Trucolor HS

[Bob Gundu]

Thanks for the insight into LED's. It's been a couple of months since these have come out and haven't heard much since they've won numerous awards.

What more user review do you need than Shane Kelley’s below:



The problem can’t have anything to do with the door. In the demo video in the OP they open the door to swap Phosphor panels and the light doesn’t shut off. Clearly there is no door safety switch like in an HMI. It most likely has to do with the “very hot location.” LED lights, like the Trucolor HS, that use passive heat sinks to regulate the operating temperature of their LED emitters are very sensitive to ambient temperature for reliable operation. This is why Arri has designed into the passive cooling model of their L7 LED Fresnels a fan that comes on automatically so that they don’t get too hot. Since thermal management is critical to the reliable operation of LEDs, I suspect that the problem had to do with the fact that the location was very hot. Where just about every shooting location I have ever worked on gets warm (unless it is specifically designed for that purpose like studios), I wouldn’t stake my reputation on such finicky lights that clearly have issues with thermal management.

Peter Berger

[Glen Powell]

Played with the one they have on display at the source shop today - I'll tell you what I really think on set next week Bob...

[Tom Gleeson]

Just shot a review for this light that will soon be available on the ACS website and FXGuide's website. I will post the details when we have it up. In summary a great light with a wonderful quality. A few caveats but at the price point good value. Most importantly it is a clean continuous source that requires no correction gels and thats one of its real strengths that you change out the phosphor panel to change colour temp with no loss of output. The pure green phosphor panel is a real win for chroma shoots although we did not test it

[Bob Gundu]

Just shot a review for this light that will soon be available on the ACS website and FXGuide's website. I will post the details when we have it up. In summary a great light with a wonderful quality. A few caveats but at the price point good value. Most importantly it is a clean continuous source that requires no correction gels and thats one of its real strengths that you change out the phosphor panel to change colour temp with no loss of output. The pure green phosphor panel is a real win for chroma shoots although we did not test it

Thanks Tom. I look forward to the review.

[Tom Gleeson]

Peter is correct in saying that the light is not a continuous source but I would not discount the light because of this. It's output is in fact bright and very good. I shot my own tests with Macbeth charts and with skintones and was very pleased with the results. You see only a tiny drop in saturation in the skintones but hard to spot with your eye.

I suspect that the use of Color correction gels could see some strange responses but one advantage of this light is that the removable panels producing different color temperatures mean you are unlikely to need gels with the added advantage of no light loss. We measured only a tenth of a spot drop in output from 5600 to 3200. Not to mention the ability to produce a pure green for chroma key work.

My main criticism is that the light requires a large 6kg ballast limiting its appeal if you are doing a lot of run and gun.

[Antony Newman]

@Tom : Also looking forward to your review. Did you get a chance to compare this HS with the FOTON side by side to see if the Fotons reds rendered flesh tones better?

@Peter: I think you highlight a good point that existing Gels are not suitable for LED spectral dristribution.

+) One thing that confused me on the Macbeth/R12 for the LightPanels 1x1 ... was why is the score '0'?
http://www.prgtrucolor.com/node/26

+) When PRG (& Intermarix Corportation) have the Remote Phospher recipe to output Turquoise, they will be able to improve the balance of the 5600k (and other high K) lighting - and a new sheets 'swapped in'.
http://www.prgtrucolor.com/sites/def...eet-august.pdf

+) Use of a large Remote Phosphor sheet at a distance from the LED source (unlike White light LEDs) reduces the temperature per unit area. This increases the efficiency of the light output (and longevity of the panel). There is also a much tighter tolerance due to the thickness of the PRG panel.

+) Even though there is a reduction in light output at higher K - these lights are still vastly more efficient than Tungsten.

+) The HS / FOTON are near continuous spectrum - but virtually continuous output (no flicker)

+) What I would really like to see is more lights that use Light Emmiting Plasma (LEP) filaments. These seems to be full spectrum - and even more efficient than the current crop of high efficiency LEDs.
http://www.luxim.com/technology/feat...ality-of-light

AJ