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Lite Gear Lights..


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I don't know if you'll find a review really; but you will find them on almost every set here in LA. I use them, I don't own them; but there hasn't been a show on which I couldn't or wouldn't have used a lite-mat for something. Personally I find the 4 and the 1 the most useful; as well as all the car-rig kit.

Recently; used one of their china-balls. It was ok; were it not RGB (Eco ribbon) then i'd've not been as enthused, used it on a music video.

I'd honestly say well worth the money if you can get 'em. I kinda think of the "4" as the new kino 4x4 in a lot of ways; it's often utilized in a similar way, though also has more flexibility in it (and lighter).

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If you are looking for affordable yet reliable LED lights, look into Neewer 480/660/960 light panels. While it's a cheap brand, the lights are built like a tank, produce great color with no flicker, and are just all-around handy to have. I have 8 of these in my LED kit and use them almost exclusively. Litegear seems a little on the expensive side - though their strip lights might be worth looking into.

Edited by Landon D. Parks
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I love Lite Mat's; they are versatile, lightweight, and produce excellent color and intensity. Like what Adrian said, they're on practically every set in Los Angeles, and for good reason.

 

My only beef with the system are two things:

  1. The cable from ballast to head is weak; often there is an electrician on set re-wiring a unit or two because one of the cables got yanked out.
  2. Controlling the color temperature on the ballast isn't precise. It's essentially a turn dial knob with no clicking. You can turn the dial to 3200k, 5600k, etc and it's pretty close, but there's no read out for the precise color temperature (like the Sky Panel or Kino Celeb's would do).

Wrapping up with a positive note; these lights can run off AA's!

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If you are looking for affordable yet reliable LED lights, look into Neewer 480/660/960 light panels. While it's a cheap brand, the lights are built like a tank, produce great color with no flicker, and are just all-around handy to have. I have 8 of these in my LED kit and use them almost exclusively. Litegear seems a little on the expensive side - though their strip lights might be worth looking into.

Hey Landon, a quick question about these lights… do they display the colour temperature or the power level? From the photos on Amazon, I don't see any display.

Thanks!

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It doesn't have a battery meter on it, which kinda sucks - but I have timed out how long they last - 2 x NPF-970 fully charged batteries will power for about 2 hours at full brightness. There is also not a color temperature setting in the traditional sense. You basically dim up and down the yellow and white LED's to achieve your color temperature. Both dimmers turned to 100% gives you around 4400k. Really though, if you need a temperature reading, you'll need a light meter. You'll also need to do a white balance card when making changes.

 

There are easier lights to deal with, and I mostly use these LED panels when I'm at a location that doesn't have power or were 'quick in, quick-out' is needed, If I have time to set up a scene and have power, I mostly use my florescent kits - they produce more color-balanced light, and are brighter.

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  1. The cable from ballast to head is weak; often there is an electrician on set re-wiring a unit or two because one of the cables got yanked out.

Honestly I like the older connectors over the new connectors on the version 2. Yes, they can come out; but I have a little screw-driver and can fix that in 10 seconds (and generally it happens when you're building them in the first p lace).

I also really like that I can build more wiring for them (out of speaker wire or even the lamp cord we have) if I need to do some kind of special run etc.

 

As for the Ribbon; there are soo many uses for it. Wrap it around a card-board tube and put it into a china ball, for example ,or stick it up in the head-liner of a car, for car lighting, or, put it on a laptop screen for a laptop light, or in the palm of your hand when you're holding a cell phone (or get crazy get an older cell phone, pop out the innerds and put it inside, shining through the screen).

 

But I digress. The powering off of AA batteries, or a block battery, or a V mount, or basically anything you can wire up is pretty amazing!

 

The ballasts aren't like the kinos, but they do have a setting for 3200, 5600, and 4500 (i think, may be 4800?) they are rotary so they spin, and they have markings on them; for everything, so you can get it rough but not like 7.5213245% or something like that.

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It doesn't have a battery meter on it, which kinda sucks - but I have timed out how long they last - 2 x NPF-970 fully charged batteries will power for about 2 hours at full brightness. There is also not a color temperature setting in the traditional sense. You basically dim up and down the yellow and white LED's to achieve your color temperature. Both dimmers turned to 100% gives you around 4400k. Really though, if you need a temperature reading, you'll need a light meter. You'll also need to do a white balance card when making changes.

 

There are easier lights to deal with, and I mostly use these LED panels when I'm at a location that doesn't have power or were 'quick in, quick-out' is needed, If I have time to set up a scene and have power, I mostly use my florescent kits - they produce more color-balanced light, and are brighter.

Thanks Landon!

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