Rotolight Neo 3 light kit

quango2k

quango2k

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Anyone got any experience with them? I am buying the kit with barn doors...interested in the concept of using LEDs so I can save weight of kit being transported..they seem to work well in all the videos on youtube..anyone not sponsored/endorsed by them that can comment?
 
Anyone can make any product look good on Youtube...

The actual light output is extremely low, and they are also very small, which means that in order to get enough light, and to avoid that light being extremely harsh, they need to be used very close to the subject.
 
Garry Edwards said:
Anyone can make any product look good on Youtube...

The actual light output is extremely low, and they are also very small, which means that in order to get enough light, and to avoid that light being extremely harsh, they need to be used very close to the subject.
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Are you speaking from experience ? As all the reviews I have read and seen they look pretty bright for the neo ones.

If the twin safari kit was similar priced I'd probably go with them as I can use my soft boxes plus other kit I've got from lencarta.
 
quango2k said:
Are you speaking from experience ? As all the reviews I have read and seen they look pretty bright for the neo ones.

If the twin safari kit was similar priced I'd probably go with them as I can use my soft boxes plus other kit I've got from lencarta.
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No, I have no personal experience, so can't comment on the build quality.
But, wearing my Lencarta hat, I was contacted by their sales team and looked very closely at both the claims made for it and the technical spec, which I concluded to be totally incompatible with each other.
Specs, as long as they are accurately stated, tell the whole truth. Claims are just marketing hype, and best disregarded.

They express the power in terms of lux - which is perfectly valid, but which the vast majority of people simply don't understand. I think that it would be far more helpful if they said something like "Consumes 9 watts of electricity, this is roughly equivalent to a 100 watt tungsten light bulb"
By contrast, the twin Safari kit that you're not buying because it costs a bit more has a roughly equivalent output of 12,000 100 watt tungsten light bulbs... and even the cheapest hotshoe flashgun has an output that is roughly that of 600 100 watt tungsten light bulbs
 
quango2k said:
Are you speaking from experience ? As all the reviews I have read and seen they look pretty bright for the neo ones.

If the twin safari kit was similar priced I'd probably go with them as I can use my soft boxes plus other kit I've got from lencarta.
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If I were you I'd look at Atoms, or another brand of Godox AD360's (and add the S type mount). The Safari isn't as 'portable' as I'd like, the smaller lights are much more portable, the LED's lack the versatility of a proper flash mount for modifiers.
 
The super brightness isn't what I was interested in. I have 4 lencarts heads and a power block if I want to carry soft boxes, umbrellas etc etc.

Again, I know they are just YouTube vids made by someone endorsed by rotolight but I like the idea of close up, controllable led lighting which is light and easy to carry.

I have s few shoots coming up in some old industrial plants and I want lots of shadow and a moody scene.

To be honest Garry, the safaris are still on my want to have list and I will get them for sure, in fact if they were in stock right now I'd probably buy them now as they look to be great bits of kit. I think comparing them to safaris is a little 'apples and pears' as they are different tools for different jobs.
 
The point though is that I can't think of any reason why you couldn't get the same results by going into your local Tesco and buying 3 cheap LED torches
and fitting them to lightweight hotshoe flashgun lighting stands with rubber bands, which would cost you a lot less than £1,082.50 (the special offer price listed in the email they sent me today). The only thing you wouldn't get would be the 22 filters and the plastic case :)

The Safari is en route and should be back in stock by the end of the week.But that isn't the point, the point is that the Safari, and its many competitors, is a kit designed for photography
 
I'm not sure I'd compare them to a £20 torch. But, I'd be suspicious of any product that only has the mfr to vouch for it.

Everything should have been reviewed by at least some amateur blogger these days. But the only links on the whole internet are back to the manufacturers website. I'm personally not that kind of gambler.
 
Out of interest. What is the difference between the safari 2 and the eBay Godox 600w equivalents? They look identical but the Godox costs half as much.
 
Phil V said:
I'm not sure I'd compare them to a £20 torch. But, I'd be suspicious of any product that only has the mfr to vouch for it.

Everything should have been reviewed by at least some amateur blogger these days. But the only links on the whole internet are back to the manufacturers website. I'm personally not that kind of gambler.
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Jason Lanier has a few reviews of the neos on his page.

Pretty sure a cheap led torch cannot be kelvin controlled...
 
Phil V said:
I'm not sure I'd compare them to a £20 torch. But, I'd be suspicious of any product that only has the mfr to vouch for it.

Everything should have been reviewed by at least some amateur blogger these days. But the only links on the whole internet are back to the manufacturers website. I'm personally not that kind of gambler.
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Going soley from the specs, I can't see any real difference
quango2k said:
Jason Lanier has a few reviews of the neos on his page.

Pretty sure a cheap led torch cannot be kelvin controlled...
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Kelvin (colour temperature) is normally around 5700 on LED, which is widely accepted as daylight. Colour temperature is very easily controlled in various simple ways, including putting gels in front of the light - but colour temperature isn't the issue. The issues, as I see them, is totally inadequate power, lack of modifiers, very small size of light source and colour rendition index which, according to the manufacturer, "delivers exceptional colour rendering (CRI:95+)" in one page but on another page that now seems to have gone, it was said to range from 67 to 97
quango2k said:
Out of interest. What is the difference between the safari 2 and the eBay Godox 600w equivalents? They look identical but the Godox costs half as much.
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Same case and battery, but ours has completely different componants, shorter flash duration, faster flash duration, more stable colour temperature and a 3 year warranty. People who buy them on ebay etc keep getting upset when we tell them to send their bargains off to China for repair, but as they have different units we simply couldn't help them even if we wanted to.
 
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