GEAR | PORTABLE LEDS
From panels to tubes, here are the small, but mighty LEDs adding versatility to camera work
WORDS PH I L RHODES / P I CTURES VAR IOUS
BELOW Designed with versatility in mind, the Arri Orbiter is a tuneable and
because that’s what the technology could do, replacing tungsten for interviews quickly. It’s a testament to progress that more recent designs include heavyweight movie lights in the kilowatt range. Even so, it’s still at the smaller end of the scale where LEDs scored highest, lighting sit-down interviews and finessing single-camera set-ups with a light that would take too long to rig if it weren’t battery-powered. One striking combination of portability and power is found in Light and Motion’s StellaPro CL series. The company has a three-decade history of producing lights, particularly for underwater work, where cooling is easier. Building lights capable of high power through air is a new endeavour, requested by enthusiasts of the company’s sub-aqua range. The diminutive CL1000/2500 illustrates the difference, capable of 1000 lumens on the surface, and 2500 submerged. The CLx10, the company’s first surface-only light, packs a solid 100 watts into a broadly cylindrical package, only a hair over eight inches long. Like the
here’s something about lighting that’s sobering to those of a certain age. Plenty of people now run
rest of the range, it has internal batteries. If it sounds like a potential weight issue, fear not – it’s a mere 1.2kg. The CLx10 sports an Elinchrom accessory mount and interchangeable lamp heads for tungsten or daylight output, ensuring maximum output at each colour temperature. The light lists at about £1250, including VAT. Interchangeable light modifiers are largely a new idea to film and TV – something inherited from stills photography. There’s a trend for LED hard lights to be shaped like strobe heads, so it’s perhaps no surprise to see one added to the Broncolor range. Bron Elektronik has been a watchword in the world of stills for decades, and the company has produced HMI-based continuous lighting in the past. Broncolor’s F160 is its first LED, weighing 1.7kg. The 160W device boasts variable colour temperature and, crucially, green/magenta adjustment, as well as enough variability to match almost anything. Unusually, the F160 comes with a translucent domed diffuser, intended to produce an output
around shooting interviews, having never used a Redhead, expecting everything to fit in a backpack. It’s really been a while since the very first LED lights were released. They were small and portable,
directional LED fixture
32 DEF I N I T ION | JUNE 202 1
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