2021 alternative to Kino Flo 4-banks for chroma key lighting?

[Nathan Smith]

For several years I've been using a pair of Kino Flo 4-bank fluorescents to light green walls about 18' x 10'.  Now I need to set up a new studio of similar size and need to buy new lights - I'm assuming that there are better LED alternatives to the Kino Flo's.  I want to have dedicated lights for the green screen, separate from the lighting for the subject. 

At present I'm looking at 4' x 1' LED panels, like those from VELVETlight & K5600, or IntellyTech's 3' x 4.5" foldable panels.  I might also consider ceiling-mounting additional lights.

Any recommendations?

[Phil Rhodes]

A few years ago, LiteGear showed some LED panels specifically designed to illuminate chromakey screens. I don't know if this became a product.

Any colour-mixing LED will do it,  but if you want something specific, maybe this sort of thing?

 

[Nathan Smith]

Thanks @Phil Rhodes, looks like they did make it to production & still available: https://www.litegear.com/product/litetile-plus-8-kit-2x8-hybrid-complete-kit/

A bit dear though, isn't it?   Still, this is good - I'll look at the specs & see what other options we have. 

Thanks again!

[Phil Rhodes]

20 minutes ago, Nathan Smith said:

Thanks @Phil Rhodes, looks like they did make it to production & still available: https://www.litegear.com/product/litetile-plus-8-kit-2x8-hybrid-complete-kit/

A bit dear though, isn't it?   Still, this is good - I'll look at the specs & see what other options we have. 

Thanks again!

I'm not sure that's exactly the unit I took those photos of; the one you list is a fabric-based folding thing.

I'm trying to think of places that actually do a specific greenscreen light.  Some of the remote-phosphor LED panels have blue or green panels (the blue is really just a diffuser) but they won't be cheap; sadly, LED is never really cheap at the moment. I think Flolight do one. You could google around.

Actually green or blue doesn't really have the same colour matching concerns as a high quality white. All kinds of things could be jury-rigged or DIY'd depending on the level you're aiming for.

Green-emitting fluorescent tubes are probably just about still available. I've used commercial off the shelf ones to light green screens to good effect.

[Nathan Smith]

13 hours ago, Phil Rhodes said:

I'm not sure that's exactly the unit I took those photos of; the one you list is a fabric-based folding thing.

I'm trying to think of places that actually do a specific greenscreen light.  Some of the remote-phosphor LED panels have blue or green panels (the blue is really just a diffuser) but they won't be cheap; sadly, LED is never really cheap at the moment. I think Flolight do one. You could google around.

Actually green or blue doesn't really have the same colour matching concerns as a high quality white. All kinds of things could be jury-rigged or DIY'd depending on the level you're aiming for.

Green-emitting fluorescent tubes are probably just about still available. I've used commercial off the shelf ones to light green screens to good effect.

I've used the green Kino Flo tubes, I felt like I got more green spill on my subject with them & went back to daylight tubes - though I don't have any empirical evidence to back that up. But, in any case, I didn't see a big difference in the quality of the chroma key background with green or daylight tubes, so it probably doesn't matter if the lights are green or not. 

Having said that, those green Flolight kits look really nice, and the price isn't bad either.

[Matthew Parnell]

Blue and Green screens are pretty much all I use Kino for these days, and they are probably more of a viable option than they ever have been. There is a lot of 2nd hand Kino going dirt cheap around the place. If you are on a budget I can’t see the extra expense of LED being worth it just to light a blue screen.

 

[Satsuki Murashige]

2 hours ago, Nathan Smith said:

I've used the green Kino Flo tubes, I felt like I got more green spill on my subject with them & went back to daylight tubes - though I don't have any empirical evidence to back that up. But, in any case, I didn't see a big difference in the quality of the chroma key background with green or daylight tubes, so it probably doesn't matter if the lights are green or not. 

Having said that, those green Flolight kits look really nice, and the price isn't bad either.

I agree, I don’t think green tubes are worth the trouble. I’ve noticed the same difficulty with controlling spill as well.