Author Topic: Lights on the go  (Read 15805 times)

staticfan5525

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Lights on the go
« on: September 11, 2020, 01:21:13 PM »
I've searched this and a couple other forums, but didn't find anything that fit our needs... I'm looking for battery powered light that will help recording outdoors on-the-go.

I see tons of options for plug in movie quality lighting, I see tons of options for people who bought LED's and rigged their own home-brew power sources, etc. I see no options for affordable (<$300) hand held, push the button, let there be light. Help please?!?!!??

I've tried a few "tactical flashlights", and they all flicker except for a "Nitecore P16 TAC" which has a 100% duty cycle at max brightness. But it's only 1000 lumens, and it helps, but not bright enough for the 6-20kfps videos we're doing. Anybody know of anything off the shelf that will work for me?


Nikon1

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Re: Lights on the go
« Reply #1 on: September 11, 2020, 01:25:59 PM »
Well, there are Pretty good portable, battery powered Lights ready to buy, but good luck finding anything under 300$ without Some Kind of DIY.
 Bright, Flicker-Free, Good color Quality Lights cost a pretty penny. And Battery powerd, nice, easy to use ones even more so!
 Dont know what you trying to shoot, but 20kfps on an Portable Light can get interresting/ Expensive if you try to shoot Larger Scenes.

CS223

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Re: Lights on the go
« Reply #2 on: September 11, 2020, 01:29:34 PM »
I bought a couple of these Stratus LED units with the reflector. I haven’t put them through their paces yet but they are a reasonably cost effective solution if you don’t mind making your own mounts to hold them.

https://www.stratusleds.com/module

Nikon1

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Re: Lights on the go
« Reply #3 on: September 11, 2020, 01:43:54 PM »
I bought a couple of these Stratus LED units with the reflector. I haven’t put them through their paces yet but they are a reasonably cost effective solution if you don’t mind making your own mounts to hold them.

https://www.stratusleds.com/module
Well, from What i understood, staticfan5525 wants some ready to use unit/ Light without need to build / make anything himself. Like a Flashlight. There are Plenty of High-Power LED-Modules around, but you will always need to do some DIY stuff to get them Working. In that case, maybe consider Lamps like Krontech offers on their Website https://www.krontech.ca/store/Lights-c27519001 , some of those Type can be run Battery powered also. Then again there are LED-Panels which will run from V-Mount Batteries or Standard Sony Batteries. I have Some Dörr DLP820 Lamps with a bunch of Tripods and 190Wh V-Mount Batteries, but the Batteries on them selfs are allready like 200$, so...
 As i allready said, its kind of a decision between how much money you want to spend and how much DIY you want to get involved.
 If money is not a Problem, might as well get a bunch of Arri Skypanels with Batteries, about as Serious as it gets while beeing really bright, but dont even ask about the Price of those.
 As Far as DIY goes, there are A couple of even far Cheaper options than what CS223 Linked, but then Prepare for some Serious DIY project.
 Whatever Kind of Butget and Final Light Setup you are Going for here, there is plenty of options around!

staticfan5525

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Re: Lights on the go
« Reply #4 on: September 11, 2020, 01:57:04 PM »
Thanks for the quick info already guys!

For scenes, we're looking at 6-12 sq-in, so we don't need a large area of light, which helps! At the higher speeds, we're also looking at events that create some light themselves (namely muzzle flashes, gasses going through compensators, etc.), so we have gotten by with mostly black backgrounds and picking up the bits of light which are more important to us.

Buy-charge-click on is preffered, and I didn't notice that the one Godox light in the Chronos was battery powered the first time I looked! But we're cheap, um, I mean efficient with our money use...

The Stratus "mount on a board, attach a battery, plug in a switch and a pot" get up is about as "DIY" as we'd want to get, and that actually looks pretty good... I might go that route if nothing easier/cost effective comes about...

Thanks for your help guys!

NiNeff

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Re: Lights on the go
« Reply #5 on: September 11, 2020, 11:11:25 PM »
I bought a couple of these Stratus LED units with the reflector. I haven’t put them through their paces yet but they are a reasonably cost effective solution if you don’t mind making your own mounts to hold them.

https://www.stratusleds.com/module
I have five or six of them and they work great! Do however be careful to not fully discharge your batteries with them, as they don't have any control circuits to prevent damage to your cells and will just run as long as physically possible. Or add a small battery management chip depending on the type of battery you intend to use.