DEFINITION June 2018

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GEAR GROUP LED LIGHTING

FIILEX Q8 TRAVEL LIGHT Punching like a heavyweight is the Fiilex Q8 Travel Light. Weighing in at 7.25kg including the detachable yoke, it certainly stretches the definition of travel. It’s no lightweight, easy to carry unit, but it is rugged, thanks to solid metallic build and rubber bumpers front and rear. It would handle some abuse on location as well as in the studio. Fiilex claims that the Q8 has one of the longest ranges in the industry: a zoom angle that can go from a 12° spot to a 60° flood. It also boasts a customised 20cm fresnel lens. Right across the range, it holds a beautiful quality of light, and there’s also the option to flood a wide space or focus a uniform beam into a tight spotlight with defined edges. The Q8 uses a wrapping system, unlike many other LED panels. Diodes are densely packed together in the reflective lens to provide a powerful array with an intense light. You can get a glimpse of the beautiful engineering under the bonnet through the wide cooling vents. The cooling fan, when on, is noisy. The AC/DC adpater can be bolted onto rigging or a C-stand using the included clamp. Alternatively, it can be powered by most 48V DC batteries. The Q8 offers the option to change the colour temperature from 2800-6500K and magenta or green hues can be added to blend in with the environment. No colour or special effects are included. Fiilex’s Q8 Travel Light ably demonstrates the power that the latest generation of LEDs can produce. At more than £2600, it isn’t cheap, but the quality of its light and its build makes it worth the outlay. If you have the money, it’s a very good option. For the full low-down on the Fiilex Q8 Travel Light, read the review by Phil Vinter on page 89.

KINO FLO CELEB 850

MOLE VARI-COLOR JUNIOR LED Mole-Richardson’s approach to the revolution in lighting technology is to make their lights look like the ones you used before. This is perhaps a matter of conversion to make it more comfortable to start using LED technology than ‘older’ fixtures gaffers are perhaps more used to. Mole-Richardson is calling its new conversion lights Variable-Color. These are solid-state LED fresnels. The company is being bullish about its ability and at the same time underlining this conversion aspect by saying, “This line combines the light quality, output and control synonymous with the Mole name, while adding the flexibility of variable white light colour temperature control and green/ magenta correction.” The new line is made up of undoubtedly great-looking fixtures and they are immediately identifiable as Mole- Richardson products, so a big win for the marketing department. The line also includes multiple user interface options such as touchscreen operation, DMX, built-in Lumenradio and Bluetooth capability. There is also a Mole app coming later this year which sounds like something you need for a garden pest! Mole-Richardson has also already published its road map for the production and we will see throughout 2018 that the Vari LED family will be expanded to include the Vari-Baby, Vari-Junior, Vari- Studio Junior, Vari-Senior and Vari-Tener LEDs. With a range from 2700-5600K, this variable colour temperature is now available in selected Mole-Richardson LED fixtures. The lead line is high output, unparalleled optics and rich, full colour with the flexibility of variable colour temperature and a claimed 35,000 hour lamp life from the onboard LED module. Also featured is universal A/C input voltage from 90-250V. Basically a great tool for both broadcast and the film industry.

Kino Flo continues its march forward with 360° colour LED technology with an upgrade to the Celeb line of fixtures. This upgrade will add full colour operation to the existing model range with the addition of a new larger fixture – Celeb 850. This model is seen as an alternative to ARRI’s S120 larger-sized SkyPanel. This 850 will offer twice the surface area of the popular Celeb 450. Although brighter than the lightweight Select system recently introduced, the Celeb line will now have an identical operating system providing the ability to produce over 2,000,000 colours including gel and green/magenta hue manipulation. This will mean that once a DOP or a technician has used the system they will be able to operate any fixture in the colour range. The operating system offers the flexibility to easily create moonlight, sodium street light or almost any effects colour. This offers creative control to the DOP on set on the fly. However, on top of this it should be recognised that the main focus of all the new Kino Flos is to offer really good white colour reproduction from daylight to tungsten and beyond. The Kino Flo system is of course all about the great skin tones and colour reproduction to camera. Another factor in upgrading the brighter Celeb line to the 360° colour system is to expand the Kino Flo range of high-quality colour matching fixtures so there is a toolbox of different fixtures that are all compatible and match on set. Kino Flo has avoided the temptation to overrun (or boost the output) the fixtures so that they all have very good colour life. As we move forward in experience with LED technology it is now being appreciated just how critical running temperature is to maintaining colour life over time. Kino Flo has committed to setting this balance to ensure long life and consistency.

DEFINITION JUNE 2018

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