June 4, 2004
It happens on location more times than you want to remember: you need a compact, bright light to make someone's eyes sparkle, illuminate a dark corner, or just get light in close shooting quarters. LitePanels has come up with a small but potent solution that uses LED technology to bring light to a tight situation.
What exactly is an LED light? Instead of using tungsten bulbs, HMIs or fluorescent tubes, LitePanels use 140 light emitting diodes (LEDs) as the lamps. This approach makes these instruments different than other lights in several ways.
LitePanels are daylight balanced (5600K), and brightness is controlled via an integrated dimmer that does not change the color temperature. (Try that with a tungsten lamp.) They also give off no heat (they're like a fluorescent, but without the size, weight and possible flicker), are three times more power efficient than a tungsten light (drawing a mere 0.6 amps at 12 volts) and produce a soft, diffused light. LEDs also last far longer than conventional tungsten lighting, with an estimated life of 100,000 hours.
I'm always interested in how lighting equipment is packaged, and my LitePanels arrived in a box resembling a small attaché case. Inside the egg crate foam enclosure were two LitePanels, two 12V rechargeable "snap-on" battery backs, two snap-on base plates, myriad gels and diffusion cards to fit over the light, cigarette lighter adapters, enough adapter plugs to fit all wall outlets on the globe, and two AC chargers/power supplies. This small arsenal in a plastic case can solve a lot of my lighting needs; it may be run either directly from the AC power supply or by attaching the battery back.
Road Rules
Make no mistake-although they are compact in size (7 inches wide, 2.25 inches high and 1.25 inches deep), these lights are bright. The light falls off rapidly, but they are more than adequate in proximity to the subject. LitePanels have already been used on a number of high-end television productions, including The West Wing and The Practice.
You should charge the detachable battery packs before you use these lights for the first time. Although I received no instructions with the kit (other than a sheet of paper with the specs and charging times), it's easy enough to find the correct adapter plug for your country and snap it onto the AC charging unit. Plug the other end into the back of the Lite Panel and the red LED illuminates on the side of the battery pack.
It takes about 90 minutes to fully charge the battery, and you should get a little more than an hour of constant use at full brightness. That said, the instrument lasted more than four hours atop my camera. This wasn't constant use, and I dimmed the light between takes, but the charge still lasted far longer than I expected.
My first use of these lights was in a car's interior. Cars with dark fabric absorb every bit of light you pound at them; my black leather interior was no exception. With a string wrapped around the light's handle, I hung the light from the headrest and laid it against the back of the seat. A one-inch jumper cable connects from the attached battery pack to the light unit, which keeps cords from getting in the way. Nice touch.
One light on each side illuminated the two passengers in the back seat. (I could have also run the lights directly off of the car battery via the supplied 12V cigarette lighter adapter.) Car interiors are obviously daylight balanced, and having a bright light that's also daylight balanced is helpful. Because the distance to the rear seat occupants was about three feet, I used the LED LitePanels at full power.
I never worried about burning the backs of the seats because these lights don't get hot, though the battery backs do get warm to the touch if they've been in use for more than about an hour. The rear seat talent found the lights rather bright, so we dimmed the instruments between takes.
I'm told that the light output at two feet is 80 footcandles and 18 footcandles at four feet, so the drop-off is rapid. Looking directly at a full powered light creates a sparkle in the talent's eye but also makes his pupils the size of a pinpoint.
The last time I shot in a car, I needed to convert the AC fluorescents into DC, but the LitePanels save you the trouble because they are DC powered. The patent-pending units are absolutely flicker-free and accept 5-30V DC. Its light output is "stabilized" throughout the entire voltage range, meaning the light source will not "dim" even as the battery voltage is going down. The separate AC power supply adapter/battery charger runs from 80V to 280V.
Have Lights, Will Travel
What amazes me most about these lights is their portability. They are easy to carry around, and I put them to the test on a six-day film shoot using all HMIs and two LitePanels. Working 10-hour days, one light would be on the charger while I was using its twin. Everyone on the set, talent and crew alike, wanted to know more about these amazing lights.
LitePanels sent me an optional articulated arm, which is great because it bends to almost any position and attaches easily to the hot shoe on my Sony PD150 camcorder. Although it weighs only about a pound, the light makes the camera somewhat heavy for handheld shots. With many of today's video cameras now providing power for external lights, though, you can remove the battery back, run the light directly off the camera battery and reduce the weight to a more manageable level.
At a list price of $2,195, these units are pricey, but I affectionately named them the "sparkle lights." Mounted to the hot shoe of an Arriflex 16SR2, these LED lights were always on the camera to provide the "sparkle" I wanted in the actor's eyes. If warmth was needed for the lead, I inserted the orange gel and converted the daylight balance to tungsten, which made the actor's face more inviting.
Throughout the shoot I got used to having the light on my camera, and I'll miss the extra punch it provides. The batteries may get warm, but the LEDs stay cool-and the color temperature stays consistent. If you need that extra twinkle in someone's eye, or have a small area to light with portable, battery operated, daylight balanced illumination, LitePanels is an ideal solution.
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