Heat proofing lights/ heat filters

[Guy Holt]

Also, if the issue is one of picking colour temperature, go for ... bi-colour systems.

 

The idea that you can achieve a nominally correct CCT for any color temperature between 3200 and 6500 Kelvin by mixing “tungsten” and “daylight” LEDs doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. While it seems intuitively correct that one can obtain fractional CTO and CTB color correction by means of an intermediate color balance, this approach does entail a compromise non-the-less.

 

If on the chromaticity diagram above, you were to plot the color point of the two LEDS, all the colors that are possible by mixing them will be located on the straight red line drawn between the two points. However, the line (black line above) that would be charted by heating a black body radiator (as it turns red, orange, yellow, white, and finally blue as it is heated) is not a straight line, so it is not possible to create light that remains neutral in terms of their green/magenta shift, while mixing only two colors. And, since neither the "tungsten", nor the "daylight" LEDs in bi-color fixtures emit frequencies above their 625nm cut-off, blending them is not going to correct their deficiency of long wavelength colors, nor improve their generally poor rendition of flesh-tones.

 

Guy Holt, Gaffer

ScreenLight & Grip

Lighting Rental & Sales in Boston

[Colin Elves_18850]

" If the issue is raising the ambient temperature of the room, he can use a portable room air conditioner to keep the room from becoming too hot. There are better solutions than using LED sources."

 

The thing is: that's often not the case. Using a portable air conditioner might seem like a great idea to us, but to the people in charge of such places it's not. These places are very often strictly controlled in terms of temperature and humidity - and the control offered by a portable air conditioner might not be considered sufficient. It might just be a question of perception: and that matters a lot since the people in charge of these places are often quite cautious and don't really care for film crews to come in and mess about with their treasures, so any excuse to kick them out is warranted. Being told the art objects are sensitive to heat then bringing in a bunch of lights so hot they need an air conditioner unit makes you look callous.

 

And that's quite apart from the fact the air conditioner would require even more power to run.

 

Honestly, I agree with you on the quality of light from tungsten sources - but the question is: if you can't use tungsten, because of the best and power issues, what would you suggest?

[andrew ward]

Photon Beard, youre too expensive for what you are!

[Phil Rhodes]

It's a sad fact that all LEDs are basically too expensive for what they are at the moment. It's still very early days.

 

I look forward to the point where LEDs are near tungsten prices. I think it's possible, since although LEDs are much (much) more complicated to manufacture than tungsten lightbulbs, the market is sufficiently enormous that the costs should spread out nicely and keep things affordable for everyone, whether they're looking for low-energy domestic lighting or equipment for film and TV work. At some point, presumably, all this concern over colour rendering will be a bad memory; I suspect the enabling technology may be the same sort of phosphor-driven arrangements for creating red that we currently see in TFT monitor backlights, with or without quantum dots.

 

I suspect we are five to ten years from that point.

 

But if you can't use tungsten, consider HMI. It's about the same price as LED - or even a bit cheaper - per photon motivated. The colour rendering characteristics are probably a bit better than the average LED, and certainly better understood and catered-for by the extant equipment market. If you need soft light, fluorescent has similar efficiency characteristics and again, well-understood colour rendering. And fluorescent is a lot cheaper. While we're on the subject, consider Photon Beard's Square One fluorescent, which has broadly the operating characteristics of a 1x1 LED panel while simultaneously cheaper and more powerful than someone like Litepanels and offering, almost certainly, rather more reliable colour rendering.

 

P

[Mark Dunn]

Photon Beard, youre too expensive for what you are!

It's bad form to badmouth a company by name for all to see, unless it's based on your direct eperience, in which case you should take it up with the company privately.

Good equipment costs more than cheap equipment but who's to say whether it's good or bad value? Beard have been around for over 150 years so they must be doing something right.

[Peter Daffarn]

Photon Beard, youre too expensive for what you are!

Hi Andrew,

 

I don't know what you think we are but here is what I think we are.

 

We are a UK manufacturer.

This means we source almost all our raw material from the UK. Power cables, Universal PSU's and ballasts for fluorescents are the only parts I can think of that we import. Oh Lighting stands from Italy is another. But only because there are not UK manufacturers of these items.

We use quality material so our products last many years. As an example Vietnam TV is about to upgrade their 9 year old local control fluorescents to DMX at a fraction of the cost of new lights.

Our factory is in the UK and our lowest paid member is paid above the living wage, significantly more than minimum wage.

Our highest paid member, who is not the MD, I.E Me, is paid less than he could get in other companies.

We have no company cars, we fly economy when we have to travel and stay in 3* hotels generally.

We are a family owned business but even so we have not paid dividends to shareholders since before I got involved in 2002.

Profits, which are never huge, are reinvested into the business.

 

We conform to all European, UK and American safety standards and operate in an environmentally responsible manner.

We pay our taxes to HMRC to help fund schools, roads, hospitals etc

 

We could not charge less and still manufacture in this country.

The pull of the far east for manufacturing is massive and perhaps inevitable - rather like the pull of LED for image capture.

However just because every one else is doing it doesn't make it right.

 

So I make no apology for our prices.

 

Thank you

 

Peter Daffarn

MD and Owner

Photon Beard Ltd

Making Light Work Since 1882

[JD Hartman]

Hi Andrew,

 

I don't know what you think we are but here is what I think we are.

 

We are a UK manufacturer.

This means we source almost all our raw material from the UK.

Oh Lighting stands from Italy is another. But only because there are not UK manufacturers of these items.

We could not charge less and still manufacture in this country.

The pull of the far east for manufacturing is massive and perhaps inevitable - rather like the pull of LED for image capture.

However just because every one else is doing it doesn't make it right.

 

So I make no apology for our prices.

 

Thank you

 

Peter Daffarn

MD and Owner

Photon Beard Ltd

Making Light Work Since 1882

 

Stands made by Manfrotto??

Kudos to you and your company for maintaining your manufacturing facility in the UK and not farming it all out just to save a penny.

[Peter Daffarn]

 

Stands made by Manfrotto??

Kudos to you and your company for maintaining your manufacturing facility in the UK and not farming it all out just to save a penny.

Thanks JD,

 

Almost made by Manfrotto.

We used to make our own for a long time but it became obvious that this was never going to be our main focus so we bought in from others.

 

The company we use was started by the current guys father and did indeed make stands for Manfrotto for many many years.

Then a few years ago Manfrotto moved the stand manufacture elsewhere - I could guess where but perhaps I don't need to.

So Silvio was left with a factory full of machinery to build stands and no customer (s).

He approached us at IBC and asked to quote for our stands.

In all respects they are, or were (I have not seen a recent Manfrotto stand for a few years) a Manfrotto stand just without the name.

 

We try and support similar operations when we can.

 

Regards

 

Peter