Has anyone looked into the modern LED video lights as a print evaluation light?

[erik.brammer@me.com]

After watching a few reviews, I conclude for myself that the Aputure MC will be too dim for my needs. The GrafiLite 2 looks promising but I think I will go with the Phottix M180 as suggested by Marcin as it serves the purpose of print evaluation but can also be taken outdoors for lighting a scene.

If anyone knows even better solutions, please share. Thanks.

[Arlen]

I think I will go with the Phottix M180 as suggested by Marcin as it serves the purpose of print evaluation but can also be taken outdoors for lighting a scene.

If anyone knows even better solutions, please share. Thanks.

The Phottix M180 seems to be "unavailable" at most places in the U.S. usually with a note that "we don't know when it will be back in stock".

[erik.brammer@me.com]

Here in Germany, there seems to be only one source: photospecialist.de

They sell it for 129€. I just ordered it.

[Czornyj]

The Phottix M180 seems to be "unavailable" at most places in the U.S. usually with a note that "we don't know when it will be back in stock".

There's newer Phottix M200R, maybe it repleaced M180. The brand name is not very important, you can get similar lamps at different names, most of them have reasonable spectral quality.

[erik.brammer@me.com]

Thank you, Marcin, you have a point there. I didn’t really identify the M200R to be kind of a successor of the M180. A bit more investigation seems to confirm that notion. I asked Photospecialist to change the order.

[TechTalk]

If you're looking for a dual-purpose light with enough light output to make it useful for image capture, the Rotolight Neo 2 is worth a look. It is more expensive, but has much more light output producing 2,000 lux at 0.9 m (dimmable from 100% to zero), is widely used in professional video and photo applications, and comes with a number of useful accessories. Though more expensive, it has come down dramatically in price since being introduced in 2017. You can easily find lots of reviews on this light.

The Rotolight Neo 2 can be used as a strobe on still cameras and includes HSS and built-in Elinchrom Skyport receiver for remote control. CRI has been justifiably criticized as a method of evaluating color as two lights with the same CRI rating can have very different overall color accuracy. Where LEDs tend to fall short in color is in the red portion of the spectrum, so it's important when looking at CRI for a rough guide to color to look at the R9 rating, which is quite high on the Rotolight.

Rotolight also publishes spectral data, which is something that I would like to see from any manufacturer. While it has a list price of $299 in the U.S., it currently sells for $189.

https://www.rotolight.com/product/neo_2/

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1360356-REG/rotolight_rl_neo_ii_pro_hd_led_neo.html

[MfAlab]

I see an LED proofing solution at JUST website. (about EUR 1.600.- inkl. VAT). So I draw the conclusion that there must be any LED vendor/producer JUST uses... Any ideas?

What are your experiences with Yuji/Waveform lighting/Soraa concerning UV ratio?

Sorry, I don't have a spectrometer could measure UV rays. All I can do is comparing their SPD (attached below). All the spectrum powers were normalized to the same luminous (according to CIE 170-2 cone-fundamental-based spectral luminous efficiency functions).

Which I believe waveform lighting and Yuji's D50 lighting contain no UV. The JUST LED Proof Light has a raising up curve at 380 nm. That might be a 365 nm LED which is commonly used on market for OBA checking. But other two lights have a natural downward curve. As you can see, these 3 lights have 4 similar wavelength peak. But only JUST LED Proof Light has a 515 nm green light peak, and narrowest band. Unfortunately, it's not my own light, I cannot disassemble it to find out any producer mark or SKU.

data calculating from SPD (base on TM-30-18):
JUST LED Proof Light　Ra 97.9　R9 98.6　R12 93.0　Rf 97.4　Rg 101.8　CCT 5007K
waveform lighting　　  Ra 98.8　R9 90.5　R12 98.7　Rf 97.5　Rg 100.3　CCT 4955K
Yuji VTC D50　　　　　Ra 97.8　R9 95.7　R12 88.1　Rf 97.2　Rg 101.7　CCT 4849K

edit: waveform lighting SPD in the diagram is D50, D65 is a typo.

[MichaelKoerner]

Sorry, I don't have a spectrometer could measure UV rays. All I can do is comparing their SPD (attached below).

That's more than I could have hoped for :-) Thank you very much.

I will have a look for UV led strips, get me some Yujis and report back if I could find a working DIY proofing solution including UV.

[Lessbones]

Thought since this topic was just mentioned recently in light of the closure of Solux I'd chime in on some recent developments--

Waveform Lighting is generally my favorite all purpose solution these days, but I also found a pretty impressive product from Yuji LED that can be set up really easily and has an impressive power output:  https://store.yujiintl.com/products/cri-max-cri-95-150w-high-bay-ufo-led-light-4000k-5000k

I've got two of these set up on articulated TV mounts (they're meant as down-lights for warehouse use I guess, but I'm not sure who would need such high quality units for their warehouses... maybe automotive?) I had to drill holes in the middle of the cheap mounts, but then they attach with a single (12mm? i dont remember exactly) bolt.  I'm using two of them to cover an 8'x12' viewing area quite nicely.

Sorry for the hilariously low quality spectral plot, It's an incredible device, but ancient.  Blue peak is at 460nm.

[digitaldog]

Indeed, the Waveform Lighting LEDs I just purchased and tested (in a thread I had to close down due to the local troll) are most impressive.

[Czornyj]

According to product specification Wayform Lighting usees blue LED with green and red phosphor.
There are also violet LED with red, green, blue phosphors, that are slightly better (I use SunLike and find it noticeably better than my previous Yuji BC, Phottix/Viltrox/Godox with blue LED R+G phosphor emitters):




Seoul Semiconductor SunLike:
http://www.seoulsemicon.com/en/technology/sunlike/
available products wtih SunLike emitters:
http://www.seoulsemicon.com/en/technology/sunlike/casestudy/

Yuji VTC:
https://www.yujiintl.com/high-cri-led-lighting.html

BridgeLux Thrive:
https://bridgelux.com/products/vesta-thrive

[Fred Salamon]

Came across a new product from Ilford for print viewing and evaluation.
ILFOLUX Color Viewing Lamp

[MfAlab]

Came across a new product from Ilford for print viewing and evaluation.
ILFOLUX Color Viewing Lamp

ILFOLUX is not that good, check the R9 & R12. It's a good desktop lamp, but not a standard viewing lamp.

[belnea]

I just tested a Sunlike LED panel.
Here is what it gives. I think it uses Nichia Optolis LEDs