USER REVI EW | L I TEPANELS
“THE GEMINI 1 X 1 COMPETES WITH PRODUCTS LIKE ARRI’S SKYPANEL”
COMPETITION The Gemini 1 x 1 competes with products such as Arri’s Skypanel S30-C, with about the same power and controllability. The Skypanel is almost 50% heavier and almost 50% more expensive, and Litepanels’ spectral quality is perhaps a fraction better. The light has a lot of sophistication that a documentarian or news camera operator might consider overkill, but it’s not so much about variability for its own sake; it’s about matching. Natural light varies, of course, but different manufacturers’ lights may produce a different daylight for every day of the week and just matching key to fill is even more complicated now than ever. The Gemini can be matched to tungsten, HMI, another LED from any manufacturer, or really more or less any light source. That’s an increasingly normal requirement, and one the Gemini fulfils in a fairly high-density package.
RIGHT The Gemini can run at up to 90% output from a single battery
blue filter. At higher selected CCTs, such as the 6500K that might be required to match an overcast sky, the error becomes slightly larger, with a measured 6220K. This is a more visible error, and the light did not exceed 9320K at the 10000K setting. It’s worth pointing out that this represents a mismatch between the displayed colour temperature and the actual colour temperature; white quality remains good, and visually matching different light sources is possible. It’s really just instrumentation drift that won’t affect most use cases. Green-magenta shift reads out in units of -100 to +100, which seems to represent a full plus or minus green filter. At 5600K, the output is at 0.336, 0.343 on a CIE 1931 diagram, essentially on the black-body curve, exactly where it should be. Applying full minus green moves the output to 0.336, 0.277, nicely at right angles to the curve.
TITON BATTERY POWER
remaining time. The Titons were supplied together with Litepanels’ own twin V-lock battery mount. There’s a clamp to attach the mount to a stand, and the whole arrangement connects to the same three-pin XLR connector as the mains power supply.
to 90% output from a single battery, or full power from two. Both Anton Bauer and Litepanels are part of the Vitec group, and a pair of the new Titon 90 batteries, which include nice extras such as a USB output and communications with compatible cameras to display
There’s a popular perception that LED is somehow more suited to battery power than other lighting technologies. That’s not necessarily so – a 300W HMI may be heavier and more expensive, but it is just as easy to battery power as a 300W LED. The Gemini can run at up
66 DEF I N I T ION | MAY 20 1 9
Powered by FlippingBook