LED Lighting will continue to grow in my opinion and become a greater and greater part of how we light things in the cine/docu/photo world. To date a major limitation has been power… most LED cannot output enough light to fight daylight. But as you’ll see in the upcoming year or two – that barrier is about to be breached. That makes things very interesting as we will need to rely a bit less on hot lights (literally burning hot lights) as well as generators as many of these lights can be adapted to work of batteries such as the Anton Bauer Dionics all the way up to the big Anton Bauer "lunch box."
Litepanels has recently released two new lights that are pretty cool for filmmakers. The first is the Sola 4, which is the younger sibling to the Sola 6, a DMX controllable light, with an embedded touch screen. And while the Sola 4 does not have the touchscreen control, it does have DMX input for control from a lighting board which can make this a pretty versatile tool especially if you don’t have easy physical access to the light. What I find of particular interest for filmmakers is that they are fresnel lights, which are a staple of Hollywood and the film industry. They are named "fresnel" for the lens that the lights have at the front of their casing. This lens provides a uni-directional source that can be more accurately controlled than say the 1×1 Series lights, which are less controllable in terms of how focused the light is. A significant improvement over traditional fresnel lights is of course the fact that these lights are LED – so they don’t get incredibly hot. A Traditional 1k fresnel pulls 1000W of power out of the wall, and outputs an equivalent amount. The Sola 4 pulls just 30W from the wall, and outputs up to 300W (the Sola 6 is 75W/650W). You can also dim these light from 0 – 100% brightness, which is not possible on traditional 1k fresnels unless you have a separate ballast. Therefore these lights give you a pretty incredible level of control relative to traditional lights.
The other light is called the Croma. This light appears to be an evolution of the MicroPro. Like the MicroPro it is either stand- or camera-mountable, can be run off AC power or AA batteries, draws 9W of power, and outputs approx. 50W of soft LED light. The added advantage of the Croma is its adjustable color temperature (like the 1×1 Bicolors) – from 3200 to 5600 degrees (tungsten to daylight). Also like the MicroPro, this light seems to be most valuable to documentarians or photojournalists in run n’ gun shooting conditions. However, with the aid of the Croma, they will now be able to adjust the temperature of their camera-top light so that it can match the ambient light and look more natural. I’m not as in love w/ the design of the Croma as I am with the MicroPro (it’s built like a tank – or a brick to be more accurate) but the ability to adjust color temperature is a big plus… to some AAs may also be welcome. Like the MicroPro it does have a 1/4-20 mounting port on the base of the unit.
Canon has dropped its bomb — the EOS-1D C . The world’s first 4K video shooting DSLR. Equipped with a full-frame 24mm X 36mm CMOS sensor that offers an APS-H sized area for video capture, and recording 8-bit 4:2:2 Motion JPEG 4K video to CF cards at 24fps, this camera packs a punch. Both in terms of its features — and the $15,000 price tag:
On the one hand, this is incredible news — who would have thought a year ago that we’d be discussing a DSLR camera with an ISO range up to 25,600 that could output 4K (4096 X 2160-pixel) video? And to CF cards no less? The camera can do a couple of other neat things, like record Full HD (1920 X 1080-pixel) at the full sensor width or cropped down to Super 35; and of course, it can shoot great stills just like its brother, the EOS-1D X.
On the other hand — this is a $15,000 camera. For $15,000, we are throwing out the cost advantages of DSLRs vs dedicated video cameras, and are now speaking strictly in terms of what kind of video features it offers. At $15,000 dollars you expect XLR inputs and more than an HDMI output, and frankly, with other cameras like the RED Scarlet and the FS700 right in that price range (with accessories), this camera is going to have to go through the paces to prove it’s a tool that high end video shooters want to invest in.
At the same time, it’s a DSLR. It still offers the advantages of a small form factor, and a shooting flexibility that many other cameras don’t — and as many filmmakers have found out, that can be quite a liberating feature.
For those of us who were hoping for something as disruptive as the Canon 5DmkII, well, it’s looking like we’ll have to wait for the next round of innovation to provide us lower budget options.
For more details, check out the full press release here, and for images of the camera, just keep on scrolling.
Is this the 4K DSLR you were hoping for? Will this cannibalize the C-300? If you had $15k what camera would you buy and why?