Let's talk lighting

[John Delonghi]

I got screwed by Amazon. Bought a bunch of the 48 watt automotive LEDs. They claim 48 watts, they actually use only 8 watts.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M7TG8ID/ref=od_aui_detailpages01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Getting ready to return these units. Might have to go with a build-it-yourself approach.

To be fair to them, they don't claim they consume 48W in power, they say they are 48W LED output power.
All those LED spots of different types use '3W' LEDs in various arrays, so on that lamp they are using 16 x 3W = 48W.

I have four of those same spots and they're not to bad really, probably fairly close to the claimed LED output power, but they don't compare to the 100W Stratus.

[NoDak]

I got screwed by Amazon. Bought a bunch of the 48 watt automotive LEDs. They claim 48 watts, they actually use only 8 watts.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M7TG8ID/ref=od_aui_detailpages01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Getting ready to return these units. Might have to go with a build-it-yourself approach.

To be fair to them, they don't claim they consume 48W in power, they say they are 48W LED output power.
All those LED spots of different types use '3W' LEDs in various arrays, so on that lamp they are using 16 x 3W = 48W.

I have four of those same spots and they're not to bad really, probably fairly close to the claimed LED output power, but they don't compare to the 100W Stratus.

They should then claim 48 watt equivalent, like all the incandescent replacement LEDs do.

[John Delonghi]

If only all manufacturers of lamps adhered to a common standard, life would be so much easier, but they don't and you'd still get exaggerated claims from the Chinese who generally don't care about misrepresenting their product's specifications.

[Fyodor]

As suggested above, I bought some 100W LEDS, drivers, water cooling... but actually couldn't find the time to assemble it all together. Electronics is not my comfort zone anyway.

When we did some test runs in our lab at work this Wednesday, I brought my Chronos andmy boss brought some old foto studio lights with 1000W halogen burner!

Surprisingly that was absolutely flicker free!

Because halogen is considered outdated these days, these lights are very cheap (I now bought 3 on ebay for 40€ total incl. shipping) and give a very good warm white light.

The downside is, that the cheaper ones don't have built in fans, and can be used for 5 minutes only before they need to cool down. But that's why I bought three of them .

[thebishop]

Feedback on the godox: no flicker at 9k FPS at least, so looks good so far!

[John Delonghi]

I've just been doing some more tests with the Stratus lights and I've noticed some flicker at high frame rates I didn't see before.

I'm going to try a different power supply on one to see if that makes any difference but above 7000fps it's quite noticeable at the moment. Strange I didn't notice it before.

I've got an Aputure 300D LED light I'm comparing against the Stratus and I was surprised to find that even using a fresnel on the 300D, the Stratus holds it own against a light costing 7 times the price, but the flicker could be a problem if i can't solve it.

Incidentally, the Aputure also flickers if I set it below 100%, but I doubt I'll ever want to run it on anything other than full power with the Chronos.

Has anyone else using the Stratus seen flicker?

[John Delonghi]

Stratus have a new driver board and I've just taken delivery of some and swapped one of the existing boards with a new one.

I've gone up to 38.57kfps with 2.830us exposure and can't see any flicker now. I'm just about to upgrade the other 3 Stratus lights I have with the new driver boards.

The new boards are clearly labelled "100W LED Driver V2" on the back so you can tell if you have the ver. 1 or ver. 2 boards.

I'd say the 4 x Stratus and 1 x Aputure 300D is going to be a good lighting kit.
There's a lot of light there and it all packs up into a couple of cases and will not stress a domestic circuit. It should all run off a 2KW generator if necessary.

[Nikon1]

Anyone ever Tryed the 500W LED-Chips from Ebay?

[dominoguru2]

I bought a godox 100W and it doesnt't flicker however the lighting is so dark still. I am not sure how many Godox I need to buy until the lighting is good like my slr which lighting is perfect every time. With good lighting comes good quality slo motion videos. With not so good lighting, the quality is not good.  Chronus is a very expensive hobby.

