Icelight Alternatives?

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I want to start improving on my automotive lightpainting, obviously the Westcott Ice Light is hugely appealing but as with quite a few people the price is putting me off for what it is at the moment.

I've been trying to find alternatives, and I've done the whole 'torch in a PVC pipe' thing which wasn't anywhere near as productive as I'd hoped. Despite using a better torch than mentioned it still isn't anywhere near bright enough.

Whilst trying to look around at different ones, this model KEEPS popping up. It's made by various different people and is clearly a 'China special', but it was obviously made with being a Ice Light rip-off in mind, so how exactly does it compare?

Link here:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pergear-T...pt=UK_Camera_Video_Lights&hash=item48787844f7

Please don't just say 'rubbish', I'm hoping for responses from people who have seen/used one and can say whether it's worth spending the money on. Since it's hardly pennies I'd rather not purchase without knowing.

Thanks in advance!
 
The limited use I have of the ice light I have found by its design that for it to be of any use what so ever it needs to be as close as possible eg- couple of feet from the subject . Can't see that being easy with light painting
 
Thanks Stuart, I assumed it would be quite a bit more powerful than that. Were you using it in a dark environment?

It seems to be a popular tool within automotive photography, a quick YouTube search threw this up:
 
TBH unless you're a fan of the glossy wet look lightpainting on cars, I'd just use multiple softbox exposures. You can use LED strips etc which are OK but whenever I've assisted on LP car shoots, the softbox always wins...
 
I have the rip-off version, and it does the job when close enough, pretty much as the Ice-light does - you can get three rip-off versions for less than the cost of one ice-light.

It did the job when I tried it quickly, but I don't have any results to share as yet. It is better made than I expected too, and comes with a remote control.
 
Ok...I answered this thread completely wrong. I miss read the title as in you were asking about alternatives for Iceland:rolleyes:

but yeh...automotive photography is something I've always been a fan of, but never actually tried. Some great shots on here.
 
By sheer coincidence, I've seen a couple of pages on the interwebs today about these contraptions.
These might not be of particular value to you but just in case, here you go...

On DPReview, about colour correction for an Ice Light rip-off copy: http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/55284608

This one's on Lighting Rumours. Again, it's about an Ice Light rip-off copy, but in the photos it looks exactly like the one in the OP. There are some comments below the article (including another about colour correction) that might be useful: http://www.lightingrumours.com/magic-tube-light-6195#.VNz5vvnF9ec

I have no personal experience of either the Ice Light or its cheaper alternatives, but I do have experience of various LED light sources in professional theatre (these also for some small amount of photography).
My problem with all but the most expensive (and I do mean expensive) is the colour of the light. I don't mean the colour temperature, that's trivial to correct. I'm talking here about colour rendering (CRI). White LED light sources are discontinuous in their colour spectrum: they have gaps - they do not emit every visible colour, unlike flash, tungsten, HMI etc. They might look white to the eye, but their colour rendering of skin tones and materials is unpredictable to say the least. No amount of gels or tweaking in post will correct for this if it is a problem - if the colour simply isn't there at all in the first place you're going to have the devil of a job trying to sort it out later.

It's possible that this does not matter to you, of course, but I thought it worth mentioning. :)
 
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I forgot to mention that most of what I intend to use it for will be monochrome, so should'nt be a problem.
I am sure that I read somewhere that the ice-light (genuine!) colour rendering is supposed to be consistent and accurate. That may have been on their advertising though.
 
Well, if you're only going to use it for mono then I suppose it may be OK, if it has enough actual power - which is another question...
Nionyn said:
I have no personal experience of either the Ice Light or its cheaper alternatives, but I do have experience of various LED light sources in professional theatre (these also for some small amount of photography).
My problem with all but the most expensive (and I do mean expensive) is the colour of the light. I don't mean the colour temperature, that's trivial to correct. I'm talking here about colour rendering (CRI). White LED light sources are discontinuous in their colour spectrum: they have gaps - they do not emit every visible colour, unlike flash, tungsten, HMI etc. They might look white to the eye, but their colour rendering of skin tones and materials is unpredictable to say the least. No amount of gels or tweaking in post will correct for this if it is a problem - if the colour simply isn't there at all in the first place you're going to have the devil of a job trying to sort it out later.

It's possible that this does not matter to you, of course, but I thought it worth mentioning. :)
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I agree 100% and my own findings are identical.

I've visited various sellers of these lights in Southern China (Shenzen) and apart from some incredibly expensive top quality ones, they all use LED's that are cheap and cheerful but totally useless ones designed specifically for security lighting, where CRI doesn't matter at all - so they use them in photographic lights that are in fact totally unusable:( These people don't seem to know or care that the CRI values make their products totally unfit for purpose.

