Tama Berkeljon

Hey all, If anyone is interested, Here is a link to my blog and also to the Vimeo video showing the really basic Sync test we did with the Red camera showing the diference between sync'd flashing light with a rolloing shutter and non- sync'd light, using our Brand new Creamsync system.. Hope it generates some ideas and maybe will go towards alieviating some problems ! all the best , Tama. Permalink to that post on my blog : http://tama.typepad.com/blog/2010/02/flash-banding.html or the Vimeo link : http://vimeo.com/9517097

Hey everyone.. Exactly Adrian. It is usually a real problem. Like also in this music video (look at the flash effects from about 2:13)These flash effects were produced using our Creamsource LED Lights, simply pulsed (they have a flash button as well as being a flicker-free light source, confusing, I know..) But unfortunately at the time of this music video we had not yet released our sync system (we called it Creamsync) that allows you to take an external sync signal and lock both the RED camera and the light together, so that a frame would not be "broken" I.E. a flash starting or stopping part way throgh the frame and causing what we call flash-banding. As far as we are aware, this is the first system available to overcome this issue, I would welcome any news to the contrary though ! :) We're due to put some videos up of the comparison between a synchronised flash and a non- sync flash on the Red fairly soon. If you're interested, check back to my blog over the coming week, where I will post the video . (the brief explaination / example has been shot, it just needs to be outputed to the right format, which should happen in the coming days .) http://tama.typepad.com/blog/ If you are unfamiliar with our lighting equipment, have a little look at our site (www.outsight.com.au) and please feel free to contact us for more info regarding the lights, especially if you are interested in the flash/ sync issue as I'm aware that we dont yet have a lot of info up on the site about it. As far as I have seen, the flash-banding effects with some CCD type cameras are not quite as bad as that experienced with the Cmos based cameras, due to the rolling shutter in the Cmos . So if you have a choice, and a chance to test, perhaps CCD may yield better results with a non-sync flash source such as a camera flash or party strobe. Other than that, if you absolutely need to use a strobe for a sequence using a Cmos based camera, if you can, keep your strobe lengths quite nice and long, it may help, (just somethng we picked up while playing around) and obviously if you can minimize the frequency of the strobes, and total effect of the strobe on the overall picture, then this does help also (put it further away, or turn it down more). Best of luck, I look forward to hearing how you go ! Tama.

Litepanels are a fantastic lightweight low power fixture. I think one of the best features they have is weight to light output ratio. Led's have come quite some way since Litepanels though. Some new high power led's are now producing more lumens per watt than flouresent fixtures, and a larger portion of this light produced is projected from the source to the subject, especially in fixtures using the high efficiency lenses (which can transmit over 90% of the produced light forwards). But that said, I think it is very much a case for the right light for the job - a small led fixture when shooting close in can be just as versatile as slighty larger lamp such as a Parabeam or Diva a little further away. When choosing your equipment, its useful to have a variable working envelope, if your budget allows. Some lights such as our Creamsource LED lamps allow you the flexiability of a large work area (fight the square law, get your lights back further for more consistency throughout the action ) but also dim down for close quarters encounters with your talent. We've recently been working on a new tool (compare) which allows you to select several different lights and see their effects when drawn away from a wall (beam width, Lux/fc at subject) and we are just about to put up an image range of the Kino 400 diva light which you will be able to compare to the Litepanels 1x1 (or our Creamsource LED light, should you wish to) I will post back on this forum when the tool includes this image range - should be between Friday 29th and Tuesday the 2nd feb. If any of you have a play with the compare tool, I would love to hear your feedback, as it is very new, and I'm keen to make it very versatile and useful. It can be found here : http://www.outsight.com.au/compare.shtml Thanks kindly, Tama.