Continuous lighting for video

norrisphysio

norrisphysio

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Posting this in lighting forum as well as video forum as I'm not sure where it fits in:

Having just bought a Panasonic GH3 as my main stills camera, I have decided to have a go at video as this camera has good video abilities according to the reviews. At work we have a small Pilates studio and I want to make a few exercise videos (demos of exercises done on a mat, yoga / Pilates that sort of thing) and want to light it as the studio lights are quite dim. Looking at continuous lighting there seem to be several types, and I would like to get something which might also be suitable for stills, as I have used studio strobes before (don't have any but have rented studios). Red head lights like these 800w ones on ebay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/181186807049?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT can be varied and come with barn doors so give a bit of light shaping, then there are the heads with several compact fluorescent bulbs with a softbox like these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/310813708322?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT and finally 500w quartz halogens http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/200976972994?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT which come with a reflector and bowens speedring to allow fitting of different industry standard softboxes etc. Not really sure how to determine how much light I need, or how to compare the light from the lamps because some quote wattage, some lumens, and some guide number at different iso and distances. Any advice appreciated - what are people generally using?
 
Redheads (and their big sisters, blonds) are last century's technology, they are cheap for a reason. Their only quality is the high CRI value of the light, which is (should be) 100.
They are extremely hot, they present a real fire risk, they are far too hot to touch (to adjust) whilst on or still hot, and because they run so hot they only output about 240 watts of lighting - the other 560 watts ends up as heat.
And the only modifier that they can take is a barn door set, anything else would melt, and there is no accessory fitting anyway.

The 500 watt halogen lamps have most of the same problems but output even less light. The only good thing about them is they are claimed to have an S fit accessory mount - but I can't see that working too well because of the heat, I certainly wouldn't stick a softbox onto one of those things.

The cheap modern equivalent is fluorescent - but avoid the ones sold on Ebay, generally they have very low CRI values so do not reproduce colours with an acceptable level of accuracy, and generally there is flicker too, which makes them useless for video. My suspcion is that the lamps used are really just household lamps, which are much cheaper to produce than the ones that are suitable for photography. Here at Lencarta we have the QuadLite, which outputs the equivalent of 1600 watts and which doesn't flicker and which has a very high CRI. The downside is that it only works with a softbox, although you can remove the softbox and use an umbrella instead if you wish, but you can't fit any other modifiers.

And then there is the LED 1000. As the name suggests, it's LED and has an equivalent light output of 1000 watts. Much more expensive, but it has a true S fit accessory mount and is incredibly cool running.

Alertnative products are available from other sellers.
 
norrisphysio said:
Thanks for that Gary. I also found this reflector type, not sure which type of bulbs they use as they only say 'energy efficient bulbs' http://essentialphoto.co.uk/product...-twin-reflector-continuous-lighting-kit-dslr/
Click to expand...
As is very common, no technical info at all.. They say that they are fluorescent, don't mention the all-important CRI or even whether they have a flicker proof coating..
Highly polished reflectors to maximise output, but no way of softening the light other than fitting them with the supplied shower cap.
 
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