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Chimera softboxes - photometric data


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I have a shoot coming up and we're planning on using a chimera L on a daylight fresnel. I don't use chimeras much and I need to pick which size light to use. A D12 is going to be much easier to rig, but we have the option of using a D25 if we need the extra stop of light. Budget is tight and we can only afford one light.

I find the arri photometrics app handy for direct sources and was wondering if I could find any info on how much the chimera is going to cut the light by ? Say x ft away, for a 1.2k source how much light will I get centre and off to the sides by about 30º ?

Would be nice if chimera provided a photometric map of the light falloff for 1 or 2 typical sources, but they don't unfortunately.

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Chimera softboxes mostly use grid cloth as their rags. The transmission data for the various strengths of grid cloth is available on the LEE filters website. That should get you a ballpark figure, although it wouldn't account for the extra reflectance of the chimera interior.

If you can only afford one light, get the big one.

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Thanks, I was thinking the same but wasn't quite sure. Full grid cloth is -2 1/2 stops so I'm ballparking off that, but yes i'm hoping the reflective sides of the chimera will up the output a bit more to something like -2 stops.

Crew is limited so a d12 might be easier if I need to boom it.

I'll post measurements if I get the chance !

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Stop was t4 with the option to go up to 800 iso

I only had a few minutes to meter the lights at the rental house, but on a flooded D12 I got around t4@400 asa at 4m/12ft which was ok.

The would mean I'm getting around 500 lux or 50fc. The arri photometrics app gives 3500-4000 lux for a flooded undiffused d12 so looks like either the light was underperforming or the loss is closer to 3 stops.

The flooded d12 could have done with an extra layer of diffusion though, its not nearly as even as what I get with a redhead on a medium softbox. I was in a country where domestic power is limited to 10A but I'll definitely go with a bigger light and internal diffusion next time.

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