[Nikon1]

I bought a godox 100W and it doesnt't flicker however the lighting is so dark still. I am not sure how many Godox I need to buy until the lighting is good like my slr which lighting is perfect every time. With good lighting comes good quality slo motion videos. With not so good lighting, the quality is not good.  Chronus is a very expensive hobby.

Depends mostly on how big of a Scene you want to Light with that one 100W LED-Light. Also depends a Lot on your exposure-Time /Framerate.
If you want to Light some small part of your Desk and take some Macro-Shots in Slow-Motion, it should be Plenty of Light for most of the time.
If you want to Light a football-Field (realy stupid big example) with that one 100W LED you will run into problems, even with Modern DSLR´s for normal Video.
The closer you (can) place your Light to the Object, you want to Light, the brighter it will be.
And if you have a smaller Area to Light up, it will also be Brighter.
If you want to Light something of the size of an normal Room you will need quite some Light for that, even at "just" 1500fps.
.
I did hear a Fimmaker once say, that you should invest as much money into Lighting than you spend on the Camera you are Using, if you want a realy good result.
And i think, that especialy for Highspeed-Video it is mostly true. An exception might be, if you are able to Use Sunlight (and maybe reflectors) all the time when you are Filming.

[Nikon1]

If you could find a cheap way to Power and Cool those 500W LED-Chips, it might be a realy cheap way of getting Tons of Light:
https://www.ebay.de/itm/500W-Watt-High-Power-LED-Lamp-Chip-60000LM-Natural-white-Light-60-70V-5500K/222391258897?hash=item33c78d4f11:g:MxwAAOSwciVXP81z
I have not tried those one yet myself.
But i Have a Giant Heatsink Lying around, which could take 2000 to 3000W for sure.
My Plan was to buy four of those LED´s for a Total of 2000W LED-Power.
Because we have 230V here in Germany i wanted to use some easy circut with an transformer to boost the Voltage from the Wall a bit up to 280V and build an simple Current-Regulator.
That would give me a portable, passive cooled 2000W LED-Lamp for around 300€, because i have the Heatsink, an Transformer and most of the other stuff already lying around here.
If i want to use the Lamp for Longer at a time, i maybe need to add a Fan then.

[dominoguru2]

Anyone tried these lights. I hope it doesn't flicker

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01NCJSK5V/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A25BIGUW7MK12R&psc=1

I am planing to buy two of these lights in additional to my Godox. Yes I only do macro shots and hopefully it works ok

[Fyodor]

That's a very interesting light! It can be battery powered, and there is a great bundle on amazon.de that includes two lights and stands and four batteries and loaders. I think'll give that a try, because I needed battery powered lights anyway.

But I start to feel an urgent need for an aluminum crate to carry all that stuff by now...

[John Delonghi]

Anyone tried these lights. I hope it doesn't flicker

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01NCJSK5V/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A25BIGUW7MK12R&psc=1

I am planing to buy two of these lights in additional to my Godox. Yes I only do macro shots and hopefully it works ok

Look at the power consumption - 40W @12-15V. That's not going to be a bright enough light for our needs.
It's maybe similar output to the Godox LED500.
I've got a Godox LED1000 and I don't find it much use for high speed work other than maybe using it as a weak fill-in.

[CS223]

Wanted to chime in and keep the info in one thread. I bought a couple of the StratusLED V2 units with the parabolic reflectors. Made a quick measurement with a no name light meter for a general idea: @1M 60,000 Lux, @2M 17,000 Lux, @3M 7000 Lux, @4M 4000 Lux, I rounded down. Didn’t have a second connector to wire them both up. Going to work on a simple housing and mount idea next.

And per another thread, David said to figure on 7 Lux per FPS as a rough calculation. I’m a little curious as to the relationship to shutter speed as well.