I've made this point repeatedly, but there are parts of the lighting world that are occupied by people who simply don't understand the importance of CRI, they seem to think that it's the same as colour temperature and that they can correct any 'inaccuracies' - good luck with that:)
 
david357 said:
I forgot to mention that most of what I intend to use it for will be monochrome, so should'nt be a problem.
I am sure that I read somewhere that the ice-light (genuine!) colour rendering is supposed to be consistent and accurate. That may have been on their advertising though.
Click to expand...
Consistent maybe, but bear in mind that "consistently bad" is still consistent... ;-)
Accuracy is, of course, a totally different matter.

According to the Ice Light site ( http://www.theicelight.com/about ) the CRI is 90+.
Since this is marketing we can safely assume that the CRI is less than 91, otherwise you can bet your life they'd have given it as 91+.
This is not a particularly good CRI rating. It's worse than many fluorescents.

This is not to say that they would not be suitable for some photographic uses, but their colour rendering is guaranteed to be noticeably less good than flash, tungsten, HMI, daylight etc.
 
Currently working my way through the entire site - and all the readers' comments, some of which are as funny as the articles, some of which make you wonder if the writers have ever been online before.
As you say, definitely not for the easily offended. Luckily for me, I'm not. I don't think I've been offended by anything since about 1973. :D
 
@Nionyn and @Garry Edwards, both fantastic responses, thank you.

Seems like there's some deep problems, which to be honest I could do without. I think I'll try and save up some money by doing non-lightpainted shoots and put it aside to save for an Icelight.

Seems a shame that the Chinese aren't willing to listen to someone who clearly knows enough about it, they could've been onto a winner there given the ridiculous price of the Icelight!
 
I use my Icelight to light paint a lot (along with being a portrait light), and find it very good. Light painting with long exposures always demands a location where your subject is unlit by the ambient exposure (for want of not mixing sources etc) so as long as thats in mind its the perfect tool.

My most recent LP shot, car was lit with icelight:

BMW E46 M3 in Techno Violet by khalid.bari80, on Flickr
 
kman said:
btw, if you havne't heard the Icelight 2 has just been announced:
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Well, that's (potentially) interesting.

Apparently It is now 50% Brighter, 96 CRI, Digital Dimmer, Power Slider, Removable Battery and so much more.

Many people have criticised the previous version for not having a removable battery, so that's definitely a plus.
Brighter is always going to be good, in conjunction with a dimmer.

"...so much more"?
No idea what that could mean. Probably not much. I loathe marketing cant.

The most surprising claim, however, is that of a CRI of 96. If accurate, that's pretty impressive for an LED source.

The only professional theatre LED lanterns I know of that would claim anything like that result have seven (!) different colours of LED elements in them (including a rather weird green).
I remain sceptical but, if this CRI claim turns out to be accurate, LED sources are coming along somewhat faster than I had expected...
Which is nice. ;-)
 
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I took this shot (as did dozens of others) at the NEC photography show on Tuesday. I liked the concept but when I enquired about the price it made me gulp!
it wont be on my "must have list"



Black
by
Brian Lewicki
on Flickr​
 
metroman said:
I took this shot (as did dozens of others) at the NEC photography show on Tuesday. I liked the concept but when I enquired about the price it made me gulp!
it wont be on my "must have list"
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OK, fair enough. So how much is it?

Presumably (looking at shadows and catchlights) that was lit using a pair of the new Icelights, both horizontal, in clamshell configuration.
Roughly how far away from the model were they?
 
Nionyn said:
OK, fair enough. So how much is it?

Presumably (looking at shadows and catchlights) that was lit using a pair of the new Icelights, both horizontal, in clamshell configuration.
Roughly how far away from the model were they?
Click to expand...
You are correct, one above one below with the model sat on a stool virtually in-between the pair in clamshell configuration. When I asked the price of the unit I was told £299 EACH and I still gulp!
 
Last time I played proper car photography I used a long exposure and multiple flash guns in wescott apollo softbox umbrellas
 
I've used the ice light some time back, and to be honest wasn't overly impressed, mainly for the price of it, £400 at the time, I think you can get them for £350 which still far from impresses me for what it is, very little control and pretty much crap battery life, I'm amazed that apart from the one linked too for about £110 that copies of these are not plastered all over ebay for around £50, they can't be that hard to manufacture, just another Westcott rip off if you ask me.
 
I have just purchased a copy off amazon for £89 with a spare battery. Used it the other day. Really happy with it.
 
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