Cinematography : LED Lighting by Adam Arad

Hate em. Most of the cheaper ones have crappy color rendition and they all consist of many point sources that never quite blend smoothly. No substitute for a good Fresnel fixture. Currently the two best units out there are the Kino Celebrity and the Litepanel Astra. Would be prefer to use Tungsten lighting, Fresnels, open face, Source4 lekos, broads, nooks, zips, etc. KinoFlo fixtures still have a prominent place in many productions.

I definitely understand you! a lot of mixed results coming from LED products. Maybe the future will bring solid products we can trust.

Part of the issue is the mass produced off shore crap LEDs themselves. Little or no quality control. The worst ones go into the bulbs made for household use.

We have solid products already, from ARRI, Mole, KinoFlo, LitePanels, etc., they're just not cheap. LED lighting has already made dent in theater lighting, maybe because accurate skin tone isn't as important?

We were looking at putting stage lighting in our church with the traditional lights we would have to add another air conditioning unit just to cover the heat thrown off them. not to mention the increase of power consumption it just made sense in our situation to go with the led's.

Different tools for different schools :-)

I’m switching over to LEDs. My studio is pretty small so I really don’t care for the heat from the tungsten’s. Fluorescent cuts down on the heat but I don’t like the flicker and they are not dimmable. The LEDs cut way down on the heat, they are steady and dimmable (they also cut down the electric expense.) I buy the highest lumen floods and spots at the local home improvement big-box store. They have been remarkably consistent at 5,500 degrees. Also, they’re made of shatter proof plastic. I don’t know if it’s real or just my perception but I think the light drops off over distance – light is light, right – how’s it possible? (Can’t be.)

Oh dear dough, you've shown yourself up there

The vest value and color per dollar has to be from Aputure, the new cob120 will have fresnel lens attachment, and uses a Bowens mount for modifiers, their panels are decent, but what makes them usable is not ultimate power, but they have a very high cri and seem to be consistent in color across the lights. I only use single color lights since they offer more output in that color temp and can be gelled, but if the power is high enough for your needs these are inexpensive and good lights. that said, they do not have the power of a hmi, or tungsten light.

I hate LEDs. I dislike Kinos, particularly when they are used as the go-to becasue people are too lazy to use a more intentional tool. HMI and tungsten and a good grip truck yield the best work, to my eye.

I can assure anyone that if you are using LED light as they are now - you are working on a compromised shoot. The biggest problem with LEDs for me is the color rendition index witch they nowadays claim to be above 90%. That combined with the limited color space of video makes the colors very annoying. But if you shoot corporate videos and weddings by yourself then LEDs are the way to go.

I was just at Cinegear Expo and many nice LED lights were there. The better ones can easily change color temp so I don't see an issue. Also fresnels and very large or small lights for all uses. Like any new technology it's taken a few years to get to this point, but I like them now

There are many new lights that are preforming good... Celebs and Astras are great tools... Once again there is no perfect light for everything. So think of it as having more brushes to paint your landscape.