Members Tullsterx Posted February 9, 2011 Members Share Posted February 9, 2011 I'm looking for a low-cost, white LED wash light that I can put a gel on, for front lighting. I'm fairly familiar with most of the RGB and RGBA options, but, we just want a static LED light for the front that we can use with our favoriate gels. Its doens't need strobe effects or anything else. DMX compatibility would be nice but not absolutely necessary, I don't think. You can control LEDs with a dimmer pack, right? Any ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wm_b Posted February 9, 2011 Members Share Posted February 9, 2011 Someone will probably give you more correct information but from my experience with video I would imagine that a simple white LED wash would be very expensive. White LED's are a cutting edge video lighting tool and they cost a fortune compared to their multi-colored brethren. This is what I'm familiar with...http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/LED-Light-Sources/ci/12248/N/4294551085 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Tullsterx Posted February 9, 2011 Author Members Share Posted February 9, 2011 Yeah, but those are for lighting a football field, or a huge parking lot or a giant constructions site. They make smaller LEDs for home use that are much cheaper. . . http://www.affordablequalitylighting.com/docs/outdoor/spot_flood/rawcopper/ps113/index-led.html But, I'm guessing these are not bright enough. . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Berg56 Posted February 9, 2011 Members Share Posted February 9, 2011 There are a few white only LED par cans out there. The inexpensive ones will probably have a very high color temperature which makes them look a bit blueish and not warm like a traditional par, so the gels you put on them will not be the same colors. They usually also lack a lot of the red wavelengths so putting an amber or red leaning gel on them will cut the output drastically. I would say either stick with a conventional par or get into some amber / white LED pars and skip the gels entirely. Pretty much all LED units now are DMX controllable directly, and require no dimmers, just power straight from the wall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jwlussow Posted February 9, 2011 Members Share Posted February 9, 2011 Yeah, but those are for lighting a football field, or a huge parking lot or a giant constructions site. They make smaller LEDs for home use that are much cheaper. . . http://www.affordablequalitylighting.com/docs/outdoor/spot_flood/rawcopper/ps113/index-led.htmlBut, I'm guessing these are not bright enough. . . Nope. The ones that wm_b suggested are stage lights. The one you are talking about are closer to outdoor malibu lights and would not really light up much. What is you budget? Why not just get the cheaper and easier to find RGB or RGBA lights? LED PARs or strips dont need a DMX controller or a dimmer. They are capable of being controlled out of the box but they all have built in programs so they are plug and play. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members soundlight Posted February 9, 2011 Members Share Posted February 9, 2011 You will not be able to find a white LED source that looks good with gels in it for very cheap. Your best bet is getting some regular PAR38 cans and putting warm-white (3000K-3400K), high-CRI LED lamps in them. Then get dimmers. Even with an expensive LED fixture it's hard to get your gels to look the same. This is because the color you see when you put a gel on a regular PARcan with a halogen lamp is created by the specific emission spectrum of the lamp passing through that color of gel. Put the same gel in front of a moving light with an arc lamp, you'll get a different color. Put the same gel in front of any one of a number of el cheapo LED lamps, most of which have cooler perceived color temperatures but in fact emit nowhere near anything like the range of wavelengths a blackbody emission spectrum, and thusly the gel will not look anything like the color that you used to see out of your traditional parcan. This is the same thing that causes objects to show up very weird colors under a cheap "white" LED fixture. I could go in depth about blackbody radiation curves and how LEDs use phosphors to create white light, but let's just leave it with "white LEDs suck if you use gels". That's what I'm gonna go with. If you do end up wanting to buy LED PAR38 lamps with the right color temperature and high CRI, you will end up paying at least 100 dollars per lamp, probably more. You'll want one that replaces a 90 watt or 120 watt PAR8 lamp in terms of brightness. As per the B&H link, no, those are not for "lighting a football field, or a huge parking lot or a giant construction site". They're for lighting a stage or lighting camera shots, and would be a candle in the dark in any of the areas that you described. They are fixtures that are used for small to medium sized stages, television studios, and many other venues and applications that need to replace stage lights with LED fixtures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wm_b Posted February 9, 2011 Members Share Posted February 9, 2011 Actually the $1500+ LightPanels are for lighting two people for an interview or maybe to wash a wall in an average household room. Even a small on-camera LED is a $500 item. The quality and consistency of the light is fantastic but the pricing is ridiculous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Tullsterx Posted February 10, 2011 Author Members Share Posted February 10, 2011 Well thanks for the info. I guess we'll just stick with the old par 56's and gels in the front then and use leds on the side and back. Or try out a couple of rgba's in front and see how they work out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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