly fresnels) and bring those up close to 5600.
Judging from the flood of e-mails that I get from manufacturers of LED products in China, the next NAB will be an LED show as far as lighting goes. Last year there were so many that I gave up trying to look in depth at new LED products, this year I’ll try to dedicate a little more time. Most of the new stuff the I’ve seen there was pure junk. I also hope that chinese manufacturers sent sales people who speak english. Don’t get me wrong I love cute smiles, but it was frustrating asking technical questions and getting smiles in return.
Looks like Cool Lights is running behind schedule in releasing their new 1K light, it was scheduled to be available this past summer. I had good luck with Cool Light and any problem was quickly resolved.
I treat all my equipment with kids gloves and LED needs a little extra care, they are not built to take rough handling like most lights used to be. TLC is in order. Of course I'm sure that the $2000 Light Panels are built much better, but I can get for of the other for the price of one. If I ever start using LED more frequently I will then look for a better built product, but until then the Cool Lights work just fine